Honolulu Police Commissioner Mark Hunsaker responded to an earlier post about the controversy surrounding allegations that he illegally carried a gun on a police ride-along.

I doubt that many people are still reading that two-week-old exchange, so to be fair I'm posting here the full comments he made in his defense:

"Sorry guys, there was no "cover up". While I am a sworn police officer and as such may carry a firearm under federal law in all 50 States as well as U.S. Territories 24/7, I do not carry a firearm while on ride-alongs in my capacity as a Honolulu Police Commissioner. I do, however, wear some of my police "web gear" on ride-alongs, including my police flashlight and flashlight holster, my HPD issued police radio and radio holster, earpiece and attendant wires, HPD Badge on a chain around my neck, but without a firearm. I wear my aloha shirt "untucked" to cover this equipment, which could (and has) easily been mistaken for a full web belt, to include a firearm. The officer who "thought" he saw a firearm on my belt was not the officer I rode with and he was obviously mistaken. This officer only mentioned this matter 1 year after the alleged event, and only during an interview of him by a Police Commission Investigator during a Honolulu Police Commission investigation of him res! ulting from a complaint of misconduct made against him. You do the math."

The apparent death in the state Senate of the $200 million ceded lands settlement between the Lingle administration and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs because of a lack of "buy-in" by Hawaiians points up what has become the first rule of Native Hawaiian politics:

Whatever is proposed, many will squawk and Hawaiians will end up with nothing.

While most people in Hawai'i would like to see the indigenous people of the islands fairly compensated for what was taken from them in the American annexation, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find enough commonality of interest among Hawaiians to identify them as a single political or cultural class.

Hawaiians disagree widely not only on the definition of sovereignty and what's due them, but also on the essential question of what constitutes a Hawaiian.

One group suing OHA says only those with 50-percent native blood deserve services and a say, while others would extend equal native rights to anybody with even a few drops of Hawaiian blood.

Some Hawaiians see the Akaka bill for Native Hawaiian recognition as the salvation of their people, while others adamantly oppose the legislation and have helped prevent its passage.

It leaves us to wonder: If Congress passes the Akaka bill and it's signed into law, with whom would the federal government negotiate?

There's nobody who can speak with authority for even a solid minority of Hawaiians, much less a majority. Whatever is negotiated will face the same kind of scattershot criticism that sunk the OHA settlement.

Until Hawaiians come together behind a recognized leadership with an accepted agenda, there's really nothing to negotiate.

I've been a fan of the city's commuter ferry between Kalaeloa and Aloha Tower and hope the City Council sees fit to continue funding for another year despite growing pains that have frequently disrupted service since TheBoat's September launch.

Mechanical breakdowns of the city's two vessels have caused serious reliability problems that have kept average ridership at 300 a day and sometimes dropped it as low as 100, leaving the city a long way from its initial goal of 500 riders a day.

Some council members are rightfully concerned about plopping down $4 million for a second year, which may or may not receive federal reimbursement, after the ferry was mostly funded with a $5 million federal grant in its first year.

But the Hannemann administration makes a good case that it's been responsive to commuter feedback and deserves another year to find its groove before bailing out on a worthy project that we've invested a lot of effort in.

Four million dollars seems like a lot of money to serve 500 commuters a day, but it's a small expense in the big picture and we need to remember that this is a pilot project to assess the possibility of serving even more West O'ahu commuters and perhaps expanding into East O'ahu, which would bring down the cost per passenger.

For those whose stomachs can take the sometimes choppy ride, TheBoat offers a pleasant way to pass the commute by looking at the scenery or getting some work done with the free WiFi Internet connection.

If we can make the ferry work, it'll be a welcome enhancement of the character of our water-oriented community.

Eggs thrown at Lanikai homes last weekend by four St. Louis School football players have landed on the faces of school administrators after one of the seniors was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in Chinatown Friday night shortly after supposedly being punished by the school for the egging.

Nothing like discipline with teeth to put wayward students on the straight and narrow.

The incident burst into the news after the students threw eggs at the home of former Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis, who chased them down and ran their SUV up a utility pole.

Jervis is facing charges of first-degree criminal property damage, while the student so far have received only unspecified discipline from the school that apparently didn't teach them much of a lesson.

The school's news release announcing the discipline expressed more concern about the negative publicity directed at the students, their families and the school than the crass behavior of the students that drew the attention.

It's sadly reminiscent of a 1999 scandal when the Rev. Mario Pariante lost his job as St. Louis president for trying to reel in a football program dogged by incidents of trashed hotel rooms, parties with booze and strippers, terrorizing teachers and fellow students, and spewing urine on an off-duty police officer.

School leaders failed to stand up then for the values of Catholic education, and the latest events are a disturbing sign that no lesson was learned.

In one of the most head-shaking stories of the week, a Kane'ohe Marine was accused of stealing more than $1,000 from the credit cards of five comrades deployed to Iraq.

If the charges are true, it has to be a new low for identity theft. Semper Phooey.

News that amused and confused in Hawai'i's week that was:

• An attorney for Gerard Jervis said the egg-throwing kids he chased around Lanikai were "punks who caused their own demise." Funny, that's the same thing the attorney general said about Jervis and his fellow deposed Bishop Estate trustees.

• Federal researchers can't figure out why Hawai'i youths have some of the nation's highest rates of "serious psychological distress," but it doesn't show up among local adults. That's easy. Our distressed youths get sent away to Mainland prisons when they become adults.

• Drivers lined up for blocks to get free gas offered by Lex Brodie's as part of a cell phone promotion. The service station must have made a fortune selling new tires to motorists who had to drive through Kaka'ako potholes to get to the gas pumps.

• Honolulu has the second-worst urban streets in the country behind Los Angeles, according to a federal report. I was just in L.A., and their roads are worse than ours only if the La Brea Tar Pits count as potholes.

• Increased fighting at 'Ilima Intermediate School has students and teachers fearing for their safety. Just give Gerard Jervis a couple of stiff drinks and 10 minutes in the schoolyard with his BMW and that'll be the end of that.

• In a shocking showbiz split, Disney is moving Stitch from Hawai'i to Japan without Lilo. I guess Disney doesn't put so much stock in family togetherness when more money is at stake. Mickey and Minnie had better get in their last smooches.

• Hawaii had a record 21,784 registered firearms last year. Folks will need them to get gas when prices hit $4 a gallon in the summer.

• City experts who picked steel wheels on steel tracks for O'ahu's transit system admit that it's the noisiest technology available. At least we'll be sure to hear our $3.7 billion every time it rolls by.

• Former UH student, athlete and administrator Jim Donovan was named the school's new athletic director. This would be a good time for him to enjoy one of those sweet Don Pablo cigars he was criticized for buying with UH money when he was associate athletic director.

• Gov. Linda Lingle says longtime foe Sen. Donna Mercado Kim has been mean to her and should be removed as head of a Senate investigating committee. They should take this to the 'Ilima Intermediate schoolyard and settle it once and for all.

And the quote of the week …

… from Rep. Marcus Oshiro on new estimates that state revenues will dip $50 million next year:

"It's time for making tough choices. You can't have it all. We're going to have to tighten our belts and maybe lower some expectations."

I bet lawmakers don't let it affect their own expectations of big pay raises in 2009.