Raid on Kmart: 425 arrested - Unbelievable

[mithrandir2001]

Originally posted by: Mister T

Originally posted by: misle
That really sucks.

$300 to get out of jail.
$118 to get your car.

$418 for what? Eating a burger or shopping. Plus you get the added bonus of a Criminal record. Nice!

no worries... the city of houston will lose millions over this and lawyers will stay employed

The city deserves it for pulling such a stunt.

 

[flavio]

For anyone hung up on what people were doing there at 12:30, you have to realize that in the U.S. you can go shop or eat at open establishments at anytime of day or night without the need to explain yourself. If someone decides to pick up a scrunchi at 12:30am they are allowed to do so in this country.

Maybe some people were loitering. Surely many were eating/shopping....you can't just arrest everybody like this. The PD will be in hot water and they deserve it.

 

[ddwbi0]

maybe i can clear somethings up.... i was there and fortunately left about 5 mins before the cops swarmed.

The parking lot that the chron refers to is actually 4 different lots. Kmart has its own big lot(not many cars were there) , sonic has its drive throughs, and 2 small centers to the left and right of Sonic. Most of the cars were in the two lots that were to the left and right of Sonic.

There were signs at the entrance from the road that clearly say "No Trespassing" Those who were at Sonic or in the Kmart lot, and were actually eating or buying something....i think those ppl shouldnt have been arrested. But those chilling out on the adjacent lots? None of those stores were open, they were long closed.


edit: oh and also, theres a Walmart, and movie theatre RIGHT ACROSS the street, so there were not many ppl at kmart at all! Sonics was filled, but only b/c they ran out of parking spaces in the adjacent lots.

 

[iamme]

Does anyone else blame the kids? Perhaps there's been a history of loittering that's led to other trouble, in the parking lot. Maybe fights have broken out in the past. Maybe kids are blaring their music. Maybe the owners have told the kids to quit loittering many times before.

It seems like the police may have gone a little overboard, but I still suspect that kids aren't completely innocent.

 

[mithrandir2001]

Originally posted by: ddwbi0
There were signs at the entrance from the road that clearly say "No Trespassing" Those who were at Sonic or in the Kmart lot, and were actually eating or buying something....i think those ppl shouldnt have been arrested. But those chilling out on the adjacent lots? None of those stores were open, they were long closed.

Does that justify a massive roundup and a trip to the Big House? Fvking America and its jail-happy cops. Everything's f'in jail. You smoke a stupid joint and it's DOWNTOWN for you, buddy.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: ddwbi0
maybe i can clear somethings up.... i was there and fortunately left about 5 mins before the cops swarmed.

The parking lot that the chron refers to is actually 4 different lots. Kmart has its own big lot(not many cars were there) , sonic has its drive throughs, and 2 small centers to the left and right of Sonic. Most of the cars were in the two lots that were to the left and right of Sonic.

There were signs at the entrance from the road that clearly say "No Trespassing" Those who were at Sonic or in the Kmart lot, and were actually eating or buying something....i think those ppl shouldnt have been arrested. But those chilling out on the adjacent lots? None of those stores were open, they were long closed.


edit: oh and also, theres a Walmart, and movie theatre RIGHT ACROSS the street, so there were not many ppl at kmart at all! Sonics was filled, but only b/c they ran out of parking spaces in the adjacent lots.

is there any history of trouble during those late night "hang-outs"?

 

[SuperCyrix]

Well sure, doesn't everyone go to K-Mart at 12:30 in the morning to buy a Scrunchi?

I'm shocked. Not at the article but at the people here...ok not that shock.
You guys seriously think it's abnormal to hang out 12:30am at night when your in high school???
We use to do it all the time in high school and in college. Nothing wrong with it, just enjoying life while your young.

One of the funnest thing to do when your in high school is to drive around at night with your buddies for no reason, drink some
beer, looks for places to hang out and talk some sh*t. What's wrong with that?

 

[Lucky]

NOBODY IS ACTUALLY SHOPPING at 12:30 in the morning

Wrong. Maybe you dont shop at 12:30, but that's actually when I do the MAJORITY of my shopping at stores that are open 24/7. I prefer to buy groceries or shop, especially at places like wal-mart, when they are not teeming with people.

 

[SuperCyrix]

If you goto college, you'll notice that the local Ralph is moderately packed 2:00AM in the morning.
People get pretty hungry at that time or they run out of beer.

 

[ddwbi0]

So if they had handed out 425 tickets or citations, that would have been perfectly ok with everybody? These ppl are out here every weekend and they sometimes start racing around midnight- one. This is a major road that theyre on and theres still a lot of ppl walking around or driving home.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
I love this quote from the article:

"We went to use the restroom at Kmart and to buy a Scrunchi (hair band), and when we came back to our car, cops were coming in (the parking lot) and they tied our hands," said Brandi Ratliff, 18, who said she was a straight-A student at Waller High School and never had any problems with the law. "

Well sure, doesn't everyone go to K-Mart at 12:30 in the morning to buy a Scrunchi? That's right up there with "Honest, I'm not kinky, I just made a mistake and sat on that gerbil when I had just gotten out of the shower..." I'm in the supermarket business and we have some stores that are open 24/7 in plazas with regular retailers like K-Mart that are also open nights. At that time of the day, even the busiest stores will only have a couple of legitimate customers. You're open only for convenience and because you're running a night crew anyway, so staying open doesn't cost much extra. NOBODY IS ACTUALLY SHOPPING at 12:30 in the morning. If they arrested 425 people, the worst possible ratio is that they picked up 420 tresspassers and 5 innocent bystanders. Likely it's more like 425-0. What's sad is that Brandi's mommy and daddy probably buy that line on BS and really think their darling daughter was there to buy a Scunchi.

