thank you for shopping at kmart. your going to jail

I'll be curious to see the follow up on this story. Something just doesn't smell right. There's a little thing called liability. Wonder who's gonna suck that one up!

and K-Mart wonders why they're having problems attracting teenage shoppers...

Just the kind of positive publicity K-Mart needs to help them through bankruptcy

Brings a new meaning to "blue light" special, huh?

How do you spell "class-action lawsuit" in Houston?

Gee, I didn't realize Huston was in a Police State.

Sounds like some top cop better lose his job, or you all in Huston just suspened your Constitutional Rights. I would even adventure to say that any officer that took part in such mass arrest of peaceful citizens should also be fired.

It's wholly up to the citizens to act in this case, and act fast before this becomes the norm. Don't take this poop laying down!

I live in Houston, and I don't hear about this stuff!

I heard the DJ's on the radio talking about it, but couldn.t figure out what they were talking about.

Hmm-
I wonder if those people who claimed to be shopping had receipts from the store or from the drive in.

If they DID have receipts, any honest cop would have let them go unless he had a less than honest supervisor (or some dang bureaucrat / politician like the mayor) standing right over him.

As a part owner of a place (office building) where skateboarders like to congregate, I can understand where the business owners are coming from, as we have suffered about $10,000 in damages the last two years by these "kids just trying to have fun". But jeeze, how about the police and businesses using a little common sense???

There is probably a bit more to this story than in the article (You can't trust the Houston chronicle- It is as much a leftist, anti-American, anti-police, anti-morality rag as has ever been published), but even if partly accurate, it looks like a bunch of people have opened themselves up to wrongful arrest suits.

It did strike me odd they could manage to round up 425 teens at 12:30am on a Sunday night-
Maybe a typo, and they meant 12:30pm, around noon time? I don't think I've EVER seen a crowd that large in a KMart parking lot, at least not in NY...
I do seem to recall there ARE laws against congregation of people beyond certain numbers; for whatever reason, I don't know, but I'm sure they have all sorts of laws squirrelled away in some book somewhere to pull out and justify the wholesale netting, for revenue or otherwise.

I'm not sure how reliable the article is. Someone posted it to one of the usenet groups I read and I thought it was interesting. Isnt this something that would make national news?

That's a good point. I just can't believe it's true... but then I also know that reality often eclipses fiction when it comes to crazy happenings...

Well, the article mentions at least one person who showed the police a receipt from shopping there, but was arrested anyway. It also mentions people being pulled out of the restaurant next door and arrested (including a 10year old girl, it seems..)

But the article seems pretty one sided - looks like they rushed to get it up there without waiting to get a statement from the police about it..

Graham

Oh, Thanks Graham- re-reading that article, I see where one of the people DID claim to have a receipt- I was keying on the first one interviewed, and nothing about a receipt was mentioned....

If they had a receipt, then no way they should have been arrested for trespass; Hopefully when they go to court, they will be able to produce that timed and dated receipt. Otherwise, it could just be a story the kid told his Mom so she would take his side.

Still, you have to take anything in the chronicle not with a grain of salt, but with a whole sea full.

Between these two quotes, I don't know if the paper rushed the story without getting the other side so much as the other side (police and businesses) hid from the paper.

"Houston Police Department spokesman Martin 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. "

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

I mean did they think no one would want comments and explanations for the arrests of 425 people?

once i get home from work in the morning maybe I will look around on some different news sites and search google. i cant believe this is the only article.

B-o-o-o-o-ogus as the car guy would say.

Trev...are you sure you're not Darell who is actually me?? I have those sounds on MY computer! I wanted to put them on my PocketPC at school, they said you couldn't do it unless the number was 2 but I did it anyway. Whenever I had to reset my little iPaq (Not often but it happened) I was sternly reminded to start work and not play Solitare...my favorite passtime in that class

All I know is next time I go to KMart I guess I'll stick with my dad

Here's a follow-up article from same source: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1542463
And the story sounds even worse now.

ya, regular stuff.. We have that here in Kalifornia too - al the time. I think they invented it out here tho.

No, seriously.. times are really tough and the whole "high tech industry" dowturn and the suffering stock market has created cash shortages and falling tax revenues for localities. It's just simply become understood that these actions are taken for the purpose of "revenue generation".

Here's how it works - I charge you with a petty crime that will cost you more $money$ in lawyer fees to fight than it does to simply show up and plead guilty. What do you do?? Pay a $1000-$2000 fine or hire and attorney and spend $3000 - $5000 to be acquitted? yeah..

So here's all you can do... I'll take a sidebar here to tell you that when I was younger I held a job downtown (near the courthouse) and I would often arrive early to avoid rush hour traffic (working swingshift). To pass time I could walk into an air conditioned courtroom and merely observe...and observe I did..

To help escape the wrath of a "revenue collection" scheme as devious as this you must play their game. If you have to appear in court, Buy a complete new set of clothes for your appearance -from the thrift store. You get bonus points for spending < $1.50 If you can make yourself look pittifully "dressed up" but still maintain that "derelict aroma", they'll just want to get rid of you. If you appear for the EXACT SAME charge and show up wearing gucci loafers, armani slacks, $200 shades - you ARE TOAST. At least that's what my observations have been... This is nothing more than a money machine. Treat it as such and you can learn to avoid it.

Now you know why Slick don't visit the cafe.