Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Shoplifting, Hawaii… and Racism
The hottest news today surrounded a husband and wife arrested for shoplifting in a Safeway grocery store located in Hawaii. Public outrage has erupted over the fact that the couple was arrested for a $5 sandwich and their 3-year old daughter was removed from their custody during the incident and kept away from her parents by child protective services for approximately 18 hours.
As I read this story in the morning paper I couldn’t help but get angry over the idea of a child being forcibly taken away from their parents for a minor infraction like shoplifting. My anger only increased as the details of the incident were laid out for me by the LA Times.
• The couple had only recently moved to Hawaii in the last two weeks from Los Angeles.
• The wife was approximately 30 weeks pregnant.
• They were grocery shopping at the Safeway, and because the wife was hungry she chose to eat her sandwich while they shopped, but saved the wrapper intending to pay for it when they checked out.
• The couple DID pay for their groceries which totaled approximately $50.
• After being confronted by the security guard for not paying for the eaten sandwich, the couple offered to pay the $5 for the sandwich that according to them, they had just forgotten to account for during the check-out process.
As I read this article about over-zealous grocery store workers/security I could not help but wonder what role if any, the rampant racism that exists in the state of Hawaii played in this incident. My mother lived in the Aloha state for 5 years during the 1990’s and I was fortunate enough to visit her on several occasions. And while the island itself is scenically beautiful as advertised, the truth of the native Hawaiians bias against foreigners, and specifically white people made for an unusual combination. Is it possible that the discrimination and racism that sometimes appear to be core tenets of the “Aloha” culture impacted the decision-making in the Safeway store?
Wait a second? Racism? Discrimination? Aren’t those some pretty heavy-handed words to lie on an entire state for the actions of a couple of dumb grocery store managers? Maybe, we will see how Safeway deals with the incident in question (As I write this article the company has responded that they are still determining whether or not to press charges against the couple.) But there are more people involved in this story than just the Safeway manager(s). The police were called, and in fact it was the police who arrested and hand-cuffed the couple and contacted child protective services to have the 3-year old taken into custody. Are we to believe that the police officers who were called to the scene lacked the ability, much less the authority to intervene in this situation? I have some trouble swallowing the idea that a police officer could not lay out the consequences succinctly to all the parties and come up with a better solution (for example: how about we just let the couple pay the $5 for the sandwich and leave it at that?) At least if they wanted to that is.
According to the story in the paper, child protective services were called-in due to the fact that both parents had been arrested. Did this individual from CPS lack the authority/ability to interject some reason into this insane situation? They were neither an employee of the company, nor are they technically law enforcement officials. Since the CPS official was not there at the time of the offense I think it’s reasonable to assume this may have been the best person to offer some needed sensibility and possibly de-fuse this incident before it proceeded to its next completely unbelievable step! Hand-cuffing the parents and taking their little girl away.
So you may be asking yourself, “Where does discrimination or racism play a role here?” And it may not. But as I read about this couple, recently transplanted to Hawaii I couldn’t help but wonder if this same thing would have happened to a native Hawaiian couple? In a 2009 article by Larry Keller for the Southern Law Poverty Center (“Prejudice in Paradise”) he states… “With no known hate groups and a much-trumpeted spirit of aloha or tolerance, few people outside Hawaii realize the state has a racism issue. One reason: The tourism-dependent state barely acknowledges hate crimes. That makes it hard to know how often racial violence is directed at Caucasians, who comprise about 25% of the ethnically diverse state's 1.3 million residents. Those who identify themselves as Native Hawaiian — most residents are of mixed race — account for nearly 20%”
But there are examples of Hawaii’s simmering racial tensions, most notably:
• The last day of school has long been unofficially designated "Kill Haole Day," with white students singled out for harassment and violence. (Haole — pronounced how-lee — is slang for a foreigner, usually white, and sometimes is used as a racial slur.)
• A non-Native Hawaiian student who challenged the Hawaiian-preference admission policy at a wealthy private school received a $7 million settlement this year.
• A 12-year-old white girl new to Hawaii from New York City needed 10 surgical staples to close a gash in her head incurred when she was beaten in 2007 by a Native Hawaiian girl who called her a "fucking haole."
• A vocal segment of Native Hawaiians is pushing for independence to end the "prolonged occupation" by the United States and governance by natives.
• Demonstrators shouting racial epithets at whites disrupted a statehood celebration in 2006.
So did the Safeway store employees, the police, or possibly even child protective services turn a blind eye to blatant discrimination against a “haole” (pronounced howlee) couple without realizing that the end result in this game would be a little girl forcibly separated from her parents for the first time in her life? The mother, herself 30 weeks pregnant at the time of this incident, admitted to getting physically ill and throwing-up after her daughter was removed from the room. Even a zero-emotion zombie on Halloween would have to feel some sense of sympathy for a sick pregnant woman who has just lost custody (even temporarily) of her 3 year old daughter over a $5 sandwich.
And to those Safeway managers, the police and child protective services involved in this ridiculous incident I would ask if they sincerely thanked the couple for maintaining their self-composure while their child was essentially stolen. If the National Rifle Association motto “You’ll get my gun when you pry it from my Cold Dead Hands” applies… well, you should see what happens when you try to take my kid.
