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2008-06-19  News
| LC Watch
History Repeats Itself, Repeats Itself
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| | by Greg Mebel | |  |
June 19, 2008
Hang Loose Lounge on Dairy Road in Kahului received a 10-day liquor license suspension for a second offense of serving a minor. Again, a minor decoy. With a third offense pending hearing, last call could be on the horizon. Hang Loose is owned by Sean McDaniel, also owner of Henry's in Kihei.
The minor decoy program has upped the number of citations and hearings for the LC quite a bit. This is the the story: a minor goes into a bar, restaurant, or liquor store and tries to buy a drink. If he gets carded, he shows his real ID. If they sell him liquor, they're busted.
According to a rough LC Watch count, there were 11 businesses brought up before the Adjudication Board last year. This year, just through May, there have been 12. That's more than a 100 percent increase so far. Look out Maui County.
On another note, when this reporter was going through LC records, he couldn't help but notice some ironic twists of history. Remember the battle to allow dancing in bars, fought by Maui Dance Advocates? (Dancing in some areas of a bar, or drinking on the dance floor is currently illegal in Maui County) Even Attorney Lance Collins got involved to try and get a more specific definition of "dancing". The thought was that the current definition was too vague. It included some lawyer-speak and was pretty broad. That said, if you've ever seen what happens at The Studio Maui in Haiku, you know that "dancing" comes in many forms.
At the time, Liquor Commission Director Frank Silva said, he wasn't going to describe dancing; rather "I know it when I see it." Funny, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said the same thing in 1964 and now it's one of the most famous Supreme Court quotes. He was talking about obscenity and hard core porn: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…"
He recanted his position years later when it became obvious that it would be tough to enforce a law using that as the standard.
Hard-core porn in 1964, then…dancing in 2008? Grinding evolution may be moving backwards.
- Greg Mebel
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