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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

It's Probably Me

by Sting, Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton

If the night turned cold and the stars looked down
And you hug yourself on the cold cold ground.
You wake the morning in a stranger's coat,
No one would you see.
You ask yourself, who'd watch for me?
My only friend, who could it be?
It's hard to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me.

When your belly's empty and the hunger's so real
And you're too proud to beg and too dumb to steal,
You search the city for your only friend,
No one would you see.
You ask yourself, who'd watch for me?
A solitary voice to speak out and set me free.
I hate to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me.

You're not the easiest person I ever got to know
And it's hard for us both to let our feelings show.
Some would say I should let you go your way,
You'll only make me cry.
But if there's one guy, just one guy
Who'd lay down his life for you and die,
I hate to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me.

When the world's gone crazy and it makes no sense
And there's only one voice that comes to your defense.
The jury's out and your eyes search the room
And one friendly face is all you need to see.
And if there's one guy, just one guy
Who'd lay down his life for you and die,
I hate to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me.

I hate to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me...

つづく ( To be continued... )

Thursday, March 05, 2009

A little information on the accused killer of Asa Yamashita...

The person that was accused of the stabbing death of Asa Yamashita has a known history of Mental illness there in Hawaii and California.

Article from the Honolulu Star Bulletin:

Teacher's alleged killer has long police record

By Rosemarie Bernardo
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 05, 2009

A 25-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia was indicted yesterday in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Waianae High School teacher.

An Oahu grand jury indicted Tittleman Fauatea on charges of second-degree murder in the stabbing Friday of Asa Yamashita at the Ewa Town Center. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Court records show that Fauatea has been hospitalized several times in Hawaii and California for mental illness.

According to records, he told a doctor at the Hawaii State Hospital in August, following his arrest for criminal trespassing at a Kahaluu convenience store, that the television talks to him and that he heard voices.

Within two months of his evaluation, he also was observed having "hypersexual" behavior — flirting inappropriately with most of the female staff and patients in the ward at the state hospital.

Records also stated Fauatea had several instances where "he had lost control and either struck or attempted to strike fellow patients."

While living with his sister in California for a few months in 2003, she initially kicked him out of her home after he threatened to kill her children. He also made multiple 911 calls falsely telling dispatchers that his sister was dead in her bed.

Before he was hospitalized at the state hospital, Fauatea had three psychiatric hospitalizations in California and one at Kahi Mohala Behavioral Healthcare in Ewa Beach. During those times, he displayed "verbally and physically assaultive behavior," according to a doctor's evaluation in court records.

Further psychiatric evaluation reports state, "He had delusional content, paranoia, auditory and visual hallucinations, bizarre behaviors, self talk and inappropriate sexual behavior (that is, staring at girls, asking young children at the laundromat for their phone numbers and touching himself in public)."

Court records indicate Fauatea, who was born in Utah and raised in Hawaii, graduated with a certificate from Moanalua High School in 2002.

Last year, he was charged with harassment involving a woman at an Ewa Beach recreation center at 91-1037 Kamailio St.

On June 8, Fauatea allegedly walked up to the woman, who was in the swimming pool area, stood less than two inches in front of her and stared at her chest. The woman turned to ignore him, but he continued to get closer to her. She told Fauatea to leave but he refused. He continued harassing the woman for 10 minutes, scaring her. Fauatea served six days in jail for the offense, considered a misdemeanor.

Two months later, Fauatea was charged for second-degree criminal trespassing after he refused to leave a 7-Eleven store at 47-515 Kamehameha Highway in Kahaluu. Court documents stated Fauatea headed to the store with a suitcase and asked the clerk for food. When the clerk refused, Fauatea placed his suitcase near the doorway and sat down, partially blocking the store's entrance door. The clerk asked him multiple times to leave, but he refused.

Fauatea also has four previous arrests in Las Vegas which include a domestic violence offense.

A 25-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia was indicted yesterday in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Waianae High School teacher.

An Oahu grand jury indicted Tittleman Fauatea on charges of second-degree murder in the stabbing Friday of Asa Yamashita at the Ewa Town Center. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Court records show that Fauatea has been hospitalized several times in Hawaii and California for mental illness.

According to records, he told a doctor at the Hawaii State Hospital in August, following his arrest for criminal trespassing at a Kahaluu convenience store, that the television talks to him and that he heard voices.

Within two months of his evaluation, he also was observed having "hypersexual" behavior — flirting inappropriately with most of the female staff and patients in the ward at the state hospital.

Records also stated Fauatea had several instances where "he had lost control and either struck or attempted to strike fellow patients."

While living with his sister in California for a few months in 2003, she initially kicked him out of her home after he threatened to kill her children. He also made multiple 911 calls falsely telling dispatchers that his sister was dead in her bed.

Before he was hospitalized at the state hospital, Fauatea had three psychiatric hospitalizations in California and one at Kahi Mohala Behavioral Healthcare in Ewa Beach. During those times, he displayed "verbally and physically assaultive behavior," according to a doctor's evaluation in court records.

Further psychiatric evaluation reports state, "He had delusional content, paranoia, auditory and visual hallucinations, bizarre behaviors, self talk and inappropriate sexual behavior (that is, staring at girls, asking young children at the laundromat for their phone numbers and touching himself in public)."

Court records indicate Fauatea, who was born in Utah and raised in Hawaii, graduated with a certificate from Moanalua High School in 2002.

Last year, he was charged with harassment involving a woman at an Ewa Beach recreation center at 91-1037 Kamailio St.

On June 8, Fauatea allegedly walked up to the woman, who was in the swimming pool area, stood less than two inches in front of her and stared at her chest. The woman turned to ignore him, but he continued to get closer to her. She told Fauatea to leave but he refused. He continued harassing the woman for 10 minutes, scaring her. Fauatea served six days in jail for the offense, considered a misdemeanor.

