Jessica Tata, Owner of Daycare Where Four Kids Died, Escapes to Nigeria

• I agree. Whatever you can say in 60 words, try summarizing it in 10 or 15 words tops!

• Way too long. Was it that time of the month when you wrote this?

• Went to school with her... she barked at my face because I told her to stop running in the halls. I hope she gets caught! You do not leave innocent kids at home to go to the grocery store. Stupid bitch! Then again... I don't get how she even got a permit to run a daycare when she got caught for starting two fires at school!

• Too long, didn't read.

• I love LOVE how every morning on 1430 KCOH there is a line of callers defending this lady for leaving the house to let children burn to death. I am disgusted daily.

• She was an irresponsible bitch, but what a "silly-ass" little ditty of logic you attempted. So, every man wearing a baseball cap has to have been outside and not inside? Because no man would wear a hat indoors? And do you not have a cultural clue that, like women in England and throughout other parts of Europe, more African-American women here in America know how to, enjoy, and more regularly wear hats to complete their outfits than do women of other ethnicities? And would, therefore, be wearing that hat indoors since there's no etiquette rule (as there is for men) to remove their hats indoors?

• You know what? My whole life I have held to the belief that most people are basically good--that most people do the best they can to live life right and that, for the most part, it actually works out and the world keeps spinning. However, more and more, I find myself holding at least half of mankind in disdain. Why? Because at least half the comments made on any blog on any subject at any time are driven by nothing more but pathos and Jerry Springer-like stupidity. Jessica Tata's actions were, when you use the precise definitions of "awesome" and "awful," jaw-droppingly neglectful and stupid, to be sure. That she was running, poorly, a daycare in Alief, where I teach now (and grew up back in day), just pisses me off to no end. Nobody wants their "hometown" stained by ill-repute and tragedy—especially tragedy born of the pain, suffering, and death of babies and their parents. Good god, my heart goes out to the parents and the babies. However...H-O-W-E-V-E-R. What I *still* believe is that, like teachers, Houston fire fighters and police officers, are way more often competent, invested, and "good"--in numbers that far exceed the bad apples that do indeed exist and crop up from time to time and get SO much press--And because of this belief, I cringe when my fellow Houstonians make sweeping generalizations to disparage the dedication, expertise, and spirit of HPD and HFD based not on actual facts or well-reasoned analysis, but on bias (especially confirmation bias) and drama-pot-stirring whining and bitching. One of the good aspects of the Internet is having immediate and 24/7 access to so much history (and its many perspectives) as it’s made. But in Spider Man style, with great freedom (to information) comes great responsibility. The responsibility to use our brains and common sense to STUDY a situation, to separate the chaff from the wheat (the hype from the facts), and to remember that patience is a virtue as the facts of a situation heat enough to boil forth the truth. In following the Tata case, I agree with HFD that the most frustrating part of the case is that Ms. Tata is not here to answer to her actions. SHE is the only focus for blame so far. HFD didn’t “allow” that twit to leave the stove on. HFD didn’t invite that moron to abandon her post to go to the store. HFD didn’t escort her cowardly ass to the airport and wave her off with a balloon bouquet. HFD didn’t know and had no way of knowing that when Ms. Tata was in high school, she was accused of setting not one but two fires in her school (see Google news). Ms. Tata, and not HFD, has been a dysfunctional member of society—a bad seed. And she alone *at this time* should be the focus of everyone’s angst, questions, even rage. Well, and perhaps her family too. It’s one thing to love your kid more than life itself. It’s another to aid them in getting away with a heinous crime—to teach them that accountability is for others—that they can, perhaps in this case, literally get away with murder. I, like many of you, am tired—damn-assed tired—of people not owning their own behavior and blaming, instead, the people who show up every day, at their own peril, to help—who do the best they can with their resources and expertise. I am damn-assed tired of people who would never think to join the ranks of fire fighters, police officers, teachers, and other “service” roles, jumping in, sure as hell, to be arm-chair coaches and backseat drivers. It’s a wonder, in this day and age, that a-n-y-o-n-e smart and decent still makes a career, for all the appreciation they get (none), out of fighting fires, crime, and ignorance as fire fighters, police officers, and teachers. In the heat of the moment (literally), HFD were busting their asses to save burning babies from a fire. They couldn’t even get the truck near enough and had to run down the street with burning babies. It was chaotic. Their priority, at the time, was to save lives—as it should have been. Not to play CSI at the same time and arrest Ms. Tata. Following that, they immediate got on to the investigation, which is a *process.* The same people who, here and on every other blog, are bitching that Tata wasn’t just handily arrested without any proven cause