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Friday, March 17, 2006

THURSDAY NIGHT FIGHTS

HAPA'S


Know what a "Night Club" is?

Just a bar that has a "cover charge" at the door.

Most are worthy of the name. Hapa's is not.

Hapa's is a "locals" club. At one time in its past is was very nice. Now it is trashy. Always having fights just out front, in the Lipoa Shopping Center parking lot (car park). Monday is a great night to go there though. That's when uncle Willie K. plays. If you are not a resident of Hawai'i or in the music business then you have probably never heard of him. He is renowned in the industry as one of the most accomplished guitarists in the world. He plays everything! Rock, Jazz, C&W, classical, Hawai'ian. Two years ago he was the opening act for the Beach Boys summer tour. All music entertainers who visit here always drop by on Mondays and sit-in for a set or two. To name a few, Prince, Journey, Eagles. Willie and his band put on one hell of a good show. The local punks don't appreciate his talent and avoid Hapa's that night.

The "Ultra Fab" Tuesday night is for alternative lifestyles. Draws a pretty decent crowd also. Locals punks avoid this night also.

"Dolla Balla" is the $3 drink night.

"Ladies night" is trouble with a capital "T". The "local" females love to get in for free and then see how much drama they can create among the males. Which then erupts in fights. As a cop I saw this many times but never on this scale.

Last night there was a major brawl in the parking lot. Somewhere between 50 & 60 people fighting. As with most drunken brawls, there was a lot of "swinging" but very little "connection." The entire Kihei District area police (6 officers and 1 sargeant) responded to the disturbance. Even a State Park Ranger from the DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) rolled. I seldom see these guys on my shift. Took a photo of their "YUKON". Didn't get any shots of the fight since I was enroute to the hospital when it occurred.

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HENRY'S

This is a "grown-ups" fun bar. They usually close around 12:30am. They have a band until about 11:00pm. Owned by a kama'aina leather biker, it seldom has any trouble.

We used to have a cab company, that worked late, named ALOHA. One night the owner of that company was backing up to the curb in front of Henry's and backed straight through the wall to your left of the door. Luckily the bar had closed about 15 minutes earlier and only staff was still inside. The owner/driver then exited his mini-van, surveyed the damage, went back to his cab, reached under the front seat and extracted a half full 2-liter bottle of cheap white wine, which he then tossed into the trash.

I watched this entire incident while calling 9-1-1. Before the police arrived I retrieved the bottle and maintained custody of it until MPD was "on scene" and gave it to them. The owner/driver acted like a clown while performing (and failing) the field sobriety test. And off to jail he went.

6 months later he was parked in front of Hapa's, two doors away from Henry's, passed out over the wheel. One of my drivers reported this to me and again I called 9-1-1. The responding officer, Nick Krau, was the same one who had made the first arrest. He not only took the owner/driver's state issued drivers license but also the county issued taxi drivers permit. Aloha was never on the road again.

Good riddance! Most fares would reasonably expect their cabbie to be more sober than they are.

If you watch the TV show "COPS", you probably saw Nick Krau when Mau'i PD was the featured agency. He's a good cop and one hell of a nice guy. When I catch up with him again, I'll get his pic and post it here.
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MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!

Thursday was very busy and very profitable. What more could I ask for?
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ERIN GO BRAUGH

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.



May the road rise up to meet your feet.
My the wind always be at your back.
And may you be in Heaven an hour before the Devil knows you've left this earth.
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SO YOU WANT TO MOVE TO MAU'I?

Just a word of advice. It ain't cheap to live here.
(as with all photos, just "left click" to get a larger image).

Milk:

Bread:

Coke:

Cheerios:

Rice Krispies:

ad nauseum.
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POOR BLOGSPOT

They are having some major sysop problems for the past few days.

I wrote this at 0800 hours on the 17th. Lets see how long it will be before I can post it.

Oh, well. Its free and you get what you pay for. Sigh.
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Later.....

Wil
=8^))
"Let's all be careful out there!"