A PRIDE Flag at a Makakilo residence was stolen and burned

By RONA NAVALES

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    KAPOLEI, Hawaii (KITV) — A LGBTQIA+ PRIDE Flag at a Makakilo residence was stolen and burned on Thursday.

This is the fourth time this has happened to one of Michael Golojuch’s PRIDE flags and he said it should be considered a hate crime.

Michael and his family have been living in their Makakilo home for 42 years. Eight years ago Michael decided to put up his PRIDE flags, only in the last six months has his flags been vandalized, stolen and burned.

“Found it in the same area I recovered the first time my PRIDE Flag was stolen in the same general area but this time unlike the first it was thrown in the bush,” said Michael. “This time it had been torn up and burnt.”

Michael found the flag in a gutter near his home. Police opened a theft and criminal property damage case.

Chris Kim, Crimestoppers shared his perspective and said, “I truly believe these crimes are underreported. I don’t think they’re always reported right away for various reasons. This could either be embarrassment, shame, guilt or whatever. I want to encourage that community out there in an event where if you’re a victim of a crime, go ahead and report it. We need to start documenting these incidents. We need to start tracking them and definitely there is no, zero tolerance for these types of activities.”

Michael said there have not been a lot of reported “hate crimes” since 2001, when a new law went into effect which changed what qualifies as a hate crime.

“It’s not considered a hate crime until they actually catch the perpetrator, prosecute them and then sentence them,” explained Michael. “There’s nowhere on the forms where HPD comes to talk to you about it being a possible hate crime.”

Michael shared that there’s a lot of hate toward the LGBTQIA community right now and where the hate could be coming from.

He said, “It’s coming from people and places of power when people spew hate from whether it’s from the floor of the house or on a campaign trail, they have to be careful because the sparks of hate will never where it’s gonna ignite and last night it ignited at my house.”

If you know who’s been stealing or damaging his pride flag, contact the Honolulu Police Department.

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