Two months later, Fauatea was charged for second-degree criminal trespassing after he refused to leave a 7-Eleven store at 47-515 Kamehameha Highway in Kahaluu. Court documents stated Fauatea headed to the store with a suitcase and asked the clerk for food. When the clerk refused, Fauatea placed his suitcase near the doorway and sat down, partially blocking the store's entrance door. The clerk asked him multiple times to leave, but he refused.

Fauatea also has four previous arrests in Las Vegas which include a domestic violence offense.

Now, this person should have been in the care of a Mental Health facility or at least monitored on the regular basis with medication for his mental health being subscribed... I have lived with and worked at a facility that dealt with such people. I do feel for them and that I know they can't help unless helped

The issue is the system failed. Those people who were part of the system didn't treat this individual as that, an individual with unique issues. People cannot be lumped into a group, each person must be treated on a case by case basis.

The other issue is that law enforcement needs additional training in mental health issues, what used to work for training before doesn't work for today's society. In the old days, a police officer just needed to enforce the laws, now they, depending on the department, get training or require knowledge of being a First Responder. They should now need basic training as a counselor and basic Mental Health training so that they can identify and prevent these types of issues.

If this person was recognized as a person with mental health issues in the beginning, this would have never happened as well as other incidents within this past year in Hawaii as well as other states.

つづく ( To be continued... )

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Asa Yamashita

Oh where do I begin... I knew her when I attended Intermediate school. We played in band together, she played the Oboe and I played Clarinet and because of my position in the Clarinet section, I sat next to her. At that time, her last name was Shimabukuro.

One of my favorite memories of her was during a concert at the Farrington High School Auditorium, just before and during the performance, I was trying to make her laugh cause she was nervous, I think she had a solo in one of the pieces we performed that night. Apparently it worked cause she wasn't as nervous as she was in the beginning.

At the end of the night, back at the band room, she came up to me and kissed me on the cheek, thanking me for helping her overcome her nervousness.

I can still see her smiling face when we were in that band room, making fun of her and her mock anger at us and Mr. Fukaya whenever we teased her. I was at S.B. Dole for only 2 years, in the 9th grade I had changed schools and went to Aiea. I lost touch with her and other people. After graduating from High School, I've thought of those people from time to time and when I moved from Hawaii to Minnesota, every so often I would think of Asa.

I tried to locate her every so often, hoping she was on either MySpace or Facebook but never could find her on there so that I could get back in touch.

This past Monday, March 2nd when I brought up the Honolulu Star Bulletin's web page and saw the article of a 43 year old woman who was stabbed. As I read the article, I saw the name Asa and that had me wondering if it was the same person. I searched to see if there was a picture of that person. When I did find the picture, I was utterly and completly shocked.

Since finding out it was her, I've been asking myself if she'd still be with us if I've been back in Hawaii, what could've I done, the loss, her family, her husband, her daughters, her smiling happy person that she was.

It'll take me some time to get over this. I'll always remember her and the loss we've all suffered on that day. I know your watching over all of us with your happy smile, always with us in our hearts, spirit and minds.

つづく ( To be continued... )

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I don't care no more...

No matter what I say, no matter what I do, how hard I work, how thorough I am, no matter how much experience I have it doesn't matter anymore.

つづく ( To be continued... )

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Can't escape the past...

On my way home tonight while on the bus, some drunk got on the bus... After a while in his drunken stupor, he slid to the floor of the bus. Now remember, this is Winter so the floor is all wet with melted snow and whatever else like salt...

The bus driver, whom I got to know pretty well, tried to keep an eye on him while she was trying to drive safely. At one point, while he was sitting on the wet floor I asked her to call for a detox pickup. She then turned to him while she was stopped at a bus stop and told the guy to either sit on the chair or get off the bus... The guy was very incoherent and I don't think he understood anything that was being told to him.

After the 3rd or 4th time she told him, he started to butt scoot towards the exit, after about only moving an inch, another passenger came to the front to "assist" this guy out the door and onto the bus stop bench. I finally got up and got on the other side of the guy and held him in an escort hold and walked him off the bus with the other passenger. We got him to the bench and got back on the bus. My friend then called her dispatch to have a squad dispatched for a welfare check on the guy at the bus stop just in case and especially since it was about 25 degrees outside.

At first I didn't want to touch the guy let alone have him side next to me, firstly cause he was so drunk, I'm sure a PBT would've shown the guy was about a 3 or even a 4. secondly, he was drooling like a leaky faucet, thirdly he stunk to high hell... In the end I had to touch him to help another person escort him off the bus. I was very grateful that I always carry hand sanitizer with me but didn't have my fluid blocking leather gloves with me (which I'm going to carry all the time now...)

So, after reading all this, your wondering, what does this have to do with the title and he sounds like a cop. Well... I'm not a cop, never was, but I did work for a police department at a detox center so I've seen this type of people all the time and was trained to handle them. Then again, you or I could say that in a way I was a cop, I was in the police reserves and had most training that Police officers get. Now, I'm just a regular white collar worker in an office or IT department for a major business and don't want to get back to doing that stuff (although, at times I do miss it) but it seems that at times I can't escape it or forget about it when stuff like this happens...

つづく ( To be continued... )

Friday, January 02, 2009

New Year, New Camera!!

Picked up a Nikon D80 with a 18-55 Nikkor lens. The price was pretty good so it basically made it an easy decision...

Hopefully I'll have some pictures up taken with the D80 and eventually I also want to pick up a D90 and keep the D80 as a backup.

つづく ( To be continued... )