Andy Kahn of Crimestoppers Joins Houston Morning News, July 22nd, 2024

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Okay, As noted, one lawenforcement officer was murdered. Nearly fifty people
charged with burglary during power outages afterpost or excuse me, after Hurricane Beryl.
What is going on? Why thespike in crime post storm? Indy
Cahan from Crime Stoppers joining us,Good morning, Andy, Y, glad
to be here, Good to haveyou. Crazy news day. Let's not

(00:21):
turn our attention away from the safetyof Houstonians who are trying to figure out
why there is such a crime spikenow post hurricane. Does it have to
do with a hurricane or is thatjust an excuse. It's a combination of
fact. You're keeping in mind thatmost of the businesses were closed, shut
down, there's nobody around, soyou have some people who, of course

(00:42):
are going to take advantage of them, and they're about as low as low.
So we started noticing at crime Stoppersthat there were a lot of people
starting to get booked into jail forburglary of a building. And I've never
seen some money in my years oflooking at who's getting booked into the jail.
Was like burglary of a bil buildingnon stop. One day that we're
over seventeen the other day that wereover twenty. Right now, I've documented

(01:06):
about fifty people charged with burglary ofa building. What burglary of a building
really means is that you're breaking intoa business, and you're doing it during
a disaster, which is about aslow as you can get the actual penalties
in a non disaster. It's justa state jail felony, meaning you can

(01:27):
get up to two years in astay jail. But because these crimes were
committed during a disaster, here iswhat we're going to be watching. There
should be enhanced penalties, meaning thatall fifty plus defendants will be eligible for
a third degree felony, meaning youcould go away for two to ten years.

(01:49):
And we're hoping that the courts actuallysend a message saying, if you're
going to commit these crimes during adisaster, we're going to send you a
prison and for as long as wecan and you don't get to breathe free
air. Is there a pattern tothis? I mean, do you see
any links? Does this appear tobe organized or these just individuals who were

(02:09):
just taking advantage of the system.Now, there were like three groups of
three to four sometimes five that wouldgo into businesses, So no they knew
what they were doing. And keepin mind a lot of the offenders hooked
in this wasn't their first dog andpony show. They've been around a system.

(02:30):
We had one guy with ten felonyconvictions, another guy with five felony
convictions. We actually have people whowere out on bond for burglar the building
that decided to take advantage of thehurricane and resume their criminal career. So
most of them knew what they weredoing and they ended up working in packs.

(02:51):
Do we even question the legal statusof these suspects For the most part,
I haven't seen anything they would questionanything whether they were here legally in
this country or not. Most ofthem again, appear to have been in
and out of the system. Thiswasn't like, oh, this is an
opportunity. Most of them have been, you know, some of them.

(03:14):
One guy was on at five felonyconvictions. He's on probation for assault with
a beating up a pregnant woman.Doesn't show up to his probation office,
and then he goes to another county. He's charged with two other felonies.
He gets convicted there, so nowhe's on probation in Harris County, and

(03:34):
in Kennedy County he gets charged withburglar of the building here and at one
time he actually was given a PRbond. It just makes a zero sense
and it makes you question whether we'retruly protecting public safety. Keeping in mind,
property offenders actually wreck more damage ona community quite frankly, because this

(03:57):
is what they do for a career. People thankfully don't go around killing people
and doing other types of violent crimeson a regular basis, but property of
venders this is what they do.And as you well know, the retail
industry is suffering so much, andespecially your business community. Yeah, jobs,
jobs people. When retailer stores getget vandalized and damaged, obviously they

(04:21):
have to close down and people can'twork, they get no hours, they
end up not being able to feedtheir families. Then maybe it leads to
even second secondary crimes now, andthat's why I hate the definition of non
violent crime. They wreck havoc oncommunities. Okay, you say you hope
the courts will hold them to justice. Do you really have any belief that

(04:41):
they will? Well, I guesswhat, because I'm going to be keeping
track of them. I've got everysingle defendant who's been charged during Hurricane Burrough
with breaking into a business. SoI'm going to let everybody know, and
I think the public deserves to knowwhat happens. I mean, it's great.
I tell my law enforcement buddy,Hey, great, you guys arrested
him. That's awesome. Now thereal issue begins what happens after the arrest.

(05:06):
And this is where we're going tocome in and let the public know
what happens. Andy, that's atrue public service. By tracking those down
and making sure everybody knows what eachand every one of these individuals, you
know, how their cases turn out. That's a very important public service.
Andy, Kay, I think theeyes of Paris County are going to be
upon you. Amen to that.Thank you, We appreciate your report.
Thank you Eddie, You've bet