Kestrel’s Nest — A weblog by Eric Wagoner » Shop at KMart, go to jail
Cops in Texas act like the Nazi, and K Mart should be boycotted out of the country! When the cops do stupid things like this, it only gives our youth another reason to distrust adults. The backlash could be real horror. Smooth move you idiot Texas cops! Texas should break away from the U.S. and become it’s own country so we could attack it as a terrorest state. And by the way, to the other poster, no they were not white and rich, but in fact multi raced and normal people like the rest of us. They were our youth! Race and money are not the issue here!
Comment by Angry At Texas Cops — 8/20/2002 @ 3:30 am
Man, who was that masked poster? I hate to attempt to debate the deranged, but I beg to differ. In the small portion of the story I (perhaps unskillfully) alluded to, the comments of SOME of the youths arrested, money and race were (in my mind, at least) a very much important subtext to this discussion. The story made a point to state several times that some the kids (the kids quoted, anyway) were “A-students” who “never had any troubles with the law.” Meaning: “They were (metaphorically) fat, happy suburbanites who followed all the rules and were taken aback by the fact that the police would possibly ever treat them this way. It’s not like they were, y’know, criminals.” And also Mr. (Ms.?) “Youth Gone Wild,” it would seem that all the distressed black and latino parents and kids in this story were cleverly hiding behind all those white people that are the only ones in the photos accompanying the news story. I found it ironic how distressed and angered these good citizens became when they were on the business end, for a change, of a police department whose attitudes, techniques, and budgets were formed, in part, by their overblown fears about street crime, their votes to “tough on crime” quick-fix politicains, and their apathy towards keeping an eye on their police force or their civil liberties. At least that’s what (a little bit of) it looks like to me anyways. But anyways “Anarchy in the USA,” keep raging on against that machine. I’m sure your street theatre and petty vandalism will break The System any day now.
Comment by Matt — 8/20/2002 @ 5:19 am
I know, I know, it’s an eggregious abuse of local police powers, but I can’t help but notice the “Cops aren’t supposed to hassle us! We’re white and rich!” attitudes coming off of some of the teenage prisoners. Maybe some of those suburbanites will hip to what kind police state the US is turning into. But that is another kind of ‘blog entirely…
Comment by Matt — 8/20/2002 @ 9:12 am
Here’s a followup story, where arresting officers called the whole affair “senseless”.
Comment by eric — 8/20/2002 @ 10:44 am
Mmm… Office politics at the Houston Cop Shop…
Comment by Matt — 8/20/2002 @ 12:27 pm
Kestrel’s Nest — A weblog by Eric Wagoner » Shop at KMart, go to jail
Cops in Texas act like the Nazi, and K Mart should be boycotted out of the country! When the cops do stupid things like this, it only gives our youth another reason to distrust adults. The backlash could be real horror. Smooth move you idiot Texas cops! Texas should break away from the U.S. and become it’s own country so we could attack it as a terrorest state. And by the way, to the other poster, no they were not white and rich, but in fact multi raced and normal people like the rest of us. They were our youth! Race and money are not the issue here!
Comment by Angry At Texas Cops — 8/20/2002 @ 3:30 am
Man, who was that masked poster? I hate to attempt to debate the deranged, but I beg to differ. In the small portion of the story I (perhaps unskillfully) alluded to, the comments of SOME of the youths arrested, money and race were (in my mind, at least) a very much important subtext to this discussion. The story made a point to state several times that some the kids (the kids quoted, anyway) were “A-students” who “never had any troubles with the law.” Meaning: “They were (metaphorically) fat, happy suburbanites who followed all the rules and were taken aback by the fact that the police would possibly ever treat them this way. It’s not like they were, y’know, criminals.” And also Mr. (Ms.?) “Youth Gone Wild,” it would seem that all the d
istressed black and latino parents and kids in this story were cleverly hiding behind all those white people that are the only ones in the photos accompanying the news story. I found it ironic how distressed and angered these good citizens became when they were on the business end, for a change, of a police department whose attitudes, techniques, and budgets were formed, in part, by their overblown fears about street crime, their votes to “tough on crime” quick-fix politicains, and their apathy towards keeping an eye on their police force or their civil liberties. At least that’s what (a little bit of) it looks like to me anyways. But anyways “Anarchy in the USA,” keep raging on against that machine. I’m sure your street theatre and petty vandalism will break The System any day now.
Comment by Matt — 8/20/2002 @ 5:19 am
I know, I know, it’s an eggregious abuse of local police powers, but I can’t help but notice the “Cops aren’t supposed to hassle us! We’re white and rich!” attitudes coming off of some of the teenage prisoners. Maybe some of those suburbanites will hip to what kind police state the US is turning into. But that is another kind of ‘blog entirely…
Comment by Matt — 8/20/2002 @ 9:12 am
Here’s a followup story, where arresting officers called the whole affair “senseless”.
Comment by eric — 8/20/2002 @ 10:44 am
Mmm… Office politics at the Houston Cop Shop…
Comment by Matt — 8/20/2002 @ 12:27 pm