The Aloha State is about love and fellowship. But you can’t tell that to the owner of a certain Pontiac Firebird with an incendiary vanity plate spotted around Honolulu. He obviously missed the Chamber of Commerce slide show. Though the owner has been notified to turn the vanity license plate in to authorities, so far, he has ignored them. 

The vanity plate was an “ill-advised oversight”

The license plate is “FCKBLM,” a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement. If you don’t know about it, Google it. Local television station KITV informed the City and County of Honolulu about the vanity plate almost a year ago. In turn, it told KITV that the plate was an “ill-advised oversight.”

As you would expect, every state will reject requests with an obscene reference. To that end, the city said that it was recalling the vanity plate. That means the owner must turn it in. That should have been the end of the story. But, no.

What have Honolulu police done about the offensive plate?

But almost a year later, nothing has happened. The Firebird still flies the offensive plate. That, along with a similarly offensive sign in his rear window. The city of Honolulu says it left the owner three messages, but so far, he has ignored them. 

The Honolulu Police Department can’t do anything on private property. The only thing it can do is to pull the car over if it sees it. But so far, after almost one year, that hasn’t happened. 

“If you claim to be the Aloha State, then do something about it,” UH Manoa Law professor Ken Lawson told the city. “The fact that you didn’t do anything may be more proof that his license plate may be correct that our lives don’t matter, that our feelings don’t matter, that these types of things can be publicly done,” he says. Lawson is black.

What has Honolulu done to get the offensive vanity plate removed?

When the Department of Customer Services was informed about the continued defiance, it said, “We have sent three letters to the registered owner recalling the license plate. However, the registered owner has failed to surrender the plate. CSD has placed a hold on further renewals of his vehicle registration and his registration is now expired. HPD is able to cite the vehicle if it is being operated on the roads.” 

Before your car can receive new tags in Hawaii a safety inspection must happen each year. The Firebird’s safety inspection and registration have now both expired. A hold on renewing the license plate is also active. So the owner and his vanity plates are on borrowed time. 

To be fair, one reason we all love Hawaii is for its laid-back vibe. So the lax approach to this shouldn’t be surprising. But regardless, those with offensive thoughts need to keep them to themselves, and not announce their brain farts.