Give us your vote on the Houston Police bust on westheimer.

http://www.click2houston.com/sh/incl...7/1627564.html


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-Slim
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What was the bust all about? I voted that I disagreed but now I'd like to know the details.

 

Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printsto.../front/1539629 :

Raid on Kmart lot leaves shock, anger
Teenagers, parents question arrests of 425 outside store
By RON NISSIMOV


A crowd of angry teenagers and their parents accused police Sunday of arresting many innocent bystanders during an overnight raid on a west Houston parking lot where youths apparently congregate.

Scores of Houston police officers swarmed onto the Kmart parking lot in the 8400 block of Westheimer about 12:30 a.m. Sunday and arrested about 425 people for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor.


Steve Campbell / Chronicle
Soneary Sy is overcome with emotion outside the police station as she waits for her son to be released. Sy said she waited all night for her 17-year-old son, a straight-A student, to come home.

Houston Police Department spokesman Martin DeLeon said many cars were towed.

DeLeon said business owners have been complaining about youths gathering on their parking lots on weekend nights and causing a commotion.

DeLeon said he did not have more details about the incident because the two captains in charge of the raid, M.A. Aguirre and J.P. Mokwa, were sleeping Sunday after working all night.

The Kmart store is open 24 hours a day, and many of the people at the HPD station at 61 Reisner said Sunday that they had simply been shopping or eating at a Sonic drive-in restaurant that adjoins the discount store's parking lot when they were arrested.

Kmart and Sonic supervisors referred all questions to their corporate headquarters, which were not open Sunday.

"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.

Ratliff said that even though she and two friends told police they had just come out of the Kmart, all three were arrested and spent the night in jail.

"It was traumatic," said a tearful Ratliff on Sunday morning after her parents drove from Stafford to pay her $300 bail at the downtown city jail. "It was sick where they were holding us. A prostitute was fighting with another woman. The food they served was food you would serve to a dog, not a human."

Ratliff and her two friends, Kris Karsteter, 21, and Kyesa Scott, 18, all had pink marks on their wrists from where they said police had tied plastic handcuffs too tightly.

Scott said she didn't have the money to pay bail and so she pleaded guilty to avoid spending another night in jail.


Steve Campbell / Chronicle
Brandi Ratliff, left, and Kyesa Scott, both 18, comfort each other after being released from police custody. "It was traumatic," Ratliff said of her arrest in a Kmart parking lot and a night in jail.

Emily Demmler, 19, said: "All I was doing was eating ice cream."

Demmler said the only trouble she'd previously had with authorities was being called into the principal's office twice in elementary school for gossiping. She said she pulled her car into the Sonic lot shortly after midnight so she and her two friends could get some ice cream after a night of karaoke.

After about five minutes, police "just swarmed," Demmler said.

"We thought we were in the middle of a drug bust, and we thought, `We're cool; we're not doing anything wrong,' " said Demmler, a part-time lifeguard at the Jewish Community Center who is starting college this fall at the University of Houston.

Instead, all the patrons at the Sonic were ordered by police to march to the Kmart lot, where they joined throngs of other people who were being arrested, she said.

"My purse and my friend's purse were still in the car ... but the cop wouldn't let me get them," said Demmler, whose mother eventually recovered her car and both purses.

"We asked police why we were being arrested, and they said, `Everybody is receiving equal treatment from the Houston Police Department tonight.' It didn't matter what you were doing; they arrested you."

Demmler said many youths appearing to be 13 or 14 were arrested and taken to juvenile detention facilities, adding, "They even arrested a 10-year-old girl who was having dinner with her father and took her to juvenile detention.

"She got separated from her father and I asked her how old she was, and she told me she was 10," Demmler said. "She was dazed."


In a phone interview, Demmler claimed to have "huge marks on my arms" from tight handcuffs.

Leanne Williams said her 19-year-old son called her from jail and told her he showed police a receipt for bottled water from Kmart, but he was still arrested.

