Last year, TV news anchor Tom George reported the story of a man who had an “FCKBLM” license plate.
After the story ran, the license plate was recalled — and the owner of the vehicle was told to surrender it.
UPDATE: @HonoluluGov responds to offensive “FCKBLM” license plate being issued in Hawaii: says it was missed “due to an ill-advised oversight during the review process,” says plate will be recalled and owner will be ordered to surrender it #BlackLivesMatter #BLM @KITV4 pic.twitter.com/8ACwSeoAeI
— Tom George (@TheTomGeorge) August 10, 2021
It turns out that the owner is yet to surrender the plates. The same anchor did a follow-up story on the vehicle saying the driver has still not turned it in.
The license plate was first spotted in August 2021, and the City and County of Honolulu told us that the vanity license plate was an “ill-advised oversight”, as any requests with the letters ‘FCK’ or ‘FKN’ are automatically rejected.
At the time, the city said the plate was recalled and the owner would have to surrender it. But recently, people reported the car was still driving around with the plates. The city now says the owner was given three messages telling him he needed to surrender the plate, but he ignored them.
…
In a message to KITV4, the Department of Customer Services (CSD) 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.”
He told his audience that if they see the car they can report it to the police.
“Right now it is a waiting game. If you see the car you can report it to the police. Now, a hold has been placed on the vehicle’s registration, and any further renewals until he surrenders those plates. Meanwhile, the police say they haven’t caught the driver to get those plates just yet.”
Racism on Hawaii roads: Nearly a year after this “FCKBLM” license plate was recalled after our initial story, the owner is still refusing to surrender the plates after multiple warnings, and registration is now expired @KITV4 #BlackLivesMatter #BLM >> https://t.co/s1y5vgDhQy pic.twitter.com/9ZmxSOFtFh
— Tom George (@TheTomGeorge) June 3, 2022
Twitter users called out the anchor over the story:
Huge fallacy and error for you and your station to believe that opposition to BLM is rooted only in racism. Have you not read the reporting on what that nonprofit has done with tens of millions of dollars?
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) June 3, 2022
https://twitter.com/AhComfy/status/1532802171204300801?s=20&t=HJ5LmdUI8JJzLo96XEdYxw
https://twitter.com/dangainor/status/1533091598287966208?s=20&t=HJ5LmdUI8JJzLo96XEdYxw
But BLM is racist. https://t.co/54UIzfpe5G
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) June 4, 2022
What is racist about that?#BLM is at best a corrupt grift
At worst a domestic terror group#FCKBLM is spot on https://t.co/hcmgBsYGa3— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) June 4, 2022
