"Scores of Houston police officers swarmed onto the Kmart parking lot [in Houston] 12:30 a.m. Sunday [Aug, 2002) and arrested about 425 people for criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor."

Apparently, the officers had requested permission from the Kmart shopping center to enforce No Trespassing laws on their premises in order to deal with possible drag racers. None of the people arrested in this raid were even told they were trespassing, nor were there any signs up. Not only that, but legitimate customers of Kmart and the surrounding businesses were hauled off to spend the night in jail. And, of course, this isn't even the right part of town for drag racing.

"They even arrested a 10-year-old girl who was having dinner with her father and took her to juvenile detention."

"Leanne Williams said her 19-year-old son called her from jail and told her he showed police a receipt for bottled water from Kmart, but he was still arrested. She said her son called her five times from the downtown jail, but police still couldn't locate him at 11 a.m. because his paperwork had been delayed.

"Scott said she didn't have the money to pay bail and so she pleaded guilty to avoid spending another night in jail."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/topstory2/1539629

Some speculation is that the police were just trying to harass the predominantly hispanic population in that part of town.

-Biscuits