On December 1, 2012 officers of the Kauai Police Department were present at Lepeuli to make sure the illegal fencing was not interrupted. A marked police car was parked in the county-owned public parking lot and another marked police car on Koolau Road where a uniformed officer was observed speaking with Bruce Laymon, who was seated in a gray jeep.
KPD officers and Laymon were on the beach at one point harassing a couple down on their luck who were camping there. Laymon told them since their tarp was tied to a tree growing out of the sand they were tresspassing on private property. This is false as the vegetation line is not the legal definition of the seashore in Hawaii anymore. The highest wash of the waves in the highest wave season (winter) excluding named storms and tsunamis is the shoreline. The husband was threatened with arrest if he did not leave the public property beach!
Meanwhile up on the trail, KPD officers stood by while the SMA permit was again violated instead of stopping the violation. A metal pole was installed in the center of the pedestrian trail and new barbed wire was placed on wooden posts on either side of the entrance to the trail from the parking lot. What authority does a lessee of private property have to make improvements to a public, county-owned beach access????? Does the lessee have a permit to make access to the public property at Lepeuli in addition to the Waioli Corporation property???? Until a beachgoer complained, an excavator was parked directly in front of the trail entrance from the parking lot Saturday morning, blocking public access. A young male was present in the public parking lot with a bull whip. Why??? The dangerous barbed wire and metal pole as of today December 18, 2012 have disappeared. I made a complaint to Mary Daubert of the Office of the Mayor about the barbed wire. The metal pole obstructing access went away right before a field trip to Larsen's Beach by the Open Space Commission, a volunteer commission that takes public suggestions for public access.
I filed a complaint with the Kauai Police Commission on December 10th regarding the involvement of KPD in this matter. The matter is scheduled as a public hearing agenda item for Friday, December 28, 2012 at 9 AM in the usual public meeting room at the Lihue Civic Center a couple of doors down from planning and the driver license office. Questions to be raised include did the police chief know about this prior to it taking place. I want to know who paid for this detail and how much it cost. Who paid, the taxpayers, Waioli Corporation, Paradise Ranch, or perhaps Patricia Hanwright, the adjoining property owner in the ahupua'a of Kaakaaniu who denies a historic ala loa trail exists on her property just as Waioli denies it exists on theirs. I ask those of you who care about clean, open government and beach access to attend and ask tough questions. You may also submit brief, polite to the point testimony to the Kauai Police Commission to the attention of Mercedes Youn at myoun@kauai.gov. Please submit two days before the meeting.
Not the least to be asked is why beachgoers on Saturday December 1, 2012 observed multiple trucks with guys standing on the beds of their pick up trucks holding long armed firearms (shotguns and /or rifles). One such vehicle was even parked on the dirt county-owned beach access road. Pig hunting is not done at 3 in the afternoon within a few hundred feet of a public roadway. Aside from hunting, I am unaware of the police chief of any Hawaiian county issuing permits for carrying in public of firearms. Those of you who have applied for a permit to carry understand this well. This is clearly intimidation of the public by thugs with KPD support trying in vain to stop public access to the public property beach.
Richard Spacer
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