Toddler thrown onto freeway

[Random]

Re: Wasnt sure where to put this but.....

How positively horrible! If I had a few wishes, one would be to live to see vigilant justice legal. I would come back to the island to tear that mans arms off.

You could do that, but guessing from his blank face, he wouldn't understand why you're doing that.

Don't get me wrong. Mental or not, he should be punished, even if he's too far gone in his mind to aware that he committed a crime.

[PoiBoy]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

The Advertiser's update saying that the child had been in state custody identifies the child's grandfather as Lilo Asiata. Unless that's a common name, my well-connected acquaintance got one part of his or her story right: This guy is a major figure in local crime, even featured on Dog the Bounty Hunter once. Some of the weird details about all of this (especially the unanswered stuff) could be relevant to that, you think?

The Advertiser doesn't mention a thing about who the grandfather is.

you mean that well mannered old man that The Dog seemed to have the utmost respect for?

This guy is a major figure in local crime

he was on Dog the bounty hunter for failing to appear on a traffic violation. Do you know of any other crimes or convictions?

[infinitypro]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

On KHON 2 10 p.m. news cast an unexpected visit from Nancy Asiata who agreed to an interview. I don't know about any of you, but I would be too hysterically crushed to get dressed and do an interview!

At first I was hurt, then angry at the situation, now with all of these unanswered questions, odd behavior, stereotypical addict behavior...well, I'm pissed.

Seems not only the child's father, maternal grandfather, mother; but the boyfriend Shane Mizusawa also has a criminal record. A guilty plea to Theft 2 as recent as 12/21/07 out of jail awaiting sentencing 3/12/2008!

[MixedPlateBroker]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

The KGMB 10pm 'cast cited an e-mail they received from a "good friend" of Higa's that lamented the alleged killer's descent into crystal methamphetamine addiction.

If Higa's found mentally fit and culpable, he's toast. As one of our friends reminded us over dinner, killers of children rank right up there with child molesters on the prison s-list. And you can bet killing the grandchild of someone connected is going to have repercussions.

Originally Posted by scrivener
The Advertiser doesn't mention a thing about who the grandfather is.

Very sad, esp considering they control the clippings morgue.
C'mon, Dave. Crack the whip!

[scrivener]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

i don't think it's fair to judge someone for how he or she deals with the death of a loved one. yes, you might be hysterical, but there's no right way to cope. death is tough to deal with, and i think we each must deal with it in whatever way we must.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

So the mom is accusing Higa of breaking in their apartment and took Cyrus because Cyrus couldn't have opened the screen door himself.

Was the screen door broken in?


Like Infinity, I'm just astounded by the people (adults) that surrounded Cyrus' life.

The Grandfather, the father, the mother, the boyfriend, the killer, the killer's father...all had some criminal history.

This poor child never had a chance at a normal life and everybody involved is blaming everybody else...except the man who killed the boy. Apparently he's insane.

And to top it off the State is saying CPS should have been notified when Cyrus was found wandering around by himself while the police say they followed normal procedure. I'm sure by tomorrow DHS will be blamed somewhere along the line for failure to do something or other.

Amazing how the blame game is going.

So:

The grandfather who was babysitting failed
The mother who spent less time with Cyrus than the grandfather failed
The father who was arrested and ended up in jail failed
The boyfriend of the mother who put Cyrus back into a sleeping grandfather's apartment failed
The father of Mathew Higa didn't take care of his son with the drug addiction failed
The killer Mathew Higa who couldn't stop himself, failed
HPD in not notifying CPS failed
DHS who new of the parents criminal past failed
CPS who also new of the parents criminal past failed

It seems the people surrounding Cyrus Belt somehow failed in the eyes of the other people surrounding his life. Or so it seems. Poor kid never had a chance, and can you imagine the life this child would have had to endure if he did survive?

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

I'll bet the poor cop who took the kid back home is feeling bad.

[Nords]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

Arrrrgh. I fear you may be right. But I mean this person is REALLY well-connected. I'm talking about an inner-inner-circle HPD-type person. But yeah. I got bum dope almost for sure.

Sounds like you just passed the "Who's leaking to the media?" pop quiz...

The father of Mathew Higa didn't take care of his son with the drug addiction failed

Maybe I'm just having a tough month with our own teenager, but at some point a parent can help a kid more by walking away and letting them learn to cope with their own failures. Parents can do anything but they can't do everything for their kids, especially for the rest of their lives. In the long run, helicopter parenting is far worse than the apparent neglect or "failure" even though helicopter behavior may be called "staying close" or "keeping together". It doesn't seem responsible for the media to accuse Higa's father without knowing all of the issues around their son's problems.

