Houston PD Member: Looters Will ‘Pay the Price, This Is Texas, Not Louisiana’

RUSH EXCERPT:

CLAMAN: "We’ve had looting in Houston in wake of hurricane Harvey, one business owner helplessly watched surveillance video of his store getting robbed in real-time. Samir posted this on Facebook, these people are taking advantage of the weather, they have been robbing us blind since last night, we could not reach our store due to the floods. We bring in Sergeant Pennie. What is your response to stories like this."

PENNIE: "Well, first and foremost this is a personal nature to me I am from Houston, my family is displaced. A lot of my friends, HPD officers, they or 12 hours shifts, they are dealing with this type of madness, people looting. I encourage looters to follow instruction of the chief, they will pay the price, this is Texas, not Louisiana. Most of homeowners there, most business owners carry weapons. You know, you could — this could end up worse than it is, it could be more — you could deal with homicides because of this type of behavior.

CLAMAN: "You are right to point out, potentially dangerous behavior. We have Texas attorney general paxton saying there have been complaints of price gouging due to hurricane Harvey. Have you been arresting people or going after people who have been price gouging?"

PENNIE: "Yes, we have. We had — I had my people in office all weekend long with over 500 complaints, whether related to overpriced of water of, fuel, hotels or even bread $15.99, we have problem, fortunately we’re getting a word out, I don’t think that people always know this is a violation of state law, severe penalty up to $20,000 per occur answer, if you price gouge on a senior that is $250,000 per occurrence, we’re serious about this."