I am absolutely at a loss how this could have happened at a grass roots protest. It appears to be an ambush. How does this unfold at an unplanned event? It doesn't make any sense to me.
Totally OT: Was in Dallas for a few days....
- Thread starter pitt-girl
- Start date
Police covering a black lives matter demonstration in Dallas were targeted by snipers. Four or 5 officers reported dead and another 6-7 wounded.
Dead perpetrator declared to police that he had no connection or affiliation with Black Lives Matter--simply a demented opportunist taking advantage of an opportunity to wreak mayhem.
Agree - but he most certainly had a very clear agenda to kill white people, white police officers in particular. Not hard to connect the dots why it might have happened at this particular event even though it was peaceful.
So would you avoid Houston at all costs? I ask because we are bringing a team of U14 ice hockey players from New Zealand to St Paul Minnesota in March. Air New Zealand now flies direct to Houston from Auckland, in addition to flights to LA and SF. We were thinking that getting to Houston gets us into the same time zone as the tourney and we spend a day or two in Houston to acclimate and see the space center and then fly up to Minnesota. Many on the team have already done the Disney thing and personally I'm afraid that I would punch Mickey in the face as I'm no fan. I've never been myself except for the airport. Is Houston so bad that we should we suck it up and let the team do the Disney thing and I'll just go to the pub?
I admit that I've only been thru Houston on a drive-thru, so I'm no expert on the place. But I'd guess that Houston is just like every other major American city: that being it has its good points and its not-so-good points.
If you avoid the obviously bad places, you and your team should be okay.
But on the other hand, even young people who've been to Disney before never have complaints about going back again.
Houston's not that bad, you can find a hotel in a decent area and be fine for a couple days.
The space center is a bit out of town so you won't run into any problems there. I wouldn't recommend trying to sightsee around any of the local Universities, other than Rice. Rice is in a good area, and the area right around it (Rice Village) is pretty safe and definitely wealthy.
The food is great, too, and it's Texas so beer and bars are plentiful. Shouldn't be TOO miserable in March in terms of weather, either.
The crime in the good areas of Houston is mostly limited to home invasions and late night muggings, similar to any big city (my in-laws live in a nice residential area of Dallas and they have those things that happen as well). The violent crimes are more contained to the truly bad areas.
Thanks PB11. These kids are 11-13 so university isn't on their radar yet. I think we will do the Houston way as we are really coming to play hockey and that flight gets us closer to Minnesota while the kids are asleep on the international flight. That hour/hour and a half less flying within the US within the same timezone will be beneficial to their hockey as we have to arrive in Minnesota and play the same day.
It is a very sad state of commentary that here in NZ, people are very afraid of the US. I think much of that is from what they see on TV and in movies but the news is just as bad. People here just don't have any concept of that kind of violence.
You should be okay in Houston, if New Zealand media is anything like American media the overall violence of the US is probably overstated.
That said, I'm sure the violence is still on another level compared to New Zealand.
On the bright side, all of this killing is just a small drop in the bucket compared to the lives that will be saved when we need to form a well regulated militia to fight against our government's tanks, planes, bombs, and chemical technology whenever it inevitably decides to turn to mass genocide.
If you were to go to Orlando, would you be locked into Disney and the Magic Kingdom?
Universal Orlando would be an option, one that may be more enticing to that gender and age group.
If you still want/had to WDW, the other parks have different theming. Hollywood Studios, for example, would be heaven to any Star Wars fans.
