Cops put a watch
on road vandals

Gang-related stoning of cars and a
common Internet note warning
of violence are probed

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

One is a real problem, the other an unseen threat, but Honolulu police are working to keep a lid on both.

The problem involves possible gang-related incidents where rocks or bricks have been thrown at vehicles from highway overpasses in Kalihi and Waipahu.

The threat comes in the form of a widely circulated Internet message warning motorists of a gang-initiation activity triggered by the blinking of headlights at oncoming vehicles.

"We went through this a couple of years ago and there's no truth to it here," Police Chief Lee Donohue said. "It's an urban legend, just like dirty needles in pay-phone change boxes or on theater seats.

"It's misinformation presented to create fear."

The danger of publicly acknowledging this type of message, which is being spread both locally and on the mainland, is that it encourages copycats, Donohue said.

"It gives ideas to others, and then we WILL have a problem," he added.

Donohue says stopping the spread of misinformation will be difficult, if not impossible.

"The difference between a couple of years ago and now is the Internet," he said.

The warning, attributed to an unidentified police officer, states that as part of their initiation rites, new gang members will drive intentionally at night with headlights off. The first vehicle to flash its lights at the gang member's car becomes a target.

The gang member is required to turn around, chase and then shoot at or into the target vehicle, the message says.

"In talking to gangs locally, they haven't heard of it," said Lt. William Kato, head of the HPD gang detail. "But they know about the rocks on the freeway."

Rocks or bricks thrown from the Gulick Avenue, Manager's Drive and Waipahu Street overpasses during the past three or four months have struck four vehicles, including a city bus, Kato said.

So far, no one has been seriously injured.

The Internet message attributes its warning to an unidentified police officer assigned to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, but local police and military officials associated with the DARE program say it did not come from them.

"From what we've been able to track down, the warning came out of the Los Angeles Police Department," Kato said.

He added that a Honolulu police officer, who saw it on the Internet, posted copies of the message on some HPD bulletin boards.

Others like Lori Lussier, center director of Hawaii Kids at Work, received the message from friends by e-mail.

"My first reaction was disbelief, but since the warning was coming from a police officer, I believed it," Lussier said.

"But when I got another e-mail the next day about needles in the telephone change slots, I kind of thought it might be another urban legend."

Simira Vaioga, a Kalihi resident and Hawaii Kids at Work staffer, got her copy from a friend, Peter Louis, who she says got his from a police officer.

Louis, however, received his copy of the message from another parent on the Police Activities League team his daughter plays on.

Vaioga says where it came from doesn't matter.

"To me, it's still something I'm going to worry about," Vaioga said. "It can happen in the zone where I live."

Lt. Jon Morioka says the Maui Police Department, like HPD, is receiving numerous calls from concerned residents.

"We heard about it last week but the calls only started coming in (Wednesday)," Morioka said. "It's all based on unconfirmed information.

"We're just telling people we have no reports of that happening at this time."

Officer Warren Shaw, who supervises the Hawaii County Police Department's DARE program, knows about the message but says he hasn't received any calls about it from residents.