One of the reasons I don't take the liberal fish wrap anymore. I can get on the internet and get several sides to a story and not depend on one source for my info as many do.
Texas Mom: One of the reasons I don't take the liberal fish wrap anymore. I can get on the internet and get several sides to a story and not depend on one source for my info as many do.
Is this the article the vast left-wing conspiracy doesn't want you to see?
Kmart neighbor: What took the police so long?
By CHRISTINE McDONALD
I am a resident of the west Houston neighborhood near the Kmart where Houston police arrested 278 people early Sunday. And I am angry.
Every Saturday night for the past nine to 10 months, those of us living nearby have had to put up with these teen gatherings. I applaud the police for the arrests this past weekend. I only ask: What took so long?
Typically, these gatherings start coming together around 10 p.m. and continue until 3 a.m. Car stereos are up loud. They race in circles around the parking lot "burning rubber" (or whatever the current terminology is) and race each other out onto and up and down this section of Westheimer.
It is almost impossible -- and downright dangerous -- to enter into the Kmart parking lot because cars are everywhere, either blocking entrances and exits or moving at a high rate of speed. And take a walk around the parking lot on any Sunday morning after this crowd has left, as I have done. You will find it full of trash and empty alcohol bottles.
After a long work week it is extremely distressing to have to put up with this noise weekend after weekend. I have been so extremely tired that I have wanted to cry. It is impossible to sleep. I can't remember the last time I got to sleep before 3 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. I've talked to my neighbors and I'm not alone. Some have moved and some have considered moving.
Several of us have called police to complain. Prior to this past weekend, we were told that nothing could be done because the incidents were occurring on private property. However, I have witnessed police coming to the Kmart lot two to three times over the past six months and asking those assembled to leave. They do so for that night but are back the very next Saturday.
Don't believe that the teens had no warning before this past weekend. They did.
I am angry at their parents. For any parent out there who thinks police went too far, I say: Feel free to invite 200-plus teenagers to your place every Saturday night and then let them keep you and your neighbors awake and tear up your neighborhood. You're welcome to it. We don't want it any more in our neighborhood.
I'm also happy the cars got towed. I've seen and heard these cars weekend after weekend, and I hope the towing fee on top of any arrest fine will hit these teens and their parents in their pocketbooks. Often (and sadly) it is only after money becomes involved that people sit up and take note.
I also find it very interesting that parents are now questioning the police when many had obviously not been questioning their teens over the past few months to find out where their child was and what he or she was doing. Is this belated reaction to the arrests really just guilt because the parents were in denial about what had been going on? Would these parents rather wait until their child died or killed someone else in a street-racing accident?
Finally, these parents should be questioning why 200 teenagers are gathering in the same place on a Saturday night. We all want to think the best of our children, but c'mon folks, let's not be naive. Among teens, this was the place to be. It wasn't coincidence. It wasn't the case that these teens just "happened to be passing or shopping when the police arrived." They were there for the thrills and racing.