Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project

Honolulu Record, Volume 10 No. 2, Thursday, August 15, 1957 p. 1

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Airport Cop Aided Brother Officer From Kauai in "Sales Tax" Beef

You think cops don't stick together? Well, listen to this one.
 
One day last week, Officer Albert Henriques of Kauai was visiting in Honolulu and, stopping at the island airport, he stepped into the coffee shop to have a meal. He enjoyed the meal and he enjoyed kidding with one of the waitresses, a friend he had known before.
But Officer Henriques didn't enjoy it when he got a check for $1.04, especially when it was explained to him that the four cents was the "roll-back, pass-on" tax. Henriques complained that the "fax," after all, was only 3 1/2 percent and if he was going to be "taxed," he wanted his half-cent change. The management explained it had no half-cents lying around and couldn't make the change, so it was collecting the full four cents.

The Kauai policeman argued loudly—and perhaps in the spirit of fun as much as anything else that it illegal that he should be charged the extra half cent. There
Wasn't anything funny about it to the management, though.

It called a cop.

The Honolulu officer came in to find out what the trouble was and, at first, advised Officer Henriques to pay up and shut up. The Honolulu cop also sought to see the objector's identification and when Henriques showed his wallet, the Honolulu police saw the police badge of the Kauai officer and asked the obvious question to be told, yes, Henriques is a police officer on the Kauai force.

At once the Honolulu officer's manner changed. Turning on the coffee shop management, he asked what the idea is, anyhow, trying to make people pay more "taxes" than the law allows.

Seeing how the local law felt about it, the management decided to see things Henriques' way and give him the advantage of the half cent.