Police Arrest 81 Looting Suspects After Ike
Houston Police Department FOX 26 News
HOUSTON -- Many felt disgusted after witnessing looting in the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina left thousands of people dead and victimized. Who would steal at a time like this? According to Houston Police Department officials, more than 75 Houstonians and counting.
At least 81 people have been arrested for looting. The crimes have hit several areas of our city as Ike was making landfall and after the monster storm moved out.
"It's very disheartening because there's enough tragedy to infrastructure,...to the act of a theft," Houston Police Department Capt. Bruce Williams said.
So what did they steal during Ike? Officials say everything from furniture to clothes and even liquor.
Council member Adrian Garcia - a former Houston Police Officer-- says the act is disgusting at best.
"This is horrible when mother nature is upon you and is putting your life in danger and you want to be out there trying to steal from someone else it is unfortunate that someone would have that kind of mindset," he said.
Williams says the criminals - the 81 people - Houstonians accused of trying to steal from Houstonians will be dealt with swiftly and with a firm hand.
This was an image Houston frowned upon in New Orleans but now needs to deal with in it's own backyard.
“At least 81 people have been arrested for looting. The crimes have hit several areas of our city as Ike was making landfall and after the monster storm moved out.”
What is missing from that story is that total buglaries in Houston are down by about 1/3 of what they normally would be absent the storm. Houston is making singificantly fewer arrests because significantly fewer crimes are occuring.
In Galveston County, with a popultion in excess of 150,000 there were exactly 11 arrests for looting — and three of those were one band of looters.
Not that the news media ever *overstates* a problem.
>>(Houston) Police Arrest 81 Looting Suspects After Ike
Houston is way ahead of the game, compared to NOLA. Heck, in NOLA, the police were DOING the looting! Who doesn’t remember the video of the NOLA cops “liberating” some DVDs and other non-essential goodies from Wal-Mart?