Galveston: Today's mopes and dopes

[seamusTX]

Vampire lad's lawyer says he was unwittingly drugged at a party earlier on the night of his arrest, and that the defendant has no recollection of the incident.

The police say that he did not appear to be intoxicated at the time of the arrest. They referred him for mental health evaluation.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/251918" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In other news, Friday evening police responded to a call about an out-of-control intoxicated woman at the north end of the Galveston causeway. They arrested her for public intoxication, handcuffed her, and put her into the back seat of a patrol car. They proceeded to take her to jail on the island.

She unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door, and fell out of the car.

Fortunately the officer had been alert enough to pull into the right lane and stop just as she was falling out.

The Galveston causeway is about two miles long, 70 feet above the water, and four lanes wide with a 60 MPH speed limit.

Police want to charge the woman with felony escape along with public intoxication (which is a class C misdemeanor).

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/251934" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Memo to police chief: it might be a good idea to have the interior door controls removed from the rear doors of patrol cars.

- Jim

[Excaliber]

Vampire lad's lawyer says he was unwittingly drugged at a party earlier on the night of his arrest, and that the defendant has no recollection of the incident.

The police say that he did not appear to be intoxicated at the time of the arrest. They referred him for mental health evaluation.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/251918" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In other news, Friday evening police responded to a call about an out-of-control intoxicated woman at the north end of the Galveston causeway. They arrested her for public intoxication, handcuffed her, and put her into the back seat of a patrol car. They proceeded to take her to jail on the island.

She unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door, and fell out of the car.

Fortunately the officer had been alert enough to pull into the right lane and stop just as she was falling out.

The Galveston causeway is about two miles long, 70 feet above the water, and four lanes wide with a 60 MPH speed limit.

Police want to charge the woman with felony escape along with public intoxication (which is a class C misdemeanor).

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/251934" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Memo to police chief: it might be a good idea to have the interior door controls removed from the rear doors of patrol cars.

- Jim

Most police cars ordered as such come with this feature as standard.

There's probably an interesting story behind how come the vehicle in this post was equipped differently.

[seamusTX]

It was a Tiki Island car.

Tiki Island is all but a gated community. The least expensive home there probably costs upward of a quarter million. There are only a couple of retail stores.

They almost never deal with this kind of incident, and maybe they weren't prepared for it.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Sunday a grifter pretending to be a city worker entered the home of an elderly woman and stole her purse.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/252586" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This scam has been going on literally as long as I can remember. Often the scammer tells the victim that their furnace is going to explode or something of that sort.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Around 2 a.m. Friday (duh) a man was charged with aggravated assault for using a vehicle to run over another man in the 2000 block of Postoffice. The two men had been in a bar and argued about a woman (double duh).

The victim was in the hospital in fair condition.

This was behind the grand opera house in Galveston, for those who are familiar with the area.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/253862" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I propose that this type of tragic crime can be prevented if we just take a few reasonable measures, such as:

• Banning all high-powered assault vehicles.
• Registering all motor vehicles.
• Testing and licensing all drivers.
• Requiring insurance for all drivers and vehicles.
• Licensing and inspecting all establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.
• Requiring IDs to buy alcoholic beverages.

Oh, wait ... maybe we need to require big pillows on the fronts of vehicles to that they can't injure anyone.

- Jim

[The Annoyed Man]

Around 2 a.m. Friday (duh) a man was charged with aggravated assault for using a vehicle to run over another man in the 2000 block of Postoffice. The two men had been in a bar and argued about a woman (double duh).

The victim was in the hospital in fair condition.

This was behind the grand opera house in Galveston, for those who are familiar with the area.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/253862" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I propose that this type of tragic crime can be prevented if we just take a few reasonable measures, such as:

• Banning all high-powered assault vehicles.
• Registering all motor vehicles.
• Testing and licensing all drivers.
• Requiring insurance for all drivers and vehicles.
• Licensing and inspecting all establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.
• Requiring IDs to buy alcoholic beverages.

