“The people of Harris County are tired of this. I am tired of this, of standing over babies and dead people on the road.”
—Sean Teare, head of the Vehicular Crimes Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, in a newspaper article detailing the county’s new crackdown on intoxicated driving. After a drunk 20-year-old woman killed two people, including an infant, in a car crash, the DA’s Office has charged three people, including an area bartender, with criminal negligence and knowingly purchasing and providing alcohol to a minor. https://www.mysanantonio.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/ Four-charged-in-alleged-drunk-driving-crash-that-12808895.php
“The fake IDs are getting harder to spot. They now include holograms and images that show up under black lights, just like the real ones do. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference.”
—a doorman at a Houston club, identified only as Mike, on his concerns after Webster bartenders allegedly served alcohol to a minor, who later caused a crash that killed two people. http://abc13.com/ bartenders-worried-about-fake-ids-after-duis-involving-minors/3317910/
“I’ve been praying every second I could to be rescued.”
—Rebecca (her last name withheld for privacy), who had been trafficked for sex by an older man, Johnathon Nathaniel Kelly, and was indeed rescued by Deputy Patrick Paquette of the Greene County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Department. Deputy Paquette had just completed a class called Interdiction for the Protection of Children in Texas, which taught him to look for signs of sex-trafficking during roadside stops, and he saw several signs when he pulled over Kelly’s car.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/police-are-trained-to-spot-drunken-driving-and-drug-trafficking-why-not-child-trafficking-too/2018/02/26/56937d02-082c-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html
“Are they wearing the same clothes for three days? Have they been fed? Are they always hungry when they get here? Do they eat breakfast and lunch and they’re starving and they say that’s the only two meals they get? There’s a lot you can tell about kids just from them showing up to school.”
—Nicol Stolar-Peterson, LCSW and child abuse expert, in a CNN news story about the Harts, the California family whose SUV was found wrecked at the bottom of a cliff in March. The parents, Jennifer and Sara Hart, had been accused of withholding food from the kids, who had been knocking on neighbors’ doors complaining of hunger. Stolar-Peterson noted that public and private schools can be a protection against mistreatment of children because teachers and other school personnel are mandatory reporters, and laws require them to report suspected abuse. The Hart children were homeschooled. https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/us/hart-family-abuse-isolation/ index.html
“Officers responded to a fight in progress in a trailer park. Turns out to have something to do with infidelity and jealousy. Suspect arrested for assault.”
—Twitter feed of the College Station Police Department, which live-tweeted its patrol one night in April. Using the hashtag #tweetalong, police encountered everything from intoxicated college students and public urination to car crashes and fist fights.