[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?

[Petronski]

Reminds me of life in the Soviet Union, except here, someone's getting sued.

[Fixit]

Brandi Ratliff, 18, who said she was a straight-A student at Waller High School and never had any problems with the law.

She's 18 years old.

She can be anywhere she chooses, so long as she is still in the United States of America.

[crz]

I agree! But for the benefit of the doubt...why did they not split them up and tell them to get home? Again, for the benefit of the doubt, I would imagine they have been having problems with kids hanging around there and raising hell at all hours of the night. But arresting them was a little much...arrresting them and calling their parents to come down and get them would have been about right. More to this story than whats been reported I bet.

[TN4Liberty]

Buying school supplies?

[stainlessbanner]

What are 425 kids doing at a k-mart parking lot after midnight?!

[joesnuffy]

Rosie told her to shop there and buy Martha Steward brand made in china by little ole men with one kidney houseware

[FITZ]

I guess if they were on private property and the owner didn't want them there, something had to be done. It's a weird story because it has honor students and 10 year olds having dinner with their dad at 12:30 am.

[JoeSixPack1]

Shopping centers across the country are late-night gathering places for the "too young to drink, but old enough to drive" crowd. It's been the acceptable place for decades. But with a # as large as 450 teens it was probably too much for the manager to accept so he turned the local gestapo loose on them. It seems they were more than happy to act on his request.

[hopespringseternal]

A lot of these parents ought to be kicked in the 'nads for letting their school age kids stay out that late the night before the first day of school.

Having said that, this sounds like the work of Houston's (not) finest. I remember the first time I met a Houston cop. He had known me for thirty seconds before he started bragging (lying) about all the people he had killed. I do think there are more serious problems than teenagers out too late to tend to in Houston.

K-mart must be trying to go out of business. Having your shoppers arrested is NOT the best way to drum up business.

[Damocles]

I think a better question is why are police ARRESTING a freakin' 10 year old!! What the #$%^ is the matter with their reasoning.

That particular case could get ugly for the PD.

[genefromjersey]

Quite obviously, if they were on the lot at the time they were arrested, they were trespassing.QED.

[Cap'n Crunch]

Good work Houston PD!

[Between the Lines]

This sounds like an ongoing war between Kmart and Sonic to me. Kmart was tired of the Sonic crowd using it's parking lot for fun and games. Here (South Carolina) the police would not "raid" a parking lot of an open business just to clear it of undesirables because the business is open all night the police have no authority to remove "trespassers". Although they would come to any disturbances created by such a gathering. Instead they would inform the store that if they didn't want people congregating in the lot to barricade the parts of the lot furthest from the business as many businesses here now do. A little common sense goes a long way.

[Rum Tum Tugger]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?

I realize that you old farts from Podunksville think 12:30 a.m. Sunday (aka Saturday night) is late and way past your bed time, but the girl is 18 and it's not late.

[Illbay]

Sorry, but my momma always told me "there ain't a blame thing you can do running around after midnight that ain't trouble."

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..arrested about 425 people for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor...

How can you 'criminally trespass', in the parking lot of a department store that's open 24 hours a day?

[willieroe]

Strange that the above story would drone on and on without a mention of juvenile curfew violation.

[Godel]

"We asked police why we were being arrested, and they said, `Everybody is receiving equal treatment from the Houston Police Department tonight.' It didn't matter what you were doing; they arrested you."

A very interesting remark about equal treatment. Perhaps the offending youths were mostly of a particular race, and the cops just arrested everyone in the vicinity to avoid any accusations of bias. That's the only way they can avoid being branded racist by taking in minority criminals, need to bring in a few innocent kids to even out the quotas.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

Guys, Draco LIVES! Peace and love, George.

[Flyer]

Listening to the discussion on the Jon Matthews show (KSEV 700), it seems that this has been an ongoing problem. People from the neighborhood claim that the gathering often lasts until 3 - 4:00 a.m. Police do run them off, and they return later.

That said, I think it was handled poorly. I think seeing a few of your friends riding off in the back of a police car, for a few weekends in a row, would encourage most of them to go elsewhere. This mass "equal treatment" arrest was a bad idea.

---

[arm958]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?.

You would have made a fine Nazi.

[gortklattu]

They're going to find a way to blame Bush for this. After all, he's the president and it happened on his watch.

[Richard Kimball]

This whole story sets off my BS detector on both sides.

I'm sorry, but this,

"We went to use the restroom at Kmart and to buy a Scrunchi (hair band), and when we came back to our car, cops were coming in (the parking lot) and they tied our hands," said Brandi Ratliff, 18, who said she was a straight-A student at Waller High School and never had any problems with the law.

just goes over the top. 425 kids congregating in a parking lot indicates SOMETHING is going on. On the other hand, this statement,

Houston Police Department spokesman Martin DeLeon said many cars were towed. DeLeon said business owners have been complaining about youths gathering on their parking lots on weekend nights and causing a commotion. DeLeon said he did not have more details about the incident because the two captains in charge of the raid, M.A. Aguirre and J.P. Mokwa, were sleeping Sunday after working all night.

sends up the BS detector from the other side.

Duh, the Houston Police arrest 425 people, and all their PR people can do is come up with this lame *ss announcement? I'm 48, and I still remember my first encounter with Houston PD. I was walking to my cousin's house in Bellaire (I was 14, it was about 2 in the afternoon), when he pulls up beside me and asks me if I've seen anyone run by. I tell him no, he calls me a liar and an SOB and burns off. Still the most polite Houston Cop I've ever run into.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?