Lots of people go to Super Wal-Marts late at night. The one I go to is always busy.

 

[dew042]

Originally posted by: ddwbi0
So if they had handed out 425 tickets or citations, that would have been perfectly ok with everybody? These ppl are out here every weekend and they sometimes start racing around midnight- one. This is a major road that theyre on and theres still a lot of ppl walking around or driving home.

lawbreakers deserve enforcement measures. law-abiding citizens deserve to go about life without harrassment.

dew,

 

[ChrisIsBored]

Originally posted by: ddwbi0
So if they had handed out 425 tickets or citations, that would have been perfectly ok with everybody? These ppl are out here every weekend and they sometimes start racing around midnight- one. This is a major road that theyre on and theres still a lot of ppl walking around or driving home.

Can you imagine walking out of a store after picking up some milk and food then being handed a ticket for trespassing on property where you were just the customer? Or if you went to a Chili's restaurant and the police came in and interruped your meal for the same reason? It's generally the same thing they did in this situation.

As dew just said...

lawbreakers deserve enforcement measures. law-abiding citizens deserve to go about life without harrassment.

 

[Hagau]

Can you imagine walking out of a store after picking up some milk and food then being handed a ticket for trespassing on property where you were just the customer? Or if you went to a Chili's restaurant and the police came in and interruped your meal for the same reason? It's generally the same thing they did in this situation.

As dew just said...

lawbreakers deserve enforcement measures. law-abiding citizens deserve to go about life without harrassment.[/quote]



Wow, thanks for stating the obvious there....

 

[Kanalua]

I see nothing wrong here...there's a mall here in my area that has tons of kids hanging put in the parking lot every night in their cars and whatever...they should come up here, and raid that place...

 

[Venix]

Originally posted by: Kanalua
I see nothing wrong here...there's a mall here in my area that has tons of kids hanging put in the parking lot every night in their cars and whatever...they should come up here, and raid that place...

Did you not read the story? The police arrested paying customers of K-Mart and Sonic. Many people who had receipts and were simply attempting to go to their cars to leave were arrested, and the Sonic was raided and all customers inside were arrested. If you see nothing wrong with that, you're a moron.

 

[kt]

Have anyone thought about the stupidity of the police officers doing the arresting? When the captain said arrest everyone for trespassing, maybe he was referring to "everyone" who is in violation and not EVERYONE everyone. I mean, can't they tell the difference between a person sitting at a table eating his/her burger and some thug sitting on the curb in the parking lot? Don't they have a little common sense to determine something like that? Guess where all those holes in the donuts went straight to..

 

[Gulzakar]

Not like I expected anything better from Texas 8)

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: badluck

Sounds like the proper response by the police/business owner.

Dood, you are an idiot....


Oh, and did you read that the Kmart was open 24 hours a day?

Please use the term 'moron' instead of 'idiot'

Oh, and if I had a receit in such a case I'd let several officers sign it, show it to enough people as to have witnesses, and then sue them for every penny they might make in their lifetimes, and more.

 

[AsukaStrikes]

the irony is that they arrested everyone 'equally' to avoid 'scrimination lawsuits

 

[Kerouactivist]

I bet, most if not all of these get thrown out of court.

 

Originally posted by: mithrandir2001

Originally posted by: ddwbi0
There were signs at the entrance from the road that clearly say "No Trespassing" Those who were at Sonic or in the Kmart lot, and were actually eating or buying something....i think those ppl shouldnt have been arrested. But those chilling out on the adjacent lots? None of those stores were open, they were long closed.

Does that justify a massive roundup and a trip to the Big House? Fvking America and its jail-happy cops. Everything's f'in jail. You smoke a stupid joint and it's DOWNTOWN for you, buddy.

Oh, good comment. Very intelligent. I like your sense of reasoning, mithraidir. Like some one said before, here, next time someone burglarizes your house, I hope you don't think of calling 911.

Those cops who will respond to your call (within 5 minutes, mind you!) are f'in jail happy! Forget them! Call a plumber instead!

EDIT: F'in America and it's jail-happy cops? So you're planning on moving to Mogadishu, Somalia in the next couple months? Those cops aren't really jail happy. They'll take your bribes (is $100 okay?) or they'll kill you before they cart you off to jail. You, mithrandir2001, give all Americans bad reputations. Sometimes, you need to own up to your actions. Don't blame the cops this time.

 

[CocaCola5]

Lets say there was about fifty cops working thats still some eight arrests per cop. :Q

 

[rootaxs]

What irks me more is that before these kids would race along Westheimer during those times, endangering everyone else passing by this busy stretch of road. Lately there have been crackdowns and most (if not all) of them have started to settle down and just hang out in groups in some lots. Technically it's still wrong to "trespass" but at least they're not endangering lives.

The police went way over their head on this one, because they didn't find anyone racing they'd rather judge everyone guilty until proven innocent.

 

[TechieZer0]

Originally posted by: KokomoGST
Police are locking down parking lots and crap all over the US... I just heard recently that Nanuet police cracked down on a local hangout a few weeks ago. They didn't arrest, but they did hassle everyone that wanted to leave the lot. Honestly, if you're a paying customer at one of the stores and you're not doing anything to anyone (no stupid burnouts or donuts etcetc) and just chatting with a few friends... I see no reason why you should be hassled. Heck, people not even hanging out at all get penalized for no reason at all... that's fascist. :disgust:

Still this kind of response is way better than just hauling people in. I can see several UNIFORMED police officers checking out everything and making the crowd disperse and if necessary play the arrest card. But to just arrest everyone?

The Cop in charge shuld be arrested, cuffed and dragged in to jail after being booked etc. Someone needs to give that guy some perspective.