Puna Safety (to rent, crime, house)

[alex7777]

I've been researching threads on certain Big Island neighborhoods, and will continue to investigate them.

However, I noticed on one thread that someone talked about a respectable puna citizen who would go out with a baseball bat and beat up non-locals, presumably white.

Is this kind of thing really that common in Puna? Does it simply depend on the specific neighborhood in Puna? Is it comparable to a white person moving into a really bad inner-city mainland neighborhood, or do people tend to leave you alone if you lay low and don't mess with other people?

I understand crime happens everywhere, I'm just wondering what kind of crime is common in Puna, and whether non-locals are at serious risk (physical and otherwise) moving into those neighborhoods.

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by alex7777

I've been researching threads on certain Big Island neighborhoods, and will continue to investigate them.

However, I noticed on one thread that someone talked about a respectable puna citizen who would go out with a baseball bat and beat up non-locals, presumably white.

Is this kind of thing really that common in Puna? Does it simply depend on the specific neighborhood in Puna? Is it comparable to a white person moving into a really bad inner-city mainland neighborhood, or do people tend to leave you alone if you lay low and don't mess with other people?

I understand crime happens everywhere, I'm just wondering what kind of crime is common in Puna, and whether non-locals are at serious risk (physical and otherwise) moving into those neighborhoods.

Where in the heck did you hear this?

BTW, Puna is a large area - approximately 320,000 acres and there are a LOT of neighborhoods (they are called "subdivisions" here). Most crime in the Puna District is burglary, petty theft, auto theft. It is rare for more serious crimes to happen.

[alex7777]

Originally Posted by mdand3boys

Where in the heck did you hear this?

BTW, Puna is a large area - approximately 320,000 acres and there are a LOT of neighborhoods (they are called "subdivisions" here). Most crime in the Puna District is burglary, petty theft, auto theft. It is rare for more serious crimes to happen.

I heard it on here.

I know it's a dumb question, because an area like Puna is too large to competely generalize about. Just wondering if such stories were common, or pretty rare. Sounds like the latter is the case. Good to know.

I imagine different neighborhoods have different degrees of the other crimes listed. Would suck to get your car stolen, but I guess a good car alarm (or garage) could address that. Worst case scenario, bars on the windows and maybe door, I guess.

[Razzbar]

Hawaii, especially the Puna district, seems like a violent place, but most of the trouble is "in the family", i.e. people who know their victims. Be careful who you drink with.

The different subdivisions all have their own reputations, which may be true to varying extents. I'd disagree slightly that a subdivision is a "neighborhood". They're so large, there are different neighborhoods within the subs, but they're still so spread out, it's hard to call them "neighborhoods" in the classic sense of the word.

I honestly had little or no trouble in my 20 years, but I was also fairly careful who I associated with.

One thing: "Race" is a whole different paradigm in Hawaii than the Mainland. It's not the color of skin that determines your ... "race", so much as your culture -- the degree to which you've assimilated.

Haoles tend to be perceived by locals as arrogant or conceited, and too grabby. Some resent all the changes and "tightening up" they've seen in their lifetimes. Best advice I can give is don't talk about the Mainland, and be humble. It helps to learn and use some pidgin in your speech, have good manners, be respectable, and show respect.

The other thing locals resent even more is how so many seem to be hippies and bums. Parents are afraid of a bad influence on their children, don't like the drain on social services, and being disrespectful and immodest.

If you're respectul, willing to learn, are contributing to the tax base, IOW, just a common, decent person, you'll do fine.

[terracore]

In my opinion, people who describe the violence and crime in Hawaii haven't lived somewhere that has "real" violence and crime. I used to live "in the hood" next to a crack house. It was unusual NOT to hear multiple gunshots of attempted or actual homicides every night. My house was cased every single day. I had to buy a huge rottweiler to discourage people from looking into my windows and through the mail slot in the front door. There was a high speed car chase that ended right in front of my house and the suspect ran into my back yard, chased by cops with their guns drawn. My ex wife (well, was wife then) was sleeping in the bedroom the cops were using the corner of the house as "cover". I had to wake her up and try to explain she needed to leave the room quietly and get down on the floor. Anything we left outside was immediately stolen. We even had our garbage stolen. We had to remove the hand-tightening thing from the outside water spigot to keep people from stealing our hose and sprinkler when we were watering the lawn (it wasn't worth stealing if you had to get all wet apparently).

That was just one place I lived. In one neighborhood I visited in Washington DC it was even worse. A lot worse. At the KFC you had to order through bullet proof glass. Your chicken was dispensed from a bullet proof turn stile. You had to go through a metal detector to get into the Safeway grocery store. One time we couldn't get to the store because there were 30-40 young men fighting in the parking lot, using broken beer bottles as weapons. The next day we tried to rent a Ryder truck (to get the hell out of that neighborhood) and we were stopped by the police due to an armed man with a hostage situation. Every window had bars on them. Every front door was reinforced with bars. Every business closed at dusk. You never, ever went outside alone at night. My friend was punched and robbed in the middle of the day with witnesses all around.

But no, I never once felt unsafe in Puna. I saw some sections of some divisions where I wouldn't want my car to break down but you find those neighborhoods everywhere in the world. Generally if you stay near the pavement and away from the "homes" made out of tarps and away from the weirdos who spell Kapu out of pig bones on their frontage you'll be fine.

[mdand3boys]

A recent (last week or so) report on most stolen cars in Hawaii showed that the 1991 Toyota Camry was the most stolen vehicle! It's 20 years old! Your newer car is probably real safe!

[alex7777]

Good posts. What does "Kapu" mean?

[R_Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by alex7777

Good posts. What does "Kapu" mean?

Generally used in Hawaii it means taboo.
As with all things from Ancient Hawaii, there's a bigger meaning.
Here you go Kapu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[alex7777]

Originally Posted by R_Cowgirl

Generally used in Hawaii it means taboo.
As with all things from Ancient Hawaii, there's a bigger meaning.
Here you go Kapu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I did check this out earlier. In this context, it basically means "Keep out." It can also mean taboo or scared. But if you see it, you probably shouldn't go there.

[Jungjohann]

"Kapu" is actually the name of a very large local family over here, they own property ALL OVER the place...

aloha and okolemaluna

uuuurrrrpppp,,,, scuze me