As I read this story in the morning paper I couldn’t help but get angry over the idea of a child being forcibly taken away from their parents for a minor infraction like shoplifting. My anger only increased as the details of the incident were laid out for me by the LA Times.
• The couple had only recently moved to Hawaii in the last two weeks from Los Angeles.
• The wife was approximately 30 weeks pregnant.
• They were grocery shopping at the Safeway, and because the wife was hungry she chose to eat her sandwich while they shopped, but saved the wrapper intending to pay for it when they checked out.
• The couple DID pay for their groceries which totaled approximately $50.
• After being confronted by the security guard for not paying for the eaten sandwich, the couple offered to pay the $5 for the sandwich that according to them, they had just forgotten to account for during the check-out process.
As I read this article about over-zealous grocery store workers/security I could not help but wonder what role if any, the rampant racism that exists in the state of Hawaii played in this incident. My mother lived in the Aloha state for 5 years during the 1990’s and I was fortunate enough to visit her on several occasions. And while the island itself is scenically beautiful as advertised, the truth of the native Hawaiians bias against foreigners, and specifically white people made for an unusual combination. Is it possible that the discrimination and racism that sometimes appear to be core tenets of the “Aloha” culture impacted the decision-making in the Safeway store?
Wait a second? Racism? Discrimination? Aren’t those some pretty heavy-handed words to lie on an entire state for the actions of a couple of dumb grocery store managers? Maybe, we will see how Safeway deals with the incident in question (As I write this article the company has responded that they are still determining whether or not to press charges against the couple.) But there are more people involved in this story than just the Safeway manager(s). The police were called, and in fact it was the police who arrested and hand-cuffed the couple and contacted child protective services to have the 3-year old taken into custody. Are we to believe that the police officers who were called to the scene lacked the ability, much less the authority to intervene in this situation? I have some trouble swallowing the idea that a police officer could not lay out the consequences succinctly to all the parties and come up with a better solution (for example: how about we just let the couple pay the $5 for the sandwich and leave it at that?) At least if they wanted to that is.
According to the story in the paper, child protective services were called-in due to the fact that both parents had been arrested. Did this individual from CPS lack the authority/ability to interject some reason into this insane situation? They were neither an employee of the company, nor are they technically law enforcement officials. Since the CPS official was not there at the time of the offense I think it’s reasonable to assume this may have been the best person to offer some needed sensibility and possibly de-fuse this incident before it proceeded to its next completely unbelievable step! Hand-cuffing the parents and taking their little girl away.
So you may be asking yourself, “Where does discrimination or racism play a role here?” And it may not. But as I read about this couple, recently transplanted to Hawaii I couldn’t help but wonder if this same thing would have happened to a native Hawaiian couple? In a 2009 article by Larry Keller for the Southern Law Poverty Center (“Prejudice in Paradise”) he states… “With no known hate groups and a much-trumpeted spirit of aloha or tolerance, few people outside Hawaii realize the state has a racism issue. One reason: The tourism-dependent state barely acknowledges hate crimes. That makes it hard to know how often racial violence is directed at Caucasians, who comprise about 25% of the ethnically diverse state's 1.3 million residents. Those who identify themselves as Native Hawaiian — most residents are of mixed race — account for nearly 20%”
But there are examples of Hawaii’s simmering racial tensions, most notably:
• The last day of school has long been unofficially designated "Kill Haole Day," with white students singled out for harassment and violence. (Haole — pronounced how-lee — is slang for a foreigner, usually white, and sometimes is used as a racial slur.)
• A non-Native Hawaiian student who challenged the Hawaiian-preference admission policy at a wealthy private school received a $7 million settlement this year.
• A 12-year-old white girl new to Hawaii from New York City needed 10 surgical staples to close a gash in her head incurred when she was beaten in 2007 by a Native Hawaiian girl who called her a "fucking haole."
• A vocal segment of Native Hawaiians is pushing for independence to end the "prolonged occupation" by the United States and governance by natives.
• Demonstrators shouting racial epithets at whites disrupted a statehood celebration in 2006.
So did the Safeway store employees, the police, or possibly even child protective services turn a blind eye to blatant discrimination against a “haole” (pronounced howlee) couple without realizing that the end result in this game would be a little girl forcibly separated from her parents for the first time in her life? The mother, herself 30 weeks pregnant at the time of this incident, admitted to getting physically ill and throwing-up after her daughter was removed from the room. Even a zero-emotion zombie on Halloween would have to feel some sense of sympathy for a sick pregnant woman who has just lost custody (even temporarily) of her 3 year old daughter over a $5 sandwich.
And to those Safeway managers, the police and child protective services involved in this ridiculous incident I would ask if they sincerely thanked the couple for maintaining their self-composure while their child was essentially stolen. If the National Rifle Association motto “You’ll get my gun when you pry it from my Cold Dead Hands” applies… well, you should see what happens when you try to take my kid.
Labels: Discrimination, Racism, Safeway, Shoplifting
