Raid on Kmart: 425 arrested - Unbelievable

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: stev0

Answer: Who Cares

good call.

425 people being arrested might be a little over the top... but then again they were all tresspassing, i suppose if it was my kmart or sonic i would've done the same thing... kinda makes me wonder what is going to happen this weekend... think there is going to be a massive crowd there again?! :Q

Why do people insist on replying to threads without reading the posts or the articles? Christ.

1) It wasn't 425 people.
2) They weren't tresspassing.
3) KMart had nothing to do with it, the police took it upon themselves (or one officer did and others followed his orders) to arrest these people.

 

[Evadman]

Who wants to bet there will be 1000 people in that parking lot now?

This is just plain sad. Some people are going to get some good cash from the stupid cops/local government for this one. Nice of the cops to provide a few bucks for speeed parts.

 

[Valinos]

What's up with you people that say there should never be this many people at a store at midnight and whining about how bad of a parent the dad of the 10 year old girl is?

I live in a town of about 90,000 people and there is a super Wal-Mart open 24/7. This Wal-Mart usually has 150+ shoppers at any one time late night on the weekday...on the weekends it gets much worse...I hate the place As for the scrunchi excuse, I've been to Wal-Mart late night for what you may consider petty crap when I have friends over. Be it an extra Xbox controller, PS2 RF unit, munchies, beer, what have you.

Now factor in the fact you have a Sonic open next door to it AND that this is Houston, Texas. A population of over 2 million correct? How it is not feasible that there are 425 people there? Also, when I was 10 my grandfather, mom, aunt, or friends' parents would take me any my friends to the late night movie on the weekend/summer and then take us to eat afterwards. What's so ungodly horrible about letting your 10 year old stay up past 12 while with you on a weekend or vacation? Is that so fvcked up? Some of you people need to fricken loosen up.

I just wish I was arrested. I'd be sitting pretty in Canada $50,000 richer I'll let you guys in on a big secret...Canada is awesome...I'm going to move there to get away from this BS, litigous, freedom-stealing country and its petty police force. No excuses for the cops to just do as they were told. If they really gave a damn, they'd refuse to do that and if it meant being fired or punished then so be it. It is simply not worth it to sacrifice the freedom of others that are innocent. Whether you have kids to feed at home or not, you don't do a disservice to 425 (or 300, or 200 or whatever the final tally is) innocent civilians THAT PAY YOUR SALARY, by arresting them with no reason.

Welcome to Nazi Germany, America. Oh, and you or your children may be next.

 

[Poritz]

So six days and four pages later we can conclude the following facts:

-285 people congregating in the parking lots of businesses in the general vicinity of the K-Mart in the 8400 block of Westheimer Road were arrested by HPD officers.
-Captain Mark Aguirre was the HPD officer that gave the orders to arrest everyone present for tresspassing.
-Captain Mark Aguirre has been cited on several prior occasions for violations of HPD internal policy.
-"No Tresspassing" signs were at the site of the mass arrest, some of which had been placed by the Houston Police Department and bore the letters and insignia of HPD.
-42 Youths were arrested for violation of the midnight to 5am curfew for minors within the City of Houston limits
-The initial premise for the arrests had been to curb illegal street drag racing which had been responsible for several fatal auto accidents in the area in the months prior.
-A raid occured at the nearby James Coney Island hot dog eaterie just prior to the raid at the K-Mart parking lot and the parking lots ajacent to it.
-James Coney Island management had been approached by Captain Mark Aguirre with a request to place "No Tresspassing" signs on the property. James Coney Island agreed and signed an agreement allowing HPD the privlige of making arrests on their property.
-25 James Coney Island patrons were arrested without cause
-James Coney Island officials later announced they felt used and decieved.
-Police Chief C.O. Bradford has initiated an investigation.
-Mayor Lee P. Brown has ordered the Inspector General's office to investigate.
-The Harris County District Attorney's Office has launched an investigation and declared they will press charges.
-The Texas Attorney General has launched an investigation.
- 52 Subpoenas have already been issued for grand jury.
-The ACLU has stated that it will pursue the case.

Now we cannot not conclude as facts the following, however, we may generalize:

-All actions by the HPD in relation to the K-Mart and associated raids were deeply flawed.
-Captain Mark Aguirre showed very poor judgement.
-The Businesses did not ask for raids.
-The situation exhibited disregard for civil rights.

This situation is something that is not new to anyone here. The people of this forum should not cast blame or judgement on either party as it is clear that a limited number of each violated the law and new information is coming daily. A more productive use of this forum would be to take advantage of the opportunity it provides to promote thought on ways to prevent such events from occuring in the future.

-Poritz
Houstonian for 18 years

 

[cavemanmoron]

sad,they try to cut down on street racing,and arrest people just hanging out,
they have "closed" down a few "hang out" spots near here where people with nice cars used to go hang out,

 

[Format C:]

So, how many of you are going to show up there this weekend, buy a skrunchie at K-Mart, then some food or drink at Sonic and consume it in your vehicle in the parking lot and repeat over a period of several hours?

