Houston's early risers sound off after Blue Alert jolts the city awake

Houston Chronicle ^ | 10/4/24 | Allyson Ackerman

[Round Earther]

Millions of Texans were jolted out of bed just before 5:00 a.m. Friday when Hall County—somewhere north of Lubbock, population 2,810—issued a Blue Alert after a deputy was injured by a fleeing suspect, sending people and social media into a frenzy.

A Blue Alert is a bulletin that informs the public about a search for a person suspected of harming a law enforcement officer.

In this morning's case, the alert was triggered in Hall County by the Texas Department of Public Safety. We were told a deputy was injured by Seth Altman, a 33-year-old white man, 6-foot, 2 inches tall, 220 pounds, and wearing a blue t-shirt and blue jeans.

[Round Earther]

Texans may not want to wear a blue shirt today.

[DAC21]

"were told a deputy was injured by Seth Altman, a 33-year-old white man"

Zero chance the skin color would be mentioned if the perp was something other than white.

[ComputerGuy]

They mentioned it for the benefit of us stereotypists out here.

[Steely Tom]

Zero chance the skin color would be mentioned if the perp was something other than white.

Would anyone really need to be told, in that case?

[absalom01]

I thought it was weird. Goes off at 0500 and it’s up in Hall county?

That’s practically to Amarillo, so it’s not clear why Houston had to be alerted.

But it was time to get up anyway, so I guess it’s no harm.

[Allegra]

Yeah, it override the silent mode on both my phones (personal and work) and screeched in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, I was able to fall right back to sleep.

[Allegra]

*overrode

[Gene Eric]

Figured the article was about a DEW attack

[mabarker1]

why Houston had to be alerted.

He stole the keys to the Transporter on the Starship Enterprise.

[BenLurkin]

A Blue Alert is a bulletin that informs the public about a search for a person suspected of harming a law enforcement officer.

So it's kinda like an Amber Alert only upside down and backwards.

[sockmonkey]

I, too, was awakened by the Blue Alert here in Central TX.
Looking at it now. No mention of a vehicle. The description could be thousands of Texas men.

[Weirdad]

I went to bed at 3AM, so I was not pleased at all. Really loud. Then has to explain to spouse also. Sigh...

[mfish13]

Did not go off here in Dallas.

[Clay Moore]

Wife’s phone went off and mine did not. DFW Metromess.

[al_c]

Yep ... got it in the DFW area too. As soon as my phone booted up, that awful alert sound started blaring.

[Bikkuri]

Sounds like the earthquake alerts on the phones in Japan.. about 15-30 seconds before they hit.

[Colt1851Navy]

Sir why did you shoot the suspect in the back? To try to help our overworked police department.

[Svartalfiar]

Meh. My phone doesn’t get any of those alerts, and I’m happy that way

[Political Junkie Too]

I was up at the time, but it was annoying. It beeped about three times in a 10 minute period.

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

Two thoughts:

1. A BOLO alert only makes sense when the public-at-large is out and about doing their daily business. What was the expectation from issuing this "Blue Alert" at 5:00am?

2. After years of the LAAP-dog media demonizing the police, calling to defund them, calling them killers (a high-profile no-knock raid based on a perjured warrant just resulted in a double-homicide conviction of the lead detective here in Houston), and telling us that the police have no legal obligation to protect us, why broadcast a "Blue Alert" and expect us to rouse ourselves out of bed to help those whom we were just told won't help us?

-PJ