Native Hawaiians attacked white man ‘with wrong skin colour’

TWO indigenous Hawaiians have become the first to be prosecuted for hate crimes, after they brutally beat a man because he was white.

Kaulana Alo-kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr were found to have been motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat him in 2014, leaving him with a concussion, two broken ribs and head trauma.

The case has shone a spotlight on Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with people from outside the islands, and local lawyers believe it is the first time the US has prosecuted native Hawaiians for hate crimes.

Tensions began over a dilapidated, ocean-front home in Kahakuloa, a small village at the end of a valley on Maui, an island known for luxurious resorts.

Mr Kunzelman and his wife bought the house for $175,000 (£146,000) because she wanted to leave Arizona, to live near the ocean after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Growing up in the village, Alokaonohi would “hunt, fish, farm, live off the land,” he wrote in a letter to US District Judge J Michael Seabright.

The tipping point came when Mr Kunzelman cut locks to village gates.

He testified he did so because residents were locking him in and out. He testified that he wanted to provide the village with better locks and distribute keys to residents.

“It was obviously a hate crime from the very beginning,” said Lori Kunzelman, his wife. “The whole time they’re saying things like, ‘You have the wrong skin colour. No ‘haole’ is ever going to live in our neighbourhood’.”

“Haole”, a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreigner and white person, is central to the case.

The word has become part of Hawaii Pidgin, the creole language of the islands, to describe behaviour or attitudes not in sync with local culture. In video recorded by cameras on Mr Kunzelman’s vehicle parked under the house, Aki is heard saying, “You’s a haole, eh.”

“When you watch the video ... there was almost like enthusiasm,” Mr Seabright said. “Maybe that’s what’s so disturbing about this case.”

The case took so long because of what the judge described as “a series of procedural missteps” and protracted arguments about exactly what charges the men should face.

There were separate state and federal charges, which complicated matters.

Both men were prosecuted in state court in 2019 for the assault. Alokaonohi pleaded no contest to felony assault and was sentenced to probation, while Aki pleaded no contest to terroristic threatening and was sentenced to probation and nearly 200 days in jail.

For the federal hate crime case, prosecutors have asked for a sentence of about nine years for Alo-kaonohi and six-anda-half for Aki.