Good story.  But...like the old axiom goes, "we deserve the govt we get."  Here's another thing, replace the words Hawai'i Police and Cops from your headline w/ just unions and employees and then your story is even more encompassing.  I'm not saying that union grievance procedures and human resource processes are all one sided.  I will say that in my experiences, having worked at one of the major hotel chains in Waikiki, I saw that happening all the time.  One example, a mid-level seniority bellman beat the crap out of another bellman.  5 witnesses saw it happen.  On hotel property.  He was suspended for about 3 days and then was called back for "emergency staffing" because Bill Clinton was coming in to the hotel.  When I pointed this out to the senior management and security staff, they basically shrugged their shoulders and said that the union fought for him keeping his job and won.  I knew the guy he beat up, too.  He was a bad influence (drugs), but he didn't get his job back.