"The 278 people were arrested early Sunday morning by police who were assigned to stop illegal drag racing.
The officers said the captain in charge, Mark Aguirre, ordered them to round up everyone who was outside the 24- hour Kmart Super Center or eating at the Sonic Drive-in next door in the 8400 block of Westhemier, even though they found no drag racers.
Also taken into custody were 42 juveniles who were cited for violation of the city's midnight curfew. Thirty of the juveniles also were charged with criminal trespass."
Now, to respond to your post.
I posted:
Arrest the people who are actually doing the law breaking.
To which you replied:
That is precisely what they did.
No, I'm afraid it isn't. Either you are being deliberately stubborn, or you just can't understand English, but what precisely happened was this: The police engaged in a wholesale roundup of citizens without regard to whether the citizen was actually engaged in any wrongdoing. Some of these people may have been wrongdoers; many of them were not.
The irrefutable FACT, which you have not produced any evidence to controvert is this:
A whole bunch of people who were minding their own business and engaged in patronizing legal businesses were arrested by a bunch of gun-toting, government-employed thugs.
You call this a "joke" and a "knee slapper." Got anything intelligent to say about it, or are you going to continue to argue a point that you have lost?
A whole bunch of people who were minding their own business and engaged in patronizing legal businesses were arrested by a bunch of gun-toting, government-employed thugs.
Henrietta, meet Christine McDonald:
Kmart neighbor: What took the police so long? (Published August 21, 2002, in the Houston Chronicle)
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.
Or how about this?
To: *****
The $12,000 figure comes from a radio call in. The person said the manager had told him this.
Speaking of call-in radio shows, you may be interested in knowing that the Monday immediately following the arrests, people were calling Jon Matthews (KSEV-AM, mornings) and telling him about the kids coming onto their property and urinating in their yard, littering, even scaring away a dog by throwing objects at it.
61 posted on 08/25/2002 11:46 PM CDT by Houmatt...
...as seen here.
It is also worth mentioning directly across the street from the K-Mart where the raid took place is a 24-hour Wal-Mart, a Sam's Club, and a 30-screen movie theater. If things were going exactly as you described, then the same thing would have been going on at Wal-Mart, especially since the movie theater is adjacent to them.
Yesterday, I had the day off from work and I needed to pick up a couple things for dinner for the next two days, and so I went there because this Wal-Mart, being a "Super" Wal-Mart, has a grocery store inside it (And they have the best food prices in town. Period.). It also did not hurt it was within walking distance of where I live, since I do not have a car to drive (my wife drives it). But I digress.
Just for the sake of curiosity, I asked a manager if they had similar problems at their store. The answer? No.
So why the inconsistency?