An altercation outside Farrington High School on the night of October 10 led to the arrest of a father-daughter duo on charges of Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer in the First Degree, as reported by the Honolulu Police Department. Two Honolulu Police officers were injured during an effort to break up a fight, with one being struck in the face and another being kicked in the groin.
Amid an intensifying trend of assaults on officers across Oahu, and indeed nationwide, the incident has caught the attention of local law enforcement and union officials. The Honolulu police have seen a 20 percent increase in the number of officers assaulted this year compared to last, whereas stats show 14 percent of officers will face assault at some point in their career, as per KHON2. Nicholas Schlapak, President of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), emphasized the gravity of such acts, stating, "If someone is willing to assault a law enforcement officer, then they have absolutely, positively, no remorse or regret or second thought to assaulting an average citizen."
The conversation has turned to the wider implications of these actions and to the need for adequate deterrents. Augie Tulba, Honolulu City Council Public Safety Chair, lamented the decline of respect for officers, "These are men and women who shop at the same stores as us, their kids play the same fields, and the kind of respect that we used to have for them, like when I was growing up, is so much different," he told KHON2. There is a call for automatic charges to be levied in such instances, aimed at sending a clear message that such behavior is unacceptable.
Current laws classify assaulting an officer in the first degree as a Class C felony, while the second-degree assault is only a misdemeanor. Given this framework, union leaders are advocating for more stringent consequences. "It’s important for people who are thinking about this job or want to take this job on to have confidence that their police departments will support them if they’re assaulted," Schlapak expressed in an interview with KHON2. "That their prosecutors will support them and prosecute effectively if they are assaulted, and that their communities will not stand for this kind of behavior."
The suspects involved in the incident fronting Farrington High School, identified as father and daughter by the Honolulu Police, have been arrested, and charges will be sought with the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.
