[USA21]

U.S. Agents Arrest Dozens of Fathers in Support Cases

ASHINGTON, Aug. 16 — Federal agents in 29 states have arrested dozens of fathers who owe millions of dollars of child support, in a nationwide sweep that officials describe as a significant expansion of the federal role.

More notable than any one arrest, the officials say, is the message that the Bush administration is sending about its decision to pursue a more aggressive approach by using federal criminal prosecution against people who have repeatedly flouted state court orders.

Even though child support collections have increased in recent years, many parents still evade their obligations by moving from state to state and job to job. Surveys by the Census Bureau suggest that one-third of the parents entitled to child support under court orders or agreements are not receiving it

[Coop]

So enforcing the law equates, in your mind, to an embryonic police state? Okey doke!

[bassmaner]

Let's see just how many boot-lickers come out and say that the cops were "just doing their job". Hint: the usual suspects who support the WOD on the drug threads.

Dane, CJ ... comments?

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Raid on Kmart lot leaves shock, anger

[Bikers4Bush]

"Demmler said many youths appearing to be 13 or 14 were arrested and taken to juvenile detention facilities, adding, "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."

If true the Houston police department will be paying this guy and his 10 yeard old through the nose for many years.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

There is quite often a difference between what you can do and what you should do.  In this case, it appears the the cops could and did arrest a lot of people.  By so doing, they have lost a lot of good will and made enemies unnecessarily.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Already Posted 7 hours ago. Exact title, without the commentary

[Hans]

Poor babies.

[realpatriot71]

Raid on Kmart lot leaves shock, anger

In the meantime . . . I wonder how many muders, rapes, thefts, and destruction of property occured. I am going to sleep so much better now KNOWING that the cops have the K-mart parking lot locked down tight.

[Orual]

Hooray for the Police State. I live only five minutes from a small shopping mall which is not only convenient, but it housed several excellent little stores, along with a supermarket and a Firestone auto repair shop. It is a deserted wasteland now because, one by one, the owners were forced out by vandals who made it a practice to congregate in the parking lot. Although the lots were patrolled by security personnel, they could not control the vermin. What that mall needed was armed policemen.

[Fithal the Wise]

12:30 a.m. ... arrested 425 outside store

[Texas Mom]

This has been posted and discussed

Poor innocent children, jack booted cops

280 comments.

[EBUCK]

Everyone is a criminal...period...besides the Houston PD appearanly needed to justify their incarceration budget, which required around 425 "guests" in order to be officially overcrowded.

EBUCK

[dougherty]

Nice to know HPD is arresting these big time criminals. >heavy sarcasm<

They're almost as bad as the Harris County Keystone cops.

[Dawgs of War]

My goodness. What a bunch of whining pansies. Do you believe that crap the kids were saying? They had probably been told not to congregate but they ignored the warning. Then they tried some BS story about "buying a scrunchy" or "getting an ice cream". They have no business being out at 12:30 am. They should be home.

It is amazing how people that enjoy the greatest amount of personal freedom in the history of mankind are crying about a so called police state. Come on man. Get a grip!

[Brookhaven]

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.

The article fails to mention what time was stamped on the reciept. If the receipt is stamped 11:29, and they are still in the parking lot and hour later, they are loitering.

[Moonman62]

Demmler said many youths appearing to be 13 or 14 were arrested and taken to juvenile detention facilities, adding, "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."

Did the reporter bother to find this 10 year old girl or her father to verify the story?

[makoman]

The kids were warned and did not listen. Being out after midnight on Houston streets is dangerous. This was a good lesson for a bunch of ignorant parents. Hit them were it counts, in the pocketbook!

[Shooter 2.5]

I think the police did a poor job in handling the crowd but I have to explain something to the complainers.
I lived in a town where the high school had a lot of students. A graduating class would be in the hundreds.
If any of the high schoolers ever found out that there was a party going on in the town and they knew that the parents weren't there, as a joke, someone would post the address on the bulletin boards.
On that particular night, hundreds of kids would show up to one house. And I do mean hundreds. One house would have an entire crowd of people that would cover half a block. Then the drunks from the taverns would show up looking for free beer.
For anyone complaining about a police state, let me know how you feel about this when it happens next door. I was lucky. It only happened once next door and twice across the street.

[TheBattman]

"The Kmart store is open 24 hours a day, and many of the people at the HPD station at 61 Reisner said Sunday that they had simply been shopping or eating at a Sonic drive-in restaurant that adjoins the discount store's parking lot when they were arrested. "

Yeah, right, 425+ teenagers were just hanging out eating some Sonic.

Making some assumptions here - if those teens are anything at all like the teens I know, they leave huge messes, cause massive traffic problems, and generally make a huge nusance of themselves when they congrigate like that. I just cannot comprehend 400+ just hanging out in the KMART parking lot, especially after being asked to leave and having many complalints filed.

If the teens were given warning that they were to vacate - then the police were justified. If they just came around and decided to lock up 400+ teens - I don't know.

What I have not heard is what, if any other things were found in the bust. I wonder if alcohol, illegal drugs, etc. were found as well?

If there were indeed "straight A" students invovled - kind of makes you wonder how how they made straight A's if they couldn't even figure out that they were not welcome there......

[chaosagent]

Well, apparently this was another police op gone bad.

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

[Lion's Cub]

I guess K-Mart is going out of business for sure now. It sounds like the Houston PD is out of control. I hope the idiots who pulled this stunt are sued into bankruptcy and never get a position of power again. Decent LEOs had better start cleaning up their ranks.

[Henrietta]

ping