Why Mayor Arakawa Wants Me Killed

In my blog post of September 5, 2013, and in several subsequent posts I discuss how the Maui county government, led by Mayor Alan Arakawa, issued to criminal racketeers a virtual license to murder me should I lawfully demonstrate near their store. But why did he do it? What was the motive?

To this day, and probably forever, I dare not demonstrate near the store for fear of being battered, crippled or killed. The county and its criminal partners have imposed a permanent extra-judicial injunction on my demonstrating, one enforced by serious violence and threats of murder. Together they have stripped me of my rights to free speech and due process. 

If I didn’t know better, I would be hard-pressed to guess a motive for the mayor’s vicious vendetta other than some kind of bribe. But I do know better and, while corruption may be part of it, I believe the main reason Arakawa would celebrate my demise is something else, something not widely known. You see, I stole the 2006 election from him using a dirty trick and he has always wanted revenge. Here’s the story.

During the campaign for the 2006 election, Arakawa was running for re-election against Charmaine Tavares. My main issue at the time was the county’s illegal perjury decriminalization policy, which protects scam artists, bad cops and other dishonest prosecution witnesses. It undermines the integrity of the justice system and does immeasurable harm to victims of criminal lies sworn to under oath. The mayor had long ignored my many letters about the insanity of the policy that results in arbitrary and capricious injustice. 

(Ironically, Chief of Police Phillips would later lie under oath – commit federal perjury – claiming, in his testimony in my lawsuit in federal court, that there is no policy of perjury decriminalization in Maui County. I alleged that the policy subverts and obstructs justice and violates due process, which even a child can see that it does.)

A few weeks before the election the mayor had a big buffet dinner for his staff and campaign volunteers in the single story building in downtown Wailuku on Main St. just below Market, now housing a crafts store. When I arrived I was surprised by the chaotic scene. A couple hundred people were there, including 20 or so out on the sidewalk waving signs and yelling toward the traffic. Their behavior was disorderly and unlawful. 

Sign wavers are supposed to be six feet back from the curb, 20 feet from a crosswalk and 50 feet from a traffic light, all this for obvious safety reasons. Arakawa’s people violated all these laws as they held their large signs out over the road during peak traffic time, jaywalked with abandon, and threw their cigarette butts all over. 

My sign said “MAYOR ARAKAWA IS A CRIMINAL”, which is true in the sense that his administration’s policies have helped wreck the integrity of the justice system. I stood against the building, well away from the curb and not too close to the crosswalk or traffic light. I was one of the few people there who wasn’t violating a law, but I got lots of stink eye and was told to go somewhere else.

Arakawa’s burly security guy approached and “asked” me to leave. I said that he has no authority to order or ask me to leave a public sidewalk, and I pointed out the obnoxious and unlawful behavior of the mayor’s people. 

He said I should leave because I’m annoying people. I said they should leave because they’re annoying me. Plus they’re violating the law and creating traffic hazards. He said that if I don’t leave he will call the police. I didn’t and he did. Two cops quickly arrived and rudely confronted me. I told them that if they could tell me what law I’m violating I would immediately leave. 

One of the officers went back to the squad car, logged onto the computer and tried to find a law I was violating. He came back and mumbled something about disorderly conduct. I refused to leave and said that if they arrest me for any excuse whatsoever I would sue both of them, the Chief of Police, the mayor and the county in federal court for violating my First Amendment right to free speech while ignoring the reckless, disorderly and unlawful behavior of the mayor’s supporters. 

The cops went inside and conferred with the mayor, then came out and left without speaking to me. The mayor had decided to change tactics and a few minutes later one of the campaign workers came out all friendly and offered me a large plate piled high with the usual campaign-buffet type fare. I couldn’t be rude and refuse the offer, so I had to put the sign down long enough to eat a polite amount. 

While I was eating, a 50-ish man came out and started a conversation, said he was a lifelong friend of the mayor, and assured me that he would personally pass on my complaints and concerns directly to him. I asked him to ask the mayor to read the letters I’d sent him about the issue of perjury decriminalization and reply to my concerns. 

The mayor’s friend earnestly promised he would do this and said he was certain Arakawa would call me soon. It was almost a promise, and I felt he was more likely to call me if I left than if I stayed. I’d made my point and I got what I wanted – a chance to be heard. So I went home.

 Of course, neither the mayor nor the county lawyers ever got back to me. The perjury decriminalization policy is very important to them because it facilitates arbitrary and capricious injustice. It makes the rule of law impossible, nothing but a farce. 

More out of spite than any delusion that Tavares would change the way the injustice system works, I decided to do whatever I could legally do to foil Arakawa’s re-election bid. I resorted to a dirty trick. 

Polls as well as the non-partisan primary showed the race was certain to be a squeaker. What could I do to get a few hundred, maybe even a couple thousand, voters to switch to Tavares or not vote at all? Many were on the fence and could go either way with a little push. So I started standing near busy intersections during traffic peak hours, twice a day for one or two hours with a sign that said

“MAYOR ARAKAWA IS MY GAY LOVER”.

I am not in the slightest homophobic (nor am I gay), but I know that many people are, at least subconsciously. I figured that the mere suggestion that the mayor was gay would subconsciously sway some fence-sitters and I think it did. But was it enough to swing the election? 

