i L i n d . n e t

It was another of those “two newspaper” moments yesterday.

From the Star-Bulletin: “Honolulu airport is an Orbitz fave and rises in customer satisfaction”

And from the Advertiser: “Honolulu airport rated so-so in satisfaction poll”

Those headlines give quite different impressions of the same report. You’ll have to check the stories to figure out which gets it right.

The Supreme Court of Hawaii Blog (Unofficial) has a long e-mail from Justin Gruenstein of the Charmaine Tavares for Mayor of Maui County campaign concerning the court decision striking down a key Campaign Spending Commission policy. It was Tavares’ campaign that challenged the commission’s ruling in court.

Alex from Hawaiirama.com comment on Tuesday’s entry regarding the lack of follow-up on what appears to be a series of incidents of fights or attacks involving groups of men around the island.

You missed a lot of incidents — the tourist who was recently beaten to death in Waianae, the man with a disabled wife who was beaten to the point of brain damage on Kapiolani Boulevard a few years ago for asking a local tough to move his car and let his wife go across a street, the assault on the White House aide in Waikiki, the assault on a group of visiting tourist at a campsite on the Big Island by local toughs. At the very least, Hawaii has a growing image problem. But I think its more than that. The latest FBI crime stats showed a 10% hike in violent crime incidents in Honolulu between 2005 and 2006, clearly a number that is statistically significant. The cops are short-staffed. It does seem that attacks are more brazen than ever and increasing in intensity.

He makes a good point about these other violent incidents, but my interest is specifically in the cases involving larger groups. So I took another look at what was reported regarding the shooting on the North Shore. It seems there was a large group made up of people from Wahiawa partying on the beach, and prior incidents between this group and the victim’s family, and on this day they arrived armed with bats.

Star-Bulletin
Shortly before midnight, Ching’s family had a small gathering at their home on Kamehameha Highway while another group of about 40 people partied on the beach.

An argument between the two groups erupted into violence.

KHNL:
Ching says his children know of the suspect, just from parties and around the area. Family members say they’ve been in altercations with the suspect and his friends before.

KITV:
The family says there are parties in a vacant lot across the street from the Chings’ house on the weekends. What was different this past weekend was that the partygoers brought with them bats and at least one gun….

Police believe the people partying at the park are from Wahiawa. The family believes it is just a matter of time before there is an arrest.

Honolulu Advertiser:
“I’m glad they got him because we have so many old friends, and I was worried they were going to get to the shooter first,” Ching’s father, William Ching, said after the arrest. He added, “Now I can rest knowing my friends won’t get into trouble, and we can start healing and get on with our lives.”

The brawl involved six or seven people — including Ching’s eldest brother, Billy Jack “B.J.” Ching — who were partying in a patio area fronting the street, and a group of more than 40 people who were at an open area called Log Cabins across Kamehameha Highway….

William Ching yesterday described the altercation that led to the shooting as a “Wahiawa versus North Shore ongoing thing” and does not believe his family was targeted.

Doesn’t that sound like a situation that might draw more interest than a passing sentence or two? Let’s see. What were those prior incidents? Was there a triggering issue? What’s the makeup of the beach group? Was it all male? Was there drinking at the beach? What was the ethnic and age makeup of the group? Was it a “gang”? Is the group known to police? What do residents of the area say about this group? How often do they gather in this spot or others?

I’m reminded of an incident we were told about perhaps ten or 12 years ago. One of our neighbor’s daughters was dating a member of the so-called “Laie Boys”. They said it wasn’t really a gang, but from our perspective it sure sounded like one. Then one day they all went to a wedding with a reception that followed at Turtle Bay. According to the story they told, the party was interrupted when a fight broke out in the parking lot with another group from Kailua. At least one weapon, a spear gun, was involved. The men all joined in the fighting and even the groom returned with a bloody tuxedo.

This sounded to us like a big deal, but to some of those involved it was apparently just routine stuff.

Instead of reporting all those cheap court house crime stories every day, perhaps some reporting staff should be digging a bit deaper.

Doug White (Poinography.com) had the best comment on the blog subpoena story in his entry on Tuesday:

Attorney William McCorriston, in a lawsuit brought by landowner James Pflueger over the failure of the Ka Loko Dam, claims that Malia Zimmerman of Hawaiireporter.com is a blogger who is not entitled to withhold her sources of information.

But Zimmerman, an editor and reporter for the Web site, says she is a legitimate journalist, not just some hack who offers half-baked commentary on the news of the day. [Pot, this is kettle. You’re black!]