Crime Watch News

It is now a few days after the elections and what an election this was. We have a new president, a bunch of new criminal and civil court judges, a new sheriff, but most of the same members of congress. The next two years will be very interesting! I am, however, amazed at the level of cynicism among our young people. Texas is still a “red” state and the executive and legislative branches are now “blue”. No matter how anyone feels about this, let us all hope it goes well, for none of us “wins” if there is failure. I hope that everyone is prepared to endure the economic times ahead. I'm not an economist, but it's easy to see that the policies of the last forty years are finally catching up to us. There are some that want to assign blame for companies failing, people losing their houses/cars, the stock market crashing, etc, but it all goes back to individual responsibility. Certainly there are those CEOs along with their subordinates that were ripping people off and there are legions of politicians that allowed these things to happen and even took active parts, however, no one forced anyone to take out loans they knew they couldn't afford. There are also those individuals that took active parts in committing fraud and continue to do so as I write this, but there is always a day of reckoning. The me generation is over and now it's time to work together. I think we also need to do a better job of teaching government/civics in school. There are people out there that believed that I could have lost my job based on who was elected sheriff. While it is true that I serve at the pleasure of whoever is the boss, I still have civil service and can't be fired for any reason. Besides, we're still a little short handed and I'm pretty sure I'll have my job for as long as I want it. This is still a free country, vote for whoever you want.

Some of you wanted to know more about the accused child abuser I arrested. While all arrests are public information, I don't mention names as a matter of policy and despite my own personal feelings, everyone is entitled to the concept of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. If anyone wants to know about the convicted and registered sex offenders among us please go to www.txdps.state.tx.us, click on criminal records on the left side and then click on the highlighted text for sex offenders. Keep in mind that this list reflects where a sex offender is supposed to be and crooks being crooks, they don't always do what they are supposed to do. This is not an all inclusive list as there are offenders out there that have not been identified or caught, let alone convicted. I submit that it is each parent’s responsibility to keep an eye on their children, however, keep in mind, most offenders exist within the family and the instances of the creepy next door neighbor are few and far between. I had one resident call about a suspicious person watching his daughter at the bus stop. He got me a license plate, I located and identified this person, who it turns out, was watching his own daughter at the bus stop. Instead of walking 30 yards with his daughter, he follows her in his vehicle, in which he has not registered to his new address, did not have his driver's license or insurance with him and wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Needless to say he had a very rude awakening that morning.

While we are on rude awakenings, I was called a racist twice last month, which is probably a record for me. Despite the dawning of a new day in America, we still have “victims” among us who subscribe to the theory that their problems are based on the color of their skin rather than their own boneheaded actions. In the first instance, junior is driving around in the dark with no lights, no driver's license or insurance and vehicle not registered to this area. After I put the car on a wrecker and write junior a fist full of tickets, dad comes running up to the scene and when he gets his fist full of tickets for allowing junior to break the law, he proceeds to tell junior I'm doing what I do because, you guessed it, I'm a racist. Unfortunately I can't peel of my uniform and defend my honor, but for those of you that believe this kind of crap, you might want to find someplace else to live. I cannot fathom how someone can be breaking the law and when they get caught and are being dealt with accordingly, it is somehow racism in action.
In the other instance, which did not occur in this neighborhood, a couple was arguing, throwing things around and generally putting their business in the open as this was an apartment complex. Upon my arrival, I can hear them going at it as I approach the door. Of course, when the door opens, I'm told where to go and that the only reason I'm there is, and here we go again, because I'm a racist. That's right, I drive around for seven and three quarters hours and 15 minutes before quitting time, I decide that I need to jump into a family disturbance because I have absolutely nothing better to do. Some people live only because it's illegal to kill them! Interestingly enough, they had a pattern of cops showing up on their doorstep for exactly the same thing, but of course I can't tell them they probably need to examine their own behavior instead of their skin color. What they still don't know is that the neighbor that called was of the same race.

I've had a few instances of things being stolen out of open garages, especially in Westbrook Lakes. Someone will be working in the yard, usually in the back, they leave the garage door open and some scumbag drives by, runs into the garage, snatches an item and they're gone in seconds. A couple of residents have found what they believe to be their property on Craigslist. Some of you make pretty good detectives. I have to recommend that you do everything to protect you own property as we can't do it for you, but case something does happen, our detectives/deputy investigators are pretty busy so whatever leads you can gather, it's always appreciated. Also, our department is still hiring and we have a new boss, which may or may not change things, but I still love my job.

It was great to meet more of you during National Night Out, hopefully you got to meet more of your neighbors and you'll do a good job of looking out for each other. We are now headed into the holiday season. Please don't drink and drive! We have developed the “no refusal” policy where if someone is caught drinking and driving, we can apply for a search warrant to draw blood if they decide they don't want to blow into an intoxylizer machine. Blood draws are mandatory if a death or serious bodily injury are a result of a motor vehicle crash. Some of you may have noticed that the street racers are coming out of the woodwork again. There was a fatality on FM 1960 last month in which an innocent elderly woman was driving along, minding her own business when idiot boy racing another moron after school, runs into her after losing control of his high dollar sports car/racing machine. She died, the racer died and his passenger died while the other racer left the scene, but was later caught. Dad, of course, is on television rather quickly denying his son was out there screwing up even though there were many witnesses to this horrific event. Some parents just need to be slapped upside the head. Needless to say, he's fixing to get sued by a whole bunch of people in addition to having lost his son and while no one needs to go through what he's fixing to endure, he can't put the blame on anyone else.

Till next time, let’s be careful out there.
-Officer Mook