DOIN' A BANG-BANG UP JOB

DOIN' A BANG-BANG UP JOB: Kaua`i police, weapons drawn, descended on the old Lihu`e courthouse today, firing at random.

And they will be all week if they act in accordance with a press release issued by the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) yesterday afternoon that apparently somehow failed to make it into today's local newspaper.

Although according to the press release it's only an "official training" exercise using "blanks," with the total lack of notification of the populace at large we expect that if all goes as planned, people will be diving under cars or running in circles, hands to cheeks, shrieking at the top of their lungs in fright since no one in KPD thought to issue the release earlier or make sure people were properly informed.

The whole release reads:

Police to conduct training exercise this week

LĪHU`E – The Kaua‘i Police Department (KPD) will be conducting official training today through Thursday, between the hours of 7:45 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., at the former Fifth Circuit Court Building located on Umi Street in Līhu‘e.

The public may see officers in the vicinity of the building with weapons drawn. Please note that this is only training. No live munitions will be used, although the sounds of blank rounds may be heard.

KPD requests the public’s assistance in keeping a distance from, and not interfering with the training exercise.

Of course it would have helped if the Honolulu newspaper's on-line edition wasn't hidden behind their pay wall because in a tiny, buried, somewhat more sensational blurb in their "Newswatch" briefs they told people- well actually they told only their paid subscribers- that:

Police training on Umi Street will involve guns

The Kauai Police Department will be conducting realistic-looking training through Thursday at the former 5th Circuit Court Building on Umi Street in Lihue, the county said in a news release.

The public might see officers in the vicinity of the building with weapons drawn and might hear gunfire, but the rounds will be blank. The exercise began Monday and will run between 7:45 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Of course if people drop dead from a heart attack or do something stupid like get hit by a breadtruck after running out into traffic in a panic, there will be plenty of blame to go around since the local newspaper apparently had plenty of time and opportunity to get the news out by press time.

You would think with something as important as the fact those cops firing weapons in an apparent assault on a building in the central Lihu`e Civic Center area are, in fact, "only joking" would be something people would actually be informed about.

But noooo- not on Kaua`i. Apparently it's just another one for the "can't anyone here play this game?" file.