Citizens grill Mayor, HPD Chief over crime
10:43 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 30, 2006
By Jeff McShan / 11 News
Two young adults, one male, one female, walked into the Wal-Mart on Highway 6, to use a credit card owned by Jeannette Gonzalez, 23, who died Monday as the result of a suspected carjacking.
KHOU-TV
Speaker after speaker voiced concerns over the crime in the west side of Houston, caused mainly, they think, by Katrina evacuees.
She was carjacked in the parking lot of the Hong Kong Market Sunday and a short while later she was either pushed out or jumped out of her car on Westheimer near Kirkwood.
She died from severe head injuries the next day.
The horrible crime is just the latest in a series of violent crimes on the city’s west side.
A standing-room only crowd of over 1,600 filled Grace Presbyterian Church at a town hall meeting to hear Mayor Bill White and HPD Chief Harold Hurtt speak.
“It’s really important for us to see this many people out here because it gives us a clear message that you care about your community and the fact that you want us to do more to make it safer. And we get that message,” Hurtt said.
The crowd was mostly calm until questions about Katrina evacuees came up.
“We just want you to understand our situation in this community and we appreciate the good work and the hard work that you’ve done, but we want the New Orleans residents to go home,” said one speaker.
“We can’t walk to a beautiful park that was put in without being accosted. I want to know what you’re going to do about it or do we have to take things into our own hands?” said another woman.
Before the meeting, it didn’t take long to find some criminal activity. One man, who police said had just gotten out of prison, was arrested about two miles from the meeting.
Constable Glen Chicas committed 140 of his men and women to this area of town alone, and in the last days they have written 377 citations and dozens of arrests.
The residents in the area believe that the Katrina evacuees are doing the crime in the area and they asked when the handout were going to stop.
When Mayor White said they would be phased out in February, he received boos from the crowd.
Being one of those individuals whose citizenship was washed away with so many others' along with their memories (hence the term "Katrina Refugees), it seems to me as though we've worn out our welcome. The question I would like to ask is, "Was there crime in Houston before 8/29/05?" If there wasn't, then you have to directly link any crime to an influx of "Louisiana-folk" and if there was, then what? I believe that any increase in crime would have taken place no matter where the people came from. It's just the sad reality of the world.
I know that I post a lot about 8/29/05, but it is just something that consumes my life since it affected me. I know the easiest way to get over something is not to constantly bring it up but...
