Action Alert: Rally for Justice for Kollin Elderts!

Rally for Justice for Kollin Elderts
Monday, July 8, 8-10am
First Circuit Court (Punchbowl & Halekauwila)

On Monday, July 8th, U.S. State Department Special Agent Christopher Deedy will go on trial for the murder of Kollin Elderts. We urge everyone to join World Can't Wait-Hawai`i in demanding justice for Kollin. The eyes of the world will be on this case. There's a national campaign to support Christopher Deedy (including a facebook page and a fundraising campaign). It is up to us to show the world that people in Hawai`i - of all races, classes and ethnicities - demand justice for Kollin Elderts and condemn his murder by a gun-toting Special Agent of the U.S. State Department!

Take off work for a couple of hours. World Can't Wait will have some signs, but bring your own signs or banners if you're able.


On November 5, 2011 Special Agent Deedy fatally shot Kollin Elderts in the chest at a McDonald's in Waikiki. Deedy was in Honolulu as part of the police state build-up during the days prior to the APEC meetings.


On the evening of November 4, 2011 Kollin Elderts, a 23-year old Hawaiian man, went to a club in Chinatown with his friends. Christopher Deedy and fellow Special Agents spent the evening clubbing in Waikiki. Both ended up at McDonalds afterwards. Deedy says he believed Elderts was a threat to other customers and confronted him. A scuffle ensued, and Deedy shot Elderts point blank with his service weapon. Can there be any doubt that profiling was involved here? Would Deedy have responded the same way had Elderts been a Caucasian tourist? Would Kollin Elderts be dead if Christopher Deedy hadn't been carrying a gun while out drinking with his fellow agents?
But the crime didn't end here. Deedy was taken to the police station but was not tested for intoxication even though witnesses claim he was clearly intoxicated (and the Honolulu Police Dept claims a test for intoxification is routinely done after any violent crime is committed). He was not immediately indicted (which usually happens the day after a violent crime) but instead held until AFTER the APEC meetings, and AFTER attention to the case had died down.


In the days and months after the murder, Kollin Elderts has been vilified, while U.S. Agent Deedy was allowed to return to his job as Special Agent. Kollin was initially accused of having a knife found at the scene (which turned out to be Deedy's). He has been consistently portrayed as violent and into drugs. And Deedy's attorney argued that the Deedy's case should be tried on the Continental U.S. because of prejudice people in Hawai`i have against the U.S. government. The victim has become the accused, while Deedy was given bail and allowed to leave Hawai`i and return to his job as a Special Agent.


The similarities between the cases of Kollin Elderts in Florida and Trayvon Martin in Hawai`i are remarkably similar. In both cases the victim has become the accused, portrayed as violent even though they carried no weapons and were killed by gun-toting "protectors of the law." Each has had every part of their lives dredged up in an effort to portray them as violent, into drugs, and prone to fighting. Each is needlessly dead, while their murderers have been allowed to go free. Both Kollin Elderts and Trayvon Martin are victims of the same racist system and it is up to every person of conscience to demand justice for both.
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