Given the poor level of education in this country today. I doubt that it takes much to have a straight A average. Thus almost every car you see today has a "My child is an honor student at Easy High."

[mhking]

I take it there's not a curfew for youngsters in Houston, eh?

That would solve more than half the problem right there (at least it would shut some of these knuckle-draggers up).

[mhking]

The food they served was food you would serve to a dog, not a human.

A balogna sandwich jammed between two pieces of bread is pretty damn good, if you ask me. Maybe we should apologize for not serving McDonald's in jail...

[Technoman]

Something tells me these were not the Leave It To Beaver type teenagers the Libs would like you to believe. Chances are, this was the crack-pants, skin-head, ear-ring, ghetto music, gang-banging crowd who infest our cities and schools. And you can bet these little punks will try to charge the police with racism.

Good work Houston Police Department!

[Publius6961]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?

I immediately wondered the same thing.
425 of them?

Sounds like there should be at least another 425 parents keeping them company.

My straight A student kids couldn't keep their eyes open at 12:30 am, typically.
They actually earned their grades I suppose.
Ah... the good old days before "self-esteem" when the gene pool had a bigger deep end...

[blackbart1]

There must be more to this story or the police and K-Mart are in for lots of time in court. Probably there had been many reports before this night.

[Born to Conserve]

God help the person who takes my ten year old -- they'll be beyond the help of mortals.

[Rebelbase]

Your #1 reeks of ingorance.

[mercy]

Great police work you effing bozos. You just cost the city millions in suits. I hope they fire the idiots responsible for this. There is no excuse. Clear the parking lot. OK. But arrest everybody in the Sonic too?!?!? Arrest a little girl eating with her father?!?!?!? This is sickening.

[StriperSniper]

Just another test run.

It's WAAAAY past time.

Funny I found this here, but can no longer find it.

[TexasRepublic]

Whatever valid points that could be made about property rights, teenage loitering, being out late and etc. is overshadowed by an indiscriminate mass-arrest that violated at least some people's civil rights to be on commercial property as legimate customers during business hours. Not only were businesses open but some people had sales receipts. This is an outrage -- I hope the Houston PD gets their a$$es sued off over this!!! This isn't Soviet Russia.

[moyden]

Every child must be punished!

Especially the evil 10-year-olds.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Scores of Houston police officers swarmed onto the Kmart parking lot in the 8400 block of Westheimer about 12:30 a.m. Sunday and arrested about 425 people for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.

As Texas and the rest of our country is being invaded by millions upon millions of illegal aliens..........

[Sir Gawain]

HPD

[Old Professer]

The store was open, where is the foundation for criminal trespass?

K-Mart needs an enema.

[Terriergal]

Maybe it took him extra long to buy notebooks and pocket protectors at Kmart because of the crowd?

[E Rocc]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?

On a Saturday night in the summertime? An 18 year old? Nothing warranting a shock troop raid, most likely.

-Eric

[Terriergal]

"We asked police why we were being arrested, and they said, `Everybody is receiving equal treatment from the Houston Police Department tonight.'

Maybe this was a test run... trying to figure out just how easy it will be to do this for real when the gov't decides it's time. This is just so bizarre.

[Redcloak]

I dunno... Sounds a bit like some boys-in-blue were put out about not being allowed to hang out at the Krispy-Kreme.

[RightWhale]

What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?

The A student should have no problem learning to avoid crowds under similar circumstances from now on.

[makoman]

I don't care if they were all straight A students. They should not be out after midnight no matter their age. They were warned to stay away and they ignored the warning. The only way to send a message to the parents was to hit them in the pocketbook (period)

The trash these kids left behind on a nightly basis was huge. All charges will be dropped, mark it down!

[chaosagent]

Well, apparently this was another police op gone bad.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/topstory2/1540867

[danmar]

said Brandi Ratliff, 18, who said she was a straight-A student at Waller High School

I was a straight "A" student too but that statement never worked with the cops whenever I bend the law. They holed my straight A butt straight to the can, no comments, no mercy!

[SerpentDove]

>>What is the straight-A student from Waller High School (Northwest of Houston) doing at the K-Mart parking lot at 12:30 a.m.?<<

Buying a Scrunchi and eating an ice cream. Big crime.

[Dec31,1999]

Instead, all the patrons at the Sonic were ordered by police to march to the Kmart lot, where they joined throngs of other people who were being arrested, she said.

This is one of the places where the police over-reacted, if true.

[Dec31,1999]

From one of the other threads, and from an article that contains other info:

Scores of Houston police officers swarmed onto the Kmart parking lot in the 8400 block of Westheimer about 12:30 a.m. Sunday and arrested about 425 people for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.

That's an awful lot of people to be shopping at KMart at that hour. If they were all shopping at KMart and ordering at Sonic, why would the mangagement of KMart or Sonic have complained to the police? They must have been raking it in hand over fist.

Leanne Williams said her 19-year-old son called her from jail and told her he showed police a receipt for bottled water from Kmart, but he was still arrested.

I always goes to KMart in the middle of the night for my bottled water. I just don't like the lack of selection at Circle K.

"They even arrested a 10-year-old girl who was having dinner with her father and took her to juvenile detention. "She got separated from her father and I asked her how old she was, and she told me she was 10," Demmler said. "She was dazed."

That happened to me once. I was with my ten-year-old daughter driving around in the middle of the night. She wanted some ice-cream, so I passed all the Circle K's and 7-11's and decided to stop at Sonic, even though there were 425 people hanging out and partying in the parking lot.

[J Jay]

I bet there won't be 425 "people" there in the K-Mart parking lot next Sunday at 12:30am