Although Hawaii is isolated in its remoteness physically and culturally, our politicians readily partake in the fear and misguided legislation derived from events that happen 5,000 miles away.
One recently enacted piece of legislation, Act 208 will now require all security guards in Hawaii, armed or not to pay a fee, jump through hoops and get authorized to resume or assume any guard function. This is of course because two nuts set off some smoke bombs across an ocean and a continent away.
Naturally, those who have a penchant for control and domination seized upon such a sweet opportunity to exercise ever more power and extract some cash too, a win-win! Hereto do we see that although we are alone in the ocean, our politicians are adept at the fear-reaction-solution protocol soundly exercised by others thousands of miles away.
In addition, private detectives are now under the purview of the State as now anyone who researches, or seeks out "information or evidence not readily or publicly accessible," for a paying client has now been deemed a detective and will require a license. Well let's see if something isn't publicly accessible and someone pays you to go look for it and get it -- isn't that theft? It remains to be seen if this law will be used to impact journalism and all other forms of information gathering, for when imaged through the context of history, these types of restrictive controls on harmless citizen behavior always seem to skew toward unjust and tyrannical ends.
Not surprisingly this new law exempts all Federal, State and County workers, it even indicates that "No person shall engage in the business of guard when the guard work is concurrent with other duties performed under the agreement of employment or when the guard work is not the principal fact of the employment without first obtaining a license as a guard." For the small business owner, this now means that he or she will have to hire a guard when previously an employee may have functioned as both -- a guard coupled with other duties.
For any detective or prospective gatherer of " information or evidence not readily or publicly accessible" out there who would want to start a business to do just that, the new law will require you to languish under the direction of a licensed detective for at least four years before you are granted the privilege of paying $5,000 and applying for your very own shiny government issued license. In either instance whether a guard or detective license is sought, either case requires rigorous classroom indoctrination to include homeland security orders and "aloha training" of all things.
With this new law implemented, a subservient class of de facto government enforcers has been created, with every license holder beholden to government mandates to operate just like a passive police force where the threat of license forfeiture will insure that they all stay in line and salute when the hardcore enforcers pass by.
Unnerving as this may be, if you were to investigate further you would discover that these -- oh wait, never mind, you may need a license for that.