The ACLU remains very concerned about the measure’s true intent to target Hawaii’s homeless individuals because of their homelessness. The ACLU will monitor how the new law is enforced, including any attempt to use this new law to curtail 1st Amendment rights to free speech and/or assembly.
It is very disappointing that this vulnerable population continues to bear the brunt of the government’s power to eliminate them from public spaces. Instead, government should focus effort on the underlying causes of homelessness.
An earlier effort to eliminate the homeless from Waikiki (Bill 39, 2010) remains apparently unenforced precisely because of funding and logistic problems.