We’ll never know for sure, but I did count and calculate that some 100,000 cars drove by my sign within easy reading distance, within days of the election. A large percentage of the drivers and passengers looked at the sign. Of course, many of the cars were counted more than once, but many had more than one person and, besides, repeating a message can help get it to sink in. 

Word quickly reached the mayor during my very first demonstration, and he assigned two male operatives to keep tabs on me. I noticed them watching me from a distance, then they approached and questioned me. One called himself Socrates. I don’t recall the other man’s name. They told me that the mayor doesn’t appreciate my sign and asked why I was doing it.

I replied that I don’t have to talk to them, that the mayor knows my beef and knows how to contact me. I said that if they interfere with my lawful demonstrations they and Arakawa will spend the next few years tussling with me in federal court over it. They continued to follow and watch me for a few more days, but did not approach me again. 

However, Maui cops did approach and hassle me. On one occasion I was lawfully displaying my sign while standing on the sidewalk about 50 yards south of the Wailuku library. Officer Nelson Johnson, driving by, saw me and pulled over. He approached me, asked my name and demanded to see my ID. I replied that pedestrians don’t have to carry ID and I would not have to show it to him even if I did have it, unless he had probable cause to believe I was committing a crime. 

He said it was a crime to lie about people and again demanded I show him a picture ID. He threatened to arrest me if I did not comply. I repeated my refusal. I said that the content of my sign is not a police matter, but if the mayor believes my sign harmed him he can sue me. 

He then called for backup, and it quickly became yet another scene of a half dozen Maui cops all lathered up over my outspoken words – my free and protected speech – and ready to arrest me. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic.

It looked like I was about to be unlawfully arrested yet again because my words annoyed someone. I hate being arrested, so in desperation I suggested that they first call Corporation Counsel about it. I pointed to the 10-story county building a block north and across the street. 

Much to my surprise, they appeared to do just that. They huddled up and made a call. As they waited for an answer I could picture Counsel’s office all abuzz, trying to decide if they wanted to get into a long First Amendment fight with me. But, for all I know, maybe Johnson called the captain or the chief. 

I continued displaying my sign; smiling and waving as the traffic went by, like politicians do all the time. After about five minutes Johnson walked back to me and said, “Tell you what; I’ll let you go this time.”

I chuckled and replied, “No, I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you go this time.” He walked away. 

On a narrow sidewalk on Front Street in Lahaina, for years a man in a pig costume has danced and pranced for several hours a day near the entrance to a pork barbecue joint. He appears to be engaging in disorderly and obnoxious conduct. 

On Main Street in Wailuku gold peddlers in assorted bling-heavy costumes rock and roll to their headset sounds in front of the pawn shop that hired them. They violate the municipal code in all the ways possible: too close to the street, to a crosswalk and to a traffic light. 

Cops drive by the dancing pig and the garish gold genies dozens of times a day without a second glance. On Maui, law enforcement in this area is all about the content of your message. Commercial stuff is okay, even if it violates county code; but hard-hitting political and social commentary that embarrasses the county is not okay, even if it is protected by the constitution and no law is violated. 

Arakawa lost a very close election. I believe, and I think he believes, that my little prank contributed significantly to his loss, and he has never forgiven me – thus the fierce vendetta. He certainly got his revenge many times over, especially by issuing the license to kill me. He thereby ended my decade-long attempt to safely demonstrate, as the courts had repeatedly affirmed was my right. I wonder how much Alive and Well Health Fraud Store paid him or his campaign for the license. 

I’m glad Arakawa lost (though Tavares was no better on the issues), but I sometimes feel guilty about exploiting homophobia to achieve a political end. Is it like exploiting racism? Suppose a black person campaigns, in an area known for white racism, with a sign proclaiming that a popular white racist candidate is actually part black. It would imply (and expose, if it’s true) great hypocrisy. But to some it might also imply that being part black is a bad thing. 

Because of this dilemma, I wouldn’t use the tactic again without first asking a gay friend or two. However, I do not rule out employing other dirty tricks against Arakawa and his supporters in local government. For many years he and the county have waged an immoral, illegal, dirty war on my fundamental rights, and therefore on everyone’s rights, even if everyone does not know it. 

Elected again in 2010 (I stayed out of it), Arakawa is now, in 2014, trying for re-election and a third term. I have a couple months to decide what to do about this, if anything. When someone wages war on you, anything goes. History will absolve me for what I have done and what I will do. 

In a few years my tactics will seem tame and civilized compared to what other desperate dissidents will be doing. The violence that is sure to come will be the fault of people like Alan Arakawa, Benjamin Acob, Moana Lutey, Brian Moto, Thomas Phillips, and Rocky Silva because they, with cynicism and malice, dragged the county into a cesspool of lawlessness and violence. 

When the government routinely commits crimes in order to deny people legal recourse for injustices, it guarantees attempts at non-judicial recourse. That is the way of the world. That is our nature.

Maui's future foretold:  Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon. 
Reviews, comments:
"Diabolical and outrageous. Should be banned." Linda Lingle, ex-Maui mayor, ex-Hawaii governor.
"A wet dream of vengeance for victims of government abuse." Anonymous reader.
"A prophecy too plausible to ignore but too terrible to contemplate." Anonymous.
"Maui's future? America's future?" Anonymous.
"Profound and potentially dangerous." Kirtus Reviews.

Links to my other blogs:  www.KurtButlerblogs.blogspot.com

The cartoon below was contributed by Kai Lani. Double click on the image for a view that does it justice.