Oh, wait ... maybe we need to require big pillows on the fronts of vehicles to that they can't injure anyone.

- Jim

I vote for you.

[seamusTX]

In Galveston Sunday afternoon a 51-year-old white man from Sugar Land was arrested for allegedly pointing a handgun at the occupants of another vehicle during a road-rage incident that he allegedly provoked. He was charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the newspaper.

Officers collected two handguns during the stop, a Sig Sauer from a belt holster and a 9 mm Smith & Wesson from the glove box, [a police spokesman] said.

[The suspect] had a concealed handgun license, [the police spokesman] said.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/264046" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Remember, all suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

- Jim

[schufflerbot]

dang. was hoping it was just MPA, but no such luck.

if the initial story turns out to be the facts, he earned that CHL revocation.

In Galveston Sunday afternoon a 51-year-old white man from Sugar Land was arrested for allegedly pointing a handgun at the occupants of another vehicle during a road-rage incident that he allegedly provoked. He was charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the newspaper.

Officers collected two handguns during the stop, a Sig Sauer from a belt holster and a 9 mm Smith & Wesson from the glove box, [a police spokesman] said.

[The suspect] had a concealed handgun license, [the police spokesman] said.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/264046" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Remember, all suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

Unless he can cop a misdemeanor plea, he's in deep kimchi. The DA here is pretty tough.

- Jim

[Keith B]

dang. was hoping it was just MPA, but no such luck.

if the initial story turns out to be the facts, he earned that CHL revocation.

In Galveston Sunday afternoon a 51-year-old white man from Sugar Land was arrested for allegedly pointing a handgun at the occupants of another vehicle during a road-rage incident that he allegedly provoked. He was charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the newspaper.

Officers collected two handguns during the stop, a Sig Sauer from a belt holster and a 9 mm Smith & Wesson from the glove box, [a police spokesman] said.

[The suspect] had a concealed handgun license, [the police spokesman] said.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/264046" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Remember, all suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

- Jim

If the facts come out on this that he indeed did what they say, then he is gonna have a lot more than a CHL revocation to deal with. I suspect he will end up not being able to posses a firearm with a felony conviction. He will be lucky if he gets probation. And, unfortunately, this shows that not all CHL holders are necessarily the good guy.

[knotquiteawake]

Oh, wait ... maybe we need to require big pillows on the fronts of vehicles to that they can't injure anyone.

- Jim

No No you got it wrong, we need to require big pillows on the fronts of all peoples so that they can't be injured!

[texanron]

If the facts come out on this that he indeed did what they say, then he is gonna have a lot more than a CHL revocation to deal with. I suspect he will end up not being able to posses a firearm with a felony conviction. He will be lucky if he gets probation. And, unfortunately, this shows that not all CHL holders are necessarily the good guy.

This is going to cost him his CHL and a ton of cash! What is about driving a vehicle that turns some people into such dopes???

[seamusTX]

What is about driving a vehicle that turns some people into such dopes???

According to the psychologists, it's the sense of power and invulnerability that comes with being enclosed in a metal-and-glass box. People do things in vehicles that they would never do if they were on their feet and within reach of another person.

Add weapons into that mindset and it's a formula for disaster.

- Jim

[tbrown]

And, unfortunately, this shows that not all CHL holders are necessarily the good guy.

Until we know more facts, I think the only thing this shows is the importance of being the first to call 911.

[seamusTX]

There's no question that you should call 911 at the earliest safe opportunity if you have to use force or display a weapon as a deterrent.

However, the cops do not automatically arrest person A because person B called 911 first. They assess the credibility of the caller and the accused suspect. In this case, the accusers were a 30-year-old man and his 46-year-old aunt. It's easy for the police to question two witnesses separately and see if their stories agree. The suspect was alone, so aside from not calling 911, he had no corroborating witness.

I should have mentioned this incident occurred on a four-lane divided road that rarely has much traffic. It could fairly be described as desolate. I used to commute on it every weekday. Most of the time it's possible to drive 70 MPH unimpeded. There's no excuse to be playing games in vehicles in that area.

- Jim