“Jesus transformed my life. He changed my life inside and out. Right? With my anger with my violence, my pride and my emotions,” God Forgives Bad Boys & Bad Girls president Mana Olayan said.
NANAKULI, Hawaii (KHON2) — Transforming a community wrought by violence one life at a time was just one of the messages expressed at an event on Oahu’s West side.
Church leaders, Honolulu police and community members gathered to show their true unity on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Police officers said part of their presence at events like United For Aloha is to show local Keiki that they are on the same side.
“We’re not the bad guys, you know. Too often, even when we were younger, people say, ‘Oh, if you bad, we’ll call the police,’ kind of thing always tends to scare the kids away from the police,” HPD District 8 Community Policing Team Cpl. Rolan Pagan said.
Neighborhood security walks with police are ongoing on the west side to promote community engagement in keeping their loved ones safe from crime. One of the major proponents for establishing the walks was Mana Olayan, president of God Forgives Bad Boys & Bad Girls.
“Jesus transformed my life. He changed my life inside and out. Right? With my anger with my violence, my pride and my emotions,” Olayan said.
Olayan was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of federal conspiracy charges and received a mandatory 10-year sentence upon his eventual conviction in July 2024.
“The first prayer that I ever prayed, right, was God,” Mana said to the audience, “change my life, God!”
Mana has been on monitored release since 2021 and will turn himself in to serve his 10-year sentence in November, but police said he has completely turned his life around in the meantime.
“We’ve him actually taken to some of our youth presentations, and a message coming from the police about doing right and not committing crimes can be one thing,” Cpl. Pagan said. “But when you actually talk or speak to someone that actually has been through it, actually made those choices, have to live through it and realizing at this age how his life could have been so much different if he didn’t go down those paths is hopefully the message we get, the kids that, you know, ‘You don’t have to go down that path to learn this lesson.'”
“If you want violence to go down, if you want chaos to go down, if you want destruction to go down, then salvation got to go up,” Olayan said. “Even if one life be changed, we gaining enemy territory.”
Community leaders hope that the more who support, attend and have faith in events like these — the less violence there will be.
“Community brought their groups here, not even from 96792 but they want to be a part of the experience, and this is the unity that we represent here in Waianae,” said Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board chair Samantha DeCorte said.
“But that’s where it’s at. It starts us first with our own family, with our own children, and then it goes on into the community,” Olayan said.