Drinking on the beach

[turtlegirl]

Re: Drinking on the beach

There was no fine! Just a summons to appear in court.

White Plains is my favorite surf spot by Ewa.

The guys smoking ice NEVER SHUT UP. They are sooo annoying! And usually totally wasted and begging for rides to the convenience store (in my experience).

Cyn - wow. I wonder how many drunken idiots were causing real trouble elsewhere while your friend was being antagonized! What an unfortunate situation, glad it worked out relatively okay!

[AlohaKine]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Local TV "news" was absolutely Gushing over a handy device the Police State can shove in your drink to see if it has alcohol in it! How wonderful...maybe a bank is being robbed or a child dragged away by a psycho but the Officer comes up and demands (no suspiscion, no probable cause, certainly no warrant) to shove his device into your drink. Nobody understands that the Bill of Rights was written to protect the INNOCENT. So, wouldn't it be fun to entrap the authorities into doing a bogus bust and then suing them for every cent the city has? How hard would that be? There is no excuse for a free country to have the highest prison population in the world, and half of them in on victimless crimes.

Haven't heard of this device yet. How do they conduct this and do they target anybody.

[Kalalau]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Actually all they have to do is point it at your drink and it can detect alcohol from up to 9 ft. away. They say they are only targeting people who appear to be drunk. I keep coming back to the idea that this is supposed to be a free country. We got stopped in a drunk driving spot check the other night. I don't drink, so no problem, but if the Constitution says you are presumed innocent until proven guilty I think that should mean Big Government can't launch an investigation against you without probable cause that you are actually committing a crime. Obviously, my view is old fashioned, "quaint", as former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez called the Constitution. Drinking on the beach is not the biggest deal in the world but if you add up all the little things you can't do, it really defeats the concept of freedom--leaving the people alone. We do have the largest prison population in the world, half of them in on victimless crimes, it has to stop somewhere. At $40,000 per inmate per year just the economics alone are bad. Obviously some people need to be locked up, but like wars, it should be reserved for actually necessary cases, not just for mere differences of opinion on how to spend ones own time or money.

[Nords]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Did I miss it somewhere - how much was the fine?
I must be living on the moon, where is White Plains?

On Kalealoa, the former NAS Barbers Point, a bit east of the Coast Guard station. In one of the old gates, onto Roosevelt, south on Coral Sea, left on Tripoli.

[cynsaligia]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Off topic: Our family was considering a Waikiki hotel to watch the fireworks from. Looking at google maps the Ala Moana Hotel and Hawaii Prince seemed to have a good view.

Did greg's family book a room in the Ewa tower? From their website, it doesn't seem like the rooms have lanai's. How was the view through the windows?

they got a room in the ala moana tower and had a perfect view. in fact, if you watched from an open window, you'd feel as if the fireworks were coming right at your face. additionally, their suite came with a bonus view of the pearl harbor fireworks, which, due to the distance, were quite teeny yet still entertaining. even more amusing was watching the traffic take almost two hours to clear.

[turtlegirl]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Update -
Went to court. The courthouse was full. Basically we were all there to be processed as fast as possible. The judge didn't want to discuss anything with anybody. The court had already entered a no contest plea for everybody. We were all expected to agree with this, receive our fines, and then go away. So I followed suit. It was such a waste of taxpayers money and my time. The fine ended up being $80 - but it was divided up into a $50 payment to the State General Fund, and $30 to something called CICF.

I was amazed at the apparent lack of respect that many of the defendants displayed. Everything from people wearing rubber slippahs, tshirts and cutoff shorts, to bad attitudes and obvious repeat offenders. And latecomers. Some people were actually loudly giggling to each other about the other peoples crimes. And there were the gangbangers. And a few guys were there for fighting on 4th of July. Not to sound elitist, but it was not cool to be lumped in with this group.

And to add sucky to injury, I got a parking ticket while I was there.

[cynsaligia]

Re: Drinking on the beach

oh bleep! @ your parking ticket , tg! which district court was this for?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Drinking on the beach

$30 to something called CICF.

Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund.

Life's not been the best to you these days, tgirl, I'm sorry to notice.

[turtlegirl]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Heheh, yeah. Why does Hawaii f with me!!!? As long as the good stuff keeps outweighing the sucky, I'm doing alright.

I had to go to the 1st district circuit court, which I think means the Honolulu area. Criminal Injuries Fund? Never heard of it before this, but I hope they are doing some good with my hard earned money!

[Lei Liko]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Heheh, yeah. Why does Hawaii f with me!!!? As long as the good stuff keeps outweighing the sucky, I'm doing alright.

I had to go to the 1st district circuit court, which I think means the Honolulu area. Criminal Injuries Fund? Never heard of it before this, but I hope they are doing some good with my hard earned money!

Sounds like you've had a crappy few days, TG, but look at the bright side, it'll be better days ahead from here on out!

[cynsaligia]

Re: Drinking on the beach

tg, not that i want you or anyone else to have to go to honolulu district court, but for your reference, the best place to park for such matters is at alii place. it's the building directly makai of the HDC, bordered by hotel, alakea and richards streets. while it is a privately owned property, they charge fairly reasonable municipal parking rates. i was there for half the day some months ago accompanying someone on a restraining orde matter and paid maybe five dollars for parking.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Jeeze, that sucks, TG

Is it safe to assume you didn't make any interesting friends while you were there?

*smirk*


After paying your fine, it would have been hilarious if you cracked open a cold beer in the courthouse


Nice tip, Cyn. I hope I never have to use it!

[leashlaws]

Re: Drinking on the beach

I had to drive a friend to DUI court 3 years ago in Kaneohe. You would not believe the losers in there (oh you probably would) but the dress as turtlegirl was saying was simply atrocious. There were at least THREE shirts with huge marijuana leaves on them with some verbiage about smoking it. At least
you didn't see guys in chained cuffs on their ankles and bracelets to match.
Gave me the creeps being there with her.

The Alli parking lot is very good for other things: the HISAM, eating at
Downtown in the HISAM the flat rate is great.

[kani-lehua]

Re: Drinking on the beach

Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund.

Life's not been the best to you these days, tgirl, I'm sorry to notice.

ditto.

leo, what is this fund you speak of? i've never heard of it either.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Drinking on the beach

leo, what is this fund you speak of? i've never heard of it either.

Every state has something along these lines, to reimburse violent-crime victims and their families for medical expenses, counseling, funeral expenses, lost wages and the like. In Hawai`i, it is run by the Crime Victims Compensation Commission. Turtlegirl has just learned, firsthand, how it gets some of its funding.