Police Seize White Teen From Black Legal Guardians

Questioning the men and putting the girl with CPS both sound reasonable to me. As they try to sort out the legitimacy of her status, and the real possibility she could be a runaway or a sex slave, they have to stick her somewhere, and CPS is probably the protocol. I've got no problem with that, and I have no problem with the police taking an abundance of caution when it comes to the safety of 13 year old girls.

I don't understand why the 2 men were cuffed and put in the cruiser. It sounds like they weren't arrested for anything, which is appropriate since they didn't know if any crime was committed, but I don't know why they'd be put in the cruiser if they weren't arrested.

It probably wouldn't have happened if it was 2 white men with a white girl, because passersby would assume one of those men was her father or brother or something. That they were black makes it pretty clear they're unlikely to be related. Is it racial profiling to use racial clues to guess 'that guy is not that little girl's big brother, there might be something wrong here'?

Of course, there might still be something racial here. If it was a black girl with 2 white guys, the same conclusions could be drawn, but would the cops be as likely to investigate? I don't know but I would hope so.

As for the documents the parents sent, it sounds like they worked as well as one should hope. The story was all there and their daughter was released in less than a day. Would you want a couple of pimps with a 13 year old prostitute to hand some affidavit to the cop, the cop look it over and say 'well, everything seems to be in order here; carry on"? Of course not. The cops needed to call the parents and confirm their identities before letting them go.

Sorry if it's inconvenience but there are more important things at stake here. Houston is the human trafficking capital of the country. We mostly pretend it doesn't exist, but 13 year olds kidnapped and forced into the sex trade is a real thing that happens here. Do I want police to see a pretty 13 year old sleeping in a car at some gas station at 3 am with 2 young men of obviously no relation to her and not do something about it? They used very poor judgement and made themselves look like criminals in a high crime city. It's not even a black boys shouldn't do such-and-such in the South thing; everybody should know better. I get nervous when the girl down the street comes into my house to play with my daughter.

 

JV, those are very legitimate points; however, it seems that even after every necessary procedure was taken to assure that she wasn't a sex slave (notes, parents, SSN's, Oklahoma law enforcement), the Houston cops just morally disagreed with the parents decision and decided to hold on to the girls for 6 more hours demanding that the parents come. Only after the parents made it a bunch of noise and complaints did the Houston cops realize they were in the legal wrong.

In your last paragraph though, you're claiming that these 20-yr-olds made themselves look like criminals in a high crime city, by going to a gas station and letting the 13-yr-old stay in the car. Really? Maybe if they'd look that way if they were creeping around an abandoned warehouse, but just being normal and resting at a gas station?

 

Picked up at 3 am and released at 11:30 am -- a total of 8.5 hours. And 6 of those hours were before office hours. I'm not sure at what time they had their phone conversation with the parents, or the call from the OK police, or got the scanned drivers licenses of the parents. It might have been before or after the kid was carted off to CPS. In any case, on the scale of municipal bureaucracies, I think 8.5 hours is rather speedy. It certainly doesn't seem like an excessive amount of time.

Two grown men with an underaged girl with no apparent place to be (and likely out-of-state plates) in the middle of the night -- yeah, that makes you look like a criminal. If you think actual criminals are too smart to fall asleep at a gas station, you'd be wrong. Criminals get busted all the time because they are dumb and lazy about concealing their crimes. That they're black and the girl white might make it stick out a little worse, but it's already plenty bad.

 

You bring up some good points regarding the speed of bureaucracy but this still seems excessive particularly sending the girl to CPS. I'm guessing that might've slowed things down. It seems like the police might've jumped the gun in presuming that something illegal was going on rather than taking time to figure things out.

Count me in with the people that don't see a problem with investigating the situation because of they were asleep in their car. That right there seems like reasonable suspicion that something isn't right and would hope that they would do the same for any group of people regardless of race.

 

I'm sure involving CPS when you have a 13 year old is standard protocol. Police aren't exactly equipped to care for children who aren't being charged. What if they had her sit on a couch in the rec room while they straighten things out, and she walks out the front door? Then they have something of an embarassment at least for losing someone's kid, and maybe a lawsuit. CPS is made for children who otherwise don't have adequate supervision. Once they figured out that she did, they gave her back to the two guys.

Also, I can understand that the mother might have been offended that the cops second-guessed her parenting choices. I'd be offended. Cops should have kept their mouths shut on that, but probably not worth a big stink. When you become a parent you encounter second-guessing everywhere from everyone anyway. I've developed a thick skin on that.

 

I'm pretty sure criminals who would be smart enough to create a mass of fraudulent documents to make a kidnapping/taking a kid against her parent's wishes (not necessarily hers) look legit wouldn't be dumb enough to fall asleep with their victim in the car at a gas station.

 

Awwww man....why did this have to happen in Houston? Freakin' racist HPD giving Htown a bad name.

 

I don't know enough to know if calling CPS is standing policy but I find it hard to believe that they couldn't have just kept her at the station for a couple of hours while they sort things out.

True it was 3 Am when she was brought in but consider it is a child who is giving the police her number they should've figured the parents would want to know right away if something was happening to their daughter. All of this seems like it could've been cleared up much faster.

 

Made themselves look like criminals? Criminals with documentation, alibis, and contact information committing no crime. A girl kidnapped into the sex trade wouldn't tell the police she had been kidnapped? C'mon.

This is a lot more a case of black until proven innocent rather than some accidental or bureaucratic inconvenience.

 

pity party alert

 

the police to the girl's mom: ’Are you aware your daughter is with two black men?’

seems like they were indeed singled out by their race.

 

or were they simply described by their race over the phone?

how is what the police said conclusive that they were "singled out"?

 

they were investigating a minor with two adults.

they could have done their job by simply asking: "are you aware your daughter is with two men?"

and let's not start playing the double hypothetical negative reverse race card.

 

So it's now illegal to describe people by their appearance?

lol

 

Taking a nap on the side of the road is absolutely better than driving tired. Of course, it seems with two adults, they could have taken turns driving if naps were necessary. It is very inappropriate for both adults to take a nap at a gas station with someone else's child.

Edit: As for the situation, I think I would have suspected something as the cops did. Runaway/prostitution kind of thing. They should have questioned. Seen the documentation, confirmed with parents, and let them be on their way, apologizing for the inconvenience.

 

who said anything about legality?

terrible assumption and leap of logic










lol

 

in b4 quanell x

 

Bigotry alert.

 

This quote is by far my favorite part of this story.