Criminal checks

During the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, lots of criminals wound up among good people on buses and in shelters. Still others used the occasion as an opportunity to get out of town and not come back. In Texas they think they have a solution for both those problems.

The Houston Chronicle story headlined: “Next time, evacuees subject to criminal checks,” leads with the following. “Texans seeking to escape the next hurricane or state emergency by evacuation bus will first be submitted to criminal background checks, the state’s emergency management director says.”

There are several different ways you might want to respond to this story. One is to imagine a rank of buses with signs on them. “Special Needs” one might say. Another bus would be marked for “The Elderly.” And there would be a bus for “Criminals, Parolees, and Other Evil Doers.”

That was my first reaction. I imagined a scene like a giant school field trip, but with different signs on the buses. Then, I got to thinking about how all this was going to work

I like the intent of what Texas wants to do. The idea is to keep vulnerable people like children, the disabled, and the elderly […]