I agree there was a real problem there that needed a solution. But your defending this idiocy is ridiculous.
Nope. That is an opinion. It is what you believe.
It's worse than that, Bob. No one was committing the offense of criminal trespass, because the property owners had not filed a complaint. The Houston police effectively fabricated the the charge by posting their own "no trespassing" signs without the consent of the property owners. I think it would be interesting to see the actual indictments for official oppression, because I suspect this last issue figures prominently.
Even presuming that other crimes were being committed or had just been committed by some subset of those arrested, no one was arrested for any crime other than criminal trespass (aside from a small percentage of juveniles violating curfew). Since they were instead arrested on charges that could not be substantiated, the charges were dismissed.
Had the adults been arrested for different offenses that could actually be substantiated in court, there would have been no reason to dismiss the charges. The police claim to have been conducting surveillance in the weeks leading up to and just before the arrests, so why wasn't anyone arrested for other crimes that were observed to be committed?