Neighbors with bats, sticks capture suspected child predator

I thought we were in need of some humor. :)

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May 24, 2004, 12:02AM
Neighbors with bats, sticks capture suspected child predator
By MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2588303



Wielding baseball bats and sticks, a crowd in northwest Houston on Sunday chased down a man suspected of preying on neighborhood children in recent weeks.

"We know him. The whole neighborhood knows him," said Carlos Gonzalez.

Residents told police the 44-year-old man tried to lure children into his van last week while it was parked at a nearby elementary school. They also accused him of hugging a 12-year-old boy on Saturday while he was wearing women's clothing.

Neighborhood children initiated the pursuit of the suspected child predator.

*SNIP*

About 20 children, mostly armed with sticks, began following the man when they spotted him at 12:45 p.m. near Peg and Bolin.

*SNIP*

Vigilante justice, pure and simple.....

the molested child, or the mob?

That's my Bush!

...before they dragged the guy behind someone's pickup truck.

"We know him. The whole neighborhood knows him," said Carlos Gonzalez.

Its good when a neighborhood takes care of its problems like this. It would be better if more did.

"The little kids spotted him. The little kids started the chase," Gonzalez said. "All the little kids in the neighborhood -- they had sticks and everything."

"Adults joined in the chase when the man threatened the youngsters. "


"I came out with a baseball bat," Gonzalez said. "When he saw the men coming, he ran."

The residents cornered the man in a fenced-in yard near Granite and Bolin until police arrived."


Its kind of hard to drag a man to death behind a Big Wheel! The article also says the adults didn't attack, they waited for police.

...hunter becoming the hunted. :)

A little background on where this occurred...

It is a very poor area with too much voter apathy to attract the attention of many politicians. Since convicted sex offenders can gain a modicum of anonymity in this sort of neighborhood, they flock there. The people just got fed up with the problems this brings about and they fought back. Can you blame them?

"The homeowner called police and pleaded with the crowd to not harm the man."

At least there was one person who believed in the rule of law.

n/t

And that's an excuse to descend to the level of savages is it?

I'm sorry, but I don't believe there is ever an excuse or reason for taking the law into one's own hands.

There is a reason that we have police, courts, judges and juries, there was a time when we didn't and it was not pleasant.

When a community really is denied the benefits of the rule of law, it's understandable that it would perhaps not feel constrained by it when it thought (in circumstances in which anyone would think) that it was in need of protection.

Nonetheless ...



Wrong movie, but I couldn't find a pic of the villagers heading for Dr. Frankenstein's castle. ;)

edited to add:



the villagers before they took up cudgels, as the villagers in the posted story might have felt, and with more reason if we assume that their monster was not as nice as Frankenstein's.

.

"And that's an excuse to descend to the level of savages is it?"

Sometimes it is, however I would hardly call punishing violent criminals savage.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe there is ever an excuse or reason for taking the law into one's own hands."

Thats a pretty broad statement. You are pretty much saying there is never a reason to take the law into your own hands. I can think of several.

What if there is no longer any orginized law enforcement officials, or what if they just no longer show up? Are you just going to sit by and let lawlessness run rampent? Or would you work with other citizens and try to stop it as best you could.

"There is a reason that we have police, courts, judges and juries..."

Sometimes they still dont work.

"Sometimes it is, however I would hardly call punishing violent criminals savage."

The punishment of criminals is not carried out by mobs in civilised countries. We have, or are supposed to have (guarunteed by constitution or other device) rights to fair trial, due process, and punishment free from cruelty.

As someone who obviously feels strongly about the US' second ammendment, I find it strange and worrying that you would condone stripping persons of their other rights. Is this a common thread among the RKBA crowd?

"Sometimes they still dont work."

So if you disagree with the judgement of a court you are free to disregard it?

Stranger and stranger.

of the RKBA crowd, isn't it?

Seems to me THEY could possibly be the jack-booted thugs of their paranoid fantasies.

So maybe they need the guns to protect themselves from each other?

;)

Remember, just a few weeks ago we had one on here announcing that she hoped to be as "effective" as the beltway snipers...

(I see you all ignoring me.)

I didn't mean to imply that I supported vigilante "justice" as it related to punishment, except in the most extreme circumstances where the rule of law has simply ceased to exist.

I was referring to action taken to apprehend an accused offender where the authorities declined/were unable to take such action.

Obviously, s/he would then have to be turned over to those authorities.

.

what possible "humor" anyone found in this situation....

...were turning into Xena the Warrior Princess or anything. :) (She is Canadian, right?)

