Island Breath: Effort by public to stop Superferry

SUBJECT: STOP SUPERFERRY STRATEGY

SOURCE: JUAN WILSON juanwilson@mac.com

POSTED: 30 AUGUST 2007 - 9:15am HST

ID# 07-0927

What is coming next from Superferry

image above: Kauai Police Deparment officer and KPD SWAT member on Sunday night in Nawiliwili.
Photo by Jonathan Jay

by Juan Wilson 30 August 2007

The strategy developed spontaneously on Sunday and refined on Monday worked to first delay and then stop the Superferry from landing on Kauai. That strategy had three component:

1) A large diverse supporting crowd of protesters on the Nawiliwili Jetty

2) Hawaiians leading an effort to block and lock the Nawiliwili Pier Gates

3) Surfers, swimmers and paddlers willing to face down the Coast Guard and HSF

All three worked together as a perfect storm to confound the federal, state and county authorities.

The GovLing had to declare Kauai a "unsafe" place to land the Superferry for an indefinite period of time. I don't think that time is so indefinite.

It would seem that the "authorities" have a plan to deny easy access to channel. Remember Kaipu Asing's trip down to the jetty Tuesday at 1:00pm? They plan to close the entire jetty to the public. Today, Thursday, the County is meeting with the Coast Guard to come up with a coordinated plan. The next round between the surfers and the ferry will likely not go our way.

Obviously, this has been a huge embarrassment to the KPD, Coast Guard and the State Police Special Forces that have been unable to control even twelve-year-old boys, and middle-aged women on surfboards. I have fairly good eveidence that after the Monday turn around of the ferry, in the dark of night the Coast Guard offered to escort a group of kids back to the jetty. They brought the kids to the arms of the KPD for arrest.

The idea that the Coast Guard stooped to lying to a group of juveniles who had been in the channel in order to help the KPD arrest them shows how pathetic their efforts have been. Word from at least one source is that the GovLing is next going to use National Guard on Kauai.

Fortunately, the upcoming arrival of PresBush for two stopovers (9/3 and 9/8) on Oahu will come before the September 10th beginning of the Homeland Security one-hundred yard protection zone around the Superferry (with ten year Federal jail sentence for violators).

We need to be thinking fresh thoughts on our next step. Last night I spoke to Maui anti-Superferry activist Dick Mayer and suggested that Maui Tomorrow's lawyer would do well to ask the court to expand the Restraining Order to Nawiliwili Harbor, seeing that the case, although being heard in the Maui Circuit is being directly overseen by the Hawaii Supreme Court, and that what the mistake the Hawaii Department of Transportation made in one harbor applies to all.

Court action and media coverage will do us more good at this point.

I didn't think the GovLing will let the ferry go anywhere until after the 10th when she can guarantee "safety" in the harbor. But I think with the PresBush coming we will have a problem, We must influence the court on September 6th but need to have an answer to what to do if the GovLing makes a move before September 3rd.

If any significant show of force is brought to bear we will have an opportunity to have great documentation on the military linkage to the Superferry and how much force they are willing to use to ensure any EIS that would sink it.

image above: Is this a Middle East terrorist or Sunni insurgent? No, just a KPD SWAT member.
Photo by Jonathan Jay

SUBJECT: STOP SUPERFERRY STRATEGY

SOURCE: JOHN TYLER mysticseaswimmer@gmail.com

POSTED: 30 AUGUST 2007 - 9:15am HST

Below is one of the many correspondences that has caught my attention concerning our efforts on Kauai to stop the Superferry's attempt to overpower our residents as stewards of Kaua'i.

The text of this message is very informative and insightful, guiding us to the next step of our focus so that we may be successful in protecting our rights concerning the quality of our life on Kaua'i. Also, I am forwarding a press release on Bush's sudden planned visits to O'ahu next week at the bottom of this email. We are now being asked to expose the more deep seated intentions of the Superferry backers, and keep the threat of upset protesting at Nawiliwili on the nationwide evening news. I have been broadcasting real-time alerts to subscribers of my myspace boycottsuperferry.org page which has many young Kauaians listening in and getting the word out.

I strongly advise us to heed "Alex Bivens" direction in his email, (his political awareness of motivations and strategy are brilliant as Karl Rove's strategy is to Bush's) Bivens advises to focus our efforts on expanding the base of people who will be affected by Superferry's presence, and to counter the attacks of people wishing to spin our genuine efforts as un-pono.

Any of you, feel free to email him, as organizers of the protest. He's contacted me, likely because of my national advertising on Google right next to Superferry, pointing to the boycottsuperferry.org website. I don't want credit for this, I want us effective and in a chain/lei of groups working well together and sharing what is coming in to help us all.

Aloha Mr. Tyler,

I am under the impression that you are an organizer> of the recent protests against the Superferry. I write to you as a dispassionate observer of history.
I have no opinion on the Superferry itself.

With regard to your organization and protest, congratulations on your success as a movement organizer. In my opinion you may have already succeeded completely. This is because you were able to get images of SWAT teams, police macing protestors, protestors banging on vehicles with their hands and surfers splashing Coast Guard boats beamed across the country. These images are VERY BAD for the moneyed interests that control the tourism-based Hawaii economy, and so the big money in Hawaii (and in the Governor's pocket) is now completely invested in making sure those images are stopped permanently.

Make no mistake, they don't care how they are stopped. If they can stop them by ruining your organization or by stopping the Superferry, they don't care. But there is a lot of money invested in making sure there are no more images like those that were on TV for the last three nights.

In my (unsolicited) opinion, the future of your movement depends not upon the next court ruling or law change, but on organizers making sure that if there is another attempt to land the Superferry, that that attempt results in more graphic images of radical protest (and a paramilitary response to squelch) being televised nationally (and on YouTube of course). I believe that as long as you have protesters willing to be arrested for the cause, you will succeed.

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