Dear Mayor: It is in our collective island spirit of respect and our duty as caretakers of the Micronesian community that we, a concerned group of Micronesian ministers, parents, advocates, and allies would like to respectfully submit our plea and call on your leadership to respond to the over-policing of the Micronesian community.
In recent weeks and months, this overpolicing and related bias has led to much pain, including the tragic death of one of our children, Iremamber Sykap.
In our unity as Micronesians and in respect for your leadership as mayor, we appeal to your humanity and submit the following calls for action:
- Invite the Department of Justice to conduct an independent investigation into the racial disparities found in use of force by the Honolulu Police Department that have resulted in the suffering and death of children in our community.
- Investigate and hold accountable parties involved in the illegal and improper leaking of confidential juvenile information and other private information about the Sykap family.
- Monitor, hold accountable, and enforce procedures to end the HPD practice of disclosing confidential and false information. (This is not unique to Hawaii, and must end everywhere.)
For the past several years, our community has discussed the ways in which we are overrepresented in the criminal legal system (with our community seen as suspect), while being underrepresented in governance roles and leadership.
Your office — and all residents of Honolulu — should be deeply concerned about the HPD’s own “Use of Force” data that reveals significant racial disparities.
More recently, hundreds of HPD officers and their supporters rallied outside the courthouse chanting “Free the three” and claiming to be above the law. We must come together to ensure fairness and justice for all before the divisions become too great to heal.
To address these difficult issues, we are ready to partner with your administration and relevant entities to find common and meaningful solutions that will be beneficial for all Hawaii residents.
We ask that Honolulu City and County leadership meet regularly with diverse Micronesian community leaders and work to repair these broken systems and build mutual trust. We endeavor to be directly involved in any activities that ensure fairness in our systems so that everyone feels they belong.
We recognize that none of us can do this alone. We must work together and we must start now.
To begin, we propose the following steps:
- Support a diverse spectrum of Micronesian leaders and Micronesian-led organizations, including providing direct financial and in-kind support.
- Co-organize and meaningfully participate in roundtable gatherings to address community perceptions, needs, and strengths as well as collaborative, community-led solutions, resources and opportunities.
- Expand language access and other essential services that ensure the equal treatment and protection of the Micronesian community.
We stand together as people who care deeply about justice and equal treatment for all. We stand united in our call for a federal investigation of the Sykap killing, the Lindani Myeni killing, and the HPD’s history of racial disparities in use of force.
It is only through a transparent and thorough examination of the facts, conducted by independent and neutral investigators, that we will begin to heal as a community.