I don't like mob rule either but these people made their point with no one getting hurt. It was cut from later versions of the article but the first story reported that when he was cornered the suspect dropped some clothes but kept a pair of girl's panties which he then started sniffing. It says a lot that he was not harmed.

Perhaps few of you have known extreme poverty and what it is like to exist, yet not exist. If you had, you may understand more what is humorous about the sight of kids with sticks running the pervert out of town.

Alannis, and Avril, and Shania, and Céline, and Jack in 24 (and the bad woman who killed his wife, and his wife), and Claire from Law & Order, and Meldrick from Homicide, and the guy with the harem in Ally MacBeal, and Capt. Kirk ("Denny Crane" - The Practice) (notice how US prime-time series go downhill when deprived of their Canadian, and improve when one is brought in?) and Mike Myers and Michael J. Fox and Lorne Michaels, and the Kids in the Hall and the Barenaked Ladies, and ...

But Xena, she's ... oops, I'd better check ... yup, New Zealand-ish. I almost said Australian. I read once about an Australian who asked a tourist whether s/he was Canadian, and the tourist responded with amazement at not being assumed, as usual, to be a USAmerican, and the Australian responded that s/he knew just how well New Zealanders took to being mistaken for Australians, and was forearmed.

Just don't blame us for Céline. Please.


Perhaps few of you have known extreme poverty and what it is like to exist, yet not exist. If you had, you may understand more what is humorous about the sight of kids with sticks running the pervert out of town.

I agree with the first part. Adherence to the rule of law is a luxury not available to the oppressed and exploited. As a result, they suffer both from violence that comes from outside and violence that originates within their communities.

Supporting measures to enhance adherence to the rule of law (such as the creation of an independent judiciary, a competent bar and a non-corrupt police force) is primary in Canada's international development efforts for that reason.

The essence of the rule of law is that the law has no regard for persons: it applies equally, in terms of both benefits and penalties, to everyone. That ideal is seldom realized in practice, but it must be the goal. Nonetheless, I wouldn't engage in victim blaming where the goal hasn't been met, any more than anywhere else.

I can see the humour in a Dead End Kids kind of way. (Dead End is one of my all-time favourite movies.) The problem is that without very strong internal, informal community controls (and personal controls, which kids tend to be short on) to substitute for the formal rule of law -- it taking a village and all that -- a bunch of kids chasing an accused person down the street with sticks could very easily become a beating death. Lord of the Flies rather than Dead End Kids.


Dead End, for anyone who doesn't know it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028773/

Remember Frank the Potato Man on Picket Fences?

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-295/epid-10372

The townspeople of Rome are plagued by a mysterious "serial bather", who sneaks into their homes while they are out and has a bath. The pressure is on for the Sheriff's department to apprehend the disturbed felon as suspicion falls on Frank the Potato Man, a homeless man who lives in the woods around the town.

Frank fit the description (apparently having a preference for teenaged girls on his record), and was run out of town. As I recall it, he was exonerated, but not before he froze to death.

I certainly wouldnt convict any of those 20 people of any crimes if they got the right person.

Sometimes average people deal with criminals better than our so called judicial system.

We imprison people for possession and using marijuana yet we have pedophiles out on the street. Its fucked up.

.....said Houston police officer S.A. Burk.

"officers have responded to two calls in the area recently, but none resulted in any arrest."

Now they have made an arrest, go figure.

"The little kids spotted him. The little kids started the chase," Gonzalez said. "All the little kids in the neighborhood -- they had sticks and everything."

Gee, what an angry lynch mob huh?

"Adults joined in the chase when the man threatened the youngsters."


"I came out with a baseball bat," Gonzalez said. "When he saw the men coming, he ran."

How could anyone see this as anything but fortunate for our society? I say we arm ALL young children with sticks to ward off child molesters! What if this 44 year old man had his eye on your 12 year old child? Would you not be tempted to capture him when the police failed twice before?

I remember a few years back when a group of people on a poor council estate attacked the home of a woman because they were sure she was a paedophile....

Turned out that she was actually a paediatric nurse........

"And there's mob justice throughout the land tonight....of course, a Mr Peter File was mistakenly killed in Rotherham, but if your name was File would you call yourself Peter? Of course not....."

The brilliance of Chris Morris.

P.

"I remember a few years back when a group of people on a poor council estate attacked the home of a woman because they were sure she was a paedophile....Turned out that she was actually a paediatric nurse........"

Was that when the Mirror printed a list of sex offenders including home addresses and photos?

There was that chap that hanged himself because he was blockaded in his home for a week by "protestors"... thing is his name was printed in error.

Very sad.