 

[Valinos]

The problem is America. There is no way to prevent this type of behaviour from police and others that are above the law. You can speak out, but they will find a way to silence you. America's deepest flaw: Everyone is so content and happy with their current consumer-oriented lives that they totally forget how they are getting raped for tax money and then raped in the parking lot of K-Mart. Oh, it is ok...they were just doing their jobs. What really bothers me is how little press this has garnered from the major news outlets across the nation. Be it ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, or The New York Post. Something like this should have a HUGE amount of time in the spotlight, but no. Our press is basically owned state-controlled.

 

[MinorityReport]

This will never happen in New York City .... Hell even police will be scared to arrest 424 people at 12:30 am.

They would need the national guard or something heavy duty


Deepest sympathies for those who got the chains for buying TP at 12:30 am. And eating a late dinner.



Another proof of how intellectually stimulating Texas is.

 

[SyahM]

so are there any lawsuits? What the latest news? we need updates ppl .. come on

 

[MrDingleDangle]

there was something about people protesting last night or planning a protest, but i didnt watch the news, just saw the preview for the news...

the captain was suspended though -

Text

 

[MrDingleDangle]

wow and supposedly the police added the "no tresspassing" signs to make the raid legit

local nbc

 

[Jzero]

LOL! Reminds me of when my ex-gf went to the fair with a friend. They parked on the street amongst a bunch of cars in the same place they always park when going into town. It just happens to be only a block from the fairgrounds.
2 hours later they come back from the fair and do you know what they find?
A parking ticket on their car.
And 2 cops.
One cop is hanging up signs that say "No Parking - Temporary Police Order."
The other is following him writing tickets for all the cars that they just decided were illegally parked.
It wasn't hard to get that ticket thrown out.

Williams said that she is angry at the notion of police placing the signs, because otherwise, no one was ever warned that they could be trespassing.

This quote from the article is bunk, though. You don't need a sign to warn you that you might be trespassing. Anytime you are on someone else's property, you may be trespassing. My local K-Mart doesn't have No Trespassing signs, but I know that if the manager of that K-Mart tells me that I am not welcome in his store, then if I go there, I'm trespassing - sign or not.

Regardless, this get screwier with each passing moment.

 

[B00ne]

the land of the free.... muahahahaha

 

[B00ne]

Originally posted by: yllus
I feel bad for the people who pled guilty just get it over with - what's this going to do to their youth employment chances, with something on their record? If I was Houston's PD I'd be dropping charges really quick in anticipation of "lost wages" lawsuits later on.

Edit! Followup story: Raid went to 'hell in a handbasket' say officers on the scene

Officers on the scene called the arrests "utterly, utterly senseless" on Monday, and 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.

"I couldn't believe we were being told to arrest all those kids. It was just utterly, utterly senseless," said one officer involved, who violated department policy by discussing the arrests and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Captain Aguirre was put in charge, and it went to hell in a handbasket," said a police supervisor who was at the scene, also violating department policy and requesting anonymity.

"That operation had been planned for weeks," one of the supervisors said. "It was not planned with the intent to arrest everyone in sight. It was to arrest drag racers."

"But we got out there, and no one was racing," said one of the supervisors. "So Aguirre just said, `Arrest them all for trespass.'

"It was like, `Kill them all and let God sort them out,' " said the other supervisor. "I guess we're just lucky he didn't order us to fire warning shots into the crowd or anything."

So the police officers even admit to just follow orders without using their brain. Very frightening. Is it safe to go to Texas? I have often heard that local Sherrifs enforce like their own law, predominantly in rural areas. Dont u have federal authorities or civil rights movements that watch out for this kind of police violence? Just curious...


Strangely like all stories of strange/barbaric/religouszealotish/inhuman/environmentalcrimes things seem to be happening in Texas - why is that? And Bush is from Texas too, hope his brain is not gonna blow a fuse too...

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

B00ne -

It is safe to go to Texas. Your post is absolutely ridiculous. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States. We have civil rights attorneys. We have Federal authorities here in abundance. Why would you think that the Feds protect your freedom?

Your opinion reeks with naivete and a complete lack of understanding of how things really work here in America.

Given the fact that you are from Germany, I find it a bit ironic that you are one to throwing stones about this incident. I'll put Texas's human rights record up against Germany's any day of the week. Silly Euro...

Cops get out of control in just about every state in the US. Is it safe to go to LA (King)? Of course. How about NY (Diallo)?

Of course. These are isolated incidents. I go to work every day in the Houston Metro area, and I have never felt the grip of oppression in Texas.

Of course, I don't gather with hundreds of teens in a parking lot after curfew either. The one fact that is getting lost here is that many of these kids were under the age of 18, and were in blatant violation of the city's curfew ordinance. Had they been arrested for that there would be no issue.

Incidentally, Capt. Aguirre was suspended by HPD this morning. The ricers can breathe the candied air of freedom once again.

Strangely like all stories of strange/barbaric/religouszealotish/inhuman/environmentalcrimes things seem to be happening in Texas - why is that? And Bush is from Texas too, hope his brain is not gonna blow a fuse too...

Examples? You are ranting...

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: DevilsAdvocate
B00ne -

Given the fact that you are from Germany, I find it a bit ironic that you are one to throwing stones about this incident. I'll put Texas's human rights record up against Germany's any day of the week. Silly Euro...

If you are talking about the second world war, then time is no barrier. Lets see about America's slave trade, nice human rights violations, or do they not count?

Your post is a biggoted remark, spawned from another biggoted remark. As for the 'Silly Euro...

' comment.......