by Andrew Walden

Rep Tom Brower just can’t put that sledgehammer away. 

Hitting Waikiki mailboxes last week, a taxpayer-funded legislative mailer from Rep Brower asks residents what Brower should do personally -- “if a homeless camp develops near the entrance to your apartment, Tom….”

Another survey question asks voters to choose the best answer:

Some people believe shopping carts should be removed from sidewalks and parks because they are stolen; others believe they belong to homeless people and should not be removed.

___ Abandoned, empty carts are ‘stolen’ and should be either returned, recycled, or disposed.

___ Empty carts should be left in parks or on sidewalks since they are used by the homeless.

Videotaped smashing homeless people’s shopping carts while wearing gloves and an Armani Exchange cap last Fall, Rep Tom Brower told the Star-Advertiser November 18, 2013:   

"Recently I went into Ala Moana Park where there were shopping carts near people, and I took them from them. No one really questioned me. Some people thought I was the repo man. When you are walking down the sidewalk with a sledgehammer, people get out of your way."

The result was a worldwide media firestorm of negative publicity for Waikiki.  Brower was identified as a violent, scary, vigilante who was making the problem worse.   Community leaders and local attorneys called for his arrest.

Did Brower learn anything from this?

Apparently not.  Brower’s latest mailer informs constituents:

Sometimes legislators need to get their hands dirty and take action for a cleaner, safer community.

This is very similar to excuses Brower gave HNN when interviewed last November:

“"I got tired of telling people I'm trying to pass laws. I want to do something practical that will really clean up the streets."

Ironically, Brower’s vigilante actions make it harder to implement compassionate disruption tactics designed to push homeless people into shelters.  With Brower’s sledgehammer attacks producing a worldwide media firestorm of negative publicity for Waikiki, the Honolulu Council voted down Bill 59--a sidewalk sleeping ordinance aimed at giving police the tools they need to clean up Waikiki and Chinatown.  Brower followed up with a February 7 mailer to his district touting the ultimate soft-on-homelessness proposal--homeless tent cities.  That mailer mentioned “carts” or “shopping carts” ten times.

Earlier this week, KHON discovered Brower had originally billed the sledgehammer to the State as “office supplies”: 

When asked why the sledgehammer was turned in as a state expense in the first place, Brower said, “Because I was using it in the community as community cleanup. I think that’s a fair state expense, but after there was all this notoriety with me taking away the shopping carts from sidewalks and parks, I said you know, I want to pay for that sledgehammer myself and keep it because it kind of has a life of its own.”

If the sledgehammer is personal property, why is Brower using state-funded mailings to poll whether to use it again?

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PDF: Latest Brower Sledgehammer Questionnaire

Council Drops Sidewalk Ban: Big Win For Homelessness Industry on Heels of Tom Brower Antics

Letter: Waikiki Rep Brower Threatening to Smash More Shopping Carts?

Rep Brower Billed State for Sledgehammer Used to Attack Homeless

2010: Homeless tent cities: Seattle’s decade-long nightmare coming to Honolulu?

Tom Brower “What a weird guy.” – Dan Boylan, Midweek, November 27, 2013

"I think it's a little wackadoo." Waikiki resident Dave Moskowitz, November 18, 2013 Star-Advertiser

ETN: VIOLENT HAWAII STATE REPRESENTATIVE SCARES TOURISTS AND HOMELESS IN WAIKIKI

DM: Watch 'vigilante' politician cruise Hawaiian streets with a SLEDGEHAMMER

RT: Brower appeared to be a crazed individual carrying a sledgehammer through the streets of Honolulu

HuffPo: He apparently wears gloves and an Armani Exchange baseball cap while doing such dirty work.

Daily KOS:  "I can't believe he's a Democrat."

"Rep. Brower's solution to problems makes the problems worse. I'm beside myself that this is where my vote went." -- Attorney Marcus Landsberg, December 3, 2013