HPD in not notifying CPS failed
DHS who new of the parents criminal past failed
CPS who also new of the parents criminal past failed

Another tough situation. If these agencies were more involved with the family then they'd be accused of big-brother governmental meddling. It's all too easy to blame them for failure when their charges end up injured or dead.

Perhaps it's possible that, compared to the caseloads of apparently far more serious issues being dealt with by these agencies, up until the killing this family's problems weren't even considered out of line. What's that say about the rest of the island's families who've been dealing with CPS?

[scrivener]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

We're going to pay a football coach 1.1 million bucks next year. Do you know how many CPS social workers it takes to earn that in a year? More, I think, than exist. I used to work very closely with CPS, and those people are just overloaded. They work so hard doing such an important job for so little money and appreciation; yet they are the first to come under fire when something happens. That state bureaucracy June Jones banged his head against until he'd had enough? Imagine doing that when you are a lowly MSW without a football team.

I am not saying there's not enough responsibility to go around for everyone, but can we add to Craig's list ourselves for not valuing social agencies enough? This is not an argument for more government-funded services necessarily; rather, it is simply an argument for better support (in whatever form) for these agencies, both public and private.

[Miulang]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

We're going to pay a football coach 1.1 million bucks next year. Do you know how many CPS social workers it takes to earn that in a year? More, I think, than exist. I used to work very closely with CPS, and those people are just overloaded. They work so hard doing such an important job for so little money and appreciation; yet they are the first to come under fire when something happens. That state bureaucracy June Jones banged his head against until he'd had enough? Imagine doing that when you are a lowly MSW without a football team.

I am not saying there's not enough responsibility to go around for everyone, but can we add to Craig's list ourselves for not valuing social agencies enough? This is not an argument for more government-funded services necessarily; rather, it is simply an argument for better support (in whatever form) for these agencies, both public and private.

That is very true, Scriv. I know of at least one case personally on Maui where if there had been enough monitoring by CPS, one little precious child would have been spared a lifetime of potentially life threatening health conditions due to the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother's boyfriend. And Maui is supposed to have the best record of CPS case management of all the counties!

If you read the statistics posted by that department, you will note that the Big Island has the most reported cases of child abuse and children under the protection of the State. They still haven't solved the case of Peter Boy Kema yet. Most of the case managers are hard working and care about the children they are responsible for, but they are simply overwhelmed by the numbers of cases they need to monitor on a regular basis.

[dleuck]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

People don't like to talk about it, but we have a serious problem with meth _and_ domestic violence in Hawaii. Higa is yet another case of a meth head flipping out. He and the jerk that beat his girlfriend with a shotgun need to be delt with in the harshest manner possible. We need to set an example. This is not acceptable in our state!

[Miulang]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

People don't like to talk about it, but we have a serious problem with meth _and_ domestic violence in Hawaii. Higa is yet another case of a meth head flipping out. He and the jerk that beat his girlfriend with a shotgun need to be delt with in the harshest manner possible. We need to set an example. This is not acceptable in our state!

It's not just Hawaii. About 2 weeks ago, a Vietnamese immigrant living in Mobile, Alabama, threw 4 of his young children off a bridge and into a river 80 feet below because he got into an argument with his wife. Apparently he, also, was a drug addict. They've recovered 3 of the childrens' bodies and are still searching for the 4th child.

[infinitypro]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

HIGA has still not been charged, although there's little doubt that he's guilty of something.

CHANCO's behavior throughout this entire situation is questionable, and has traits and characteristics of addict behavior.

I certainly will not blame the agencies for any failure to intervene, and will NOT blame myself for anything involving this situation. Ultimately, the blame falls upon the parents who made their own choice to have a child. They're the ones who failed, period.

This is obviously a family plagued in crime and drugs, they're behavior cannot be judged on the norms, but you need to factor in addict behavior.

[pzarquon]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

Drove past the Miller St. bridge heading east today. The makeshift memorial is devastating, surprisingly upsetting for something you think you've seen before. Looks like it's also backing up traffic clear through to Kahala. We made it a point to avoid that stretch of freeway heading home.

[tutusue]

Re: Toddler thrown onto freeway

[...]Poor kid never had a chance, and can you imagine the life this child would have had to endure if he did survive?

Exactly. Hence, my post #60 above. I learned this morning that "he" is, in fact, the same one.

Drove past the Miller St. bridge heading east today. The makeshift memorial is devastating, surprisingly upsetting for something you think you've seen before. Looks like it's also backing up traffic clear through to Kahala. We made it a point to avoid that stretch of freeway heading home.

Traffic was terrible today from Mapunapuna 'til I got off at Punahou St. It never occurred to me that the bridge/memorial was to blame. I, too, noticed that devastating and upsetting memorial. There were at least 15, possibly more, people on the bridge at that spot.