She said her son called her five times from the downtown jail, but police still couldn't locate him at 11 a.m. because his paperwork had been delayed.

"I gotta spend my Sunday at the jail searching for my son they can't find," said her husband, Jerome Williams.

Soneary Sy didn't know her 17-year-old son, a straight-A student, was arrested until he called her at 6 a.m.

"I didn't sleep all night waiting for my son to come home" said a sobbing Sy, a Cambodian immigrant who moved to Houston 22 years ago. "He tried to go to Kmart and as soon as he got to Kmart he was arrested."

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-Slim
A good friend will bail you out of jail, but your best friend will be sitting next to you saying "Dude that was freaking awesome!"
Street Illusions Racing
My Car
My Bike
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[This message has been edited by BigBoySlim (edited August 29, 2002).]

 

Dayum! Let the attorneys flock! I hope the lawsuits are ENORMOUS!! That is total b.s.

 

One time when I was 17 I caught in a deal like this and for the first time I really was innocent, It was not MIDNIGHT though, I had just got an icecream with another guy when they raided the lot which also had an convienence store (they where the callers)
and I was charged with disorderly, I had my family lawyer with me, we ALL WALKED.



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They CANNOT do that legally. I back police officers 99% of the time because they have a lot of S*** to deal with (i still hate speeding tickets, but). It is a very tough stressfull and dangerous job. But this S*** is outrageous and gives people reason to hate the police. Expect (hopefully) large amounts of lawsuits and charges for the cops in charge of the raid (and possibly huge backlash or suits against the compaining company i.e. k-mart or sonic). If the police were smart and serious about cleaning up the departments they would be very harsh on punishing their own when stuff like this happens. I think it would help restore faith in the PD. Just pisses me off. (and no I not one of those that claims to have been treated unfairly by the police so I have no beef with them) Sad situation

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My car club has "congregated" with other clubs in San Antonio, we can stop as a group to buy gasoline and they will call the cops on us, even though we bought fuel.
So naturally, we just leave before the cops show up, they just get nervous when more than 50 cars pull into the parking lot all at once.
The one in Houston is on such a large scale though at a 24 Hour Kmart no less.
I like the remark about how the cops who were in charge of the raid are asleep so were not avaiable for comment at the time they asked De Leon. Such a pathetic excuse, I couldn't stop laughing. Hey cops, the parents were up all night too, they are still up right now talking to lawyers about sueing your department.

 

I voted I disagree with what the cops did before I even knew the story lol!!! That is crap that they arrested everyone! I usaly like to hang out a places with other hot rodders but if cops show we just head out. I don't think I could even hardly imagine getting arrested just for "hanging out" in a Kmart parking lot.
Now if I was at a place know for street racing and got arrested from a large bust that is different but being in a parking lot is crazy!!!


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[This message has been edited by 11secondz28 (edited August 30, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by 11secondz28 (edited August 30, 2002).]

 

With all the lawsuits, who wants to guess what Harris County's new sales tax will be? I'm going to say 11%. Boooooo.

Somebody is going to have to pay for it (taxpayers of course)

 

90% of the time thats exactly what goes on!! This night it didn't though and the man in charge didn't like that, so he ordered the arrest of everyone (all Jr officers HAVE to obey, just like military).

I talked to my cousin, who is a HPD officer, and he knows the guy that was in charge and wasn't suprised to hear of that he did such a thing.


[This message has been edited by mcss383 (edited August 31, 2002).]

 

Hell yeah, now comes the payback. Punk *** cops, now their trying to pass the buck.

http://www.click2houston.com/hou/new...27-090820.html

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Not possible. Texas State Sales Tax is 6.25%. The maximum local sales tax that can be applied to this is 2% - for a total of 8.25%.


JB

 

That's funny. So now the guys who were actually racing are going to be let go because that high-ranking officer carpet arrested the Wal-mart parking lot. funny haha