HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Residents across the islands are concerned about the string of violent crime that has taken place on Oahu's west side this year. Last week's shooting is among nine that have happened so far, and many have involved teenagers.
Honolulu City Councilmember Andria Tupola joined us this morning on Wake Up 2Day to talk about a Youth Empowerment & Crime Prevention Townhall meeting Wednesday night.
"Tonight we're really looking forward to hearing the youth's voice. A lot of our town halls or neighborhood boards are definitely adults, parents and we appreciate them, we need them, we need everyone," Councilmember Tupola said. "However, because of the ages of some of these offenders and victims, we want to know what's happening within the schools, what do the kids have to say? How is this feeling when you go to school, what is your safety level what are your suggestions? I think we're really going to have a different outcome when we shift this to that particular age group."
Following last week's shooting at the Waianae Small Boat Harbor, Governor Josh Green, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and numerous other elected officials gathered to come up with ideas to stop the epidemic. One of the answers was increasing enforcement.
"When you're trying to prevent crime you have three sides," Tupola said. "You have a location, you have an offender, you have a victim. How do we address the victim and the offender? How do we address the location? This weekend we addressed the location by having enhanced enforcement at the boat harbor, but what do we do for the kids? Are there enough services? Is there enough follow-up? Do we need more mental health providers to kind of come through? What are the home situations of these families? How do we actually be preventative and not just responsive? We appreciate the response, we need that response, but in order for us to really get down to the root we have to come way before the problem."
The long-term solutions will be a topic of conversation tonight as Councilmember Tupola has invited numerous area sports teams to have dinner and cut practice short.
"I think we have to stay geographic, we have to stay local. A lot of times we talk about issues and people blow it up into this federal level, those are important pieces but how do we keep it on the ground level from street to street? Community to community what are the associations doing, what more resources do they need? So I'm going to keep these conversations as ground level as possible. What are coaches saying? What are the kids saying? Then from there we need to come up with strategies, steps forward and timeline. We can't just talk about things. We have to say within this many months this will happen. Within this many months, this will happen. The community wants a long-term plan and not just a three day weekend or a couple of weeks. I am going to build that with the Governor, with the Mayor, everybody is all-in. Hands on deck so I'm going to lead the charge and make sure we outline that and move together as a community."
Tonight's town hall is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Waianae High School cafeteria.