Vai-Ko-Latai Restaurant & Pool Hall
Glendale Shopping Plaza
1200 South Glendale Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah

On September 15th, 1998, Unga Kioa, a member of Salt Lake Council's Multi-Ethnic Advisory Committee, sponsored a mini-public hearing for the Tongan community of Glendale. About 25 people attended; the meeting was conducted in English with Tongan translation. The following are a few excerpts from the meeting:

Task Force Members present:
Judge Tyrone E. Medley, co-chair
Mr. Filia H. Uipi

Subcommittee Members present:
Mr. Robert L. Booker, Courts Committee
Detective Isileli "Izzy" Tausinga, Courts Committee

Staff:
Ms. Sarahi Dehesa-Avelar (intern)
Ms. Jennifer MJ Yim (director)

Perception: Some Polynesians are afraid to use the system due to a fear that the system inherently works against them because of the color of their skin. This leads to more trouble as they completely avoid the system, even when it is to their own advantage to participate in it.

Female participant:
"Some Polynesians don't use the system because they don't have immigration papers and they are afraid to be deported. That's why they don't go to court."

Female participant:
A woman in the audience wondered whether a past speeding ticket was issued to her fairly. She felt that policeman was "waiting" just for her with his radar so that he could give her a ticket. She thinks he followed her because she is "brown." She admitted that she hadn't taken care of the ticket and mentioned a concern about going to traffic court because the judge wouldn't treat her "fairly." Since then, she has been driving with a suspended license. Once, a policeman stopped her and she gave her sister's name instead of her own to avoid going to jail. She also mentioned that oftentimes she feels that the policemen have a "bad attitude" towards her.

Male participant:
Unga Kioa, sponsor of the mini-public hearing, asked why there was not a sensitive training program to educate police officers about the Pacific Islander culture. Unga felt that although some limited training was available, it wasn't being implemented. He mentioned an instance where the SWAT team raided a Polynesian family at about 3:00 a.m. because one of their sons was thought to be a suspect in a case. He thought this was excessive.

Female participant:
A woman asked the panel whether asking for a support hearing on her son's case was appropriate. Her 17-year-old son is currently in the custody of the Division of Youth Corrections, and she originally had to pay $300 per month for him. However, her husband had a stroke and one of her daughters requires dialysis for kidney failure, and thus she had a support hearing in April to ask the judge to lower her payment from $300 because she was the sole economic support of her family. The judge approved and lowered it to $100. She wondered whether it would be too much to ask to lower it down to $75 per month because she wants her son to contribute toward this payment once he gets out. She felt confident in going in to see the judge, yet she was concerned that she was asking too soon for another support hearing.

Female participant:
A woman asked the panel how to file a complaint against a police officer.

Female participant:
A woman asked the panel how to react to police officers, what they expect of citizens.

Male participant:
A man asked what to do when a policeman stops him, when he has no insurance and the automobile registration is wrong. He also asked what to do when being handcuffed.

Female participant:
A woman asked whether one can refuse to sign a speeding ticket (order to appear in court).

Task Force panelist:
A Task Force panelist told the following story to illustrate why it is advantageous to ask questions and follow through with procedures when it comes to dealing with the system:

He described how he was driving with a friend in Park City when a police officer stopped them. Because he has knowledge of the legal system, he began to tell the police officer that he saw no apparent "probable cause" for stopping them. The result of his reasoning with the police officer was a concussion and a broken ankle. He never threatened the officer, yet the officer reacted rather abusively to him. Yet, because he followed through with the procedure (Internal Affairs), the police officer is no longer an employee in the police department.

Perception: Certain existing laws directly conflict with some cultural traditions (i.e. disciplining children v. child abuse), this permits a rift to grow between family members.

Male participant:

A man in the audience expressed concern that his children have threatened to call the police when he is disciplining them, when in Tonga, such disciplining is natural. He wondered why it was illegal to discipline his kids.

Perception: A legal representative of the same race as the client is believed to treat the client more fairly than others.

Unga Kioa:
His opinion is that legal representation for the Polynesian community in Salt Lake City is lacking. He wondered why children aren't being encouraged to go into the legal profession by the system itself. He would like to see more reaching out to the minority communities of Utah.

Female participant:
A woman mentioned a case in court where her friend was cheated when she took her sewing machine to get fixed. The "sewing machine doctor" allegedly traded her machine for another exact one which was in worse shape so that he could charge her more. He charged her $300 plus $148 for parts, so she took him to court. In the court, this woman some particular body gestures exchanged between the judge and the defendant led her to believe that the judge and the defendant were "best friends," or aligned with each other, and therefore she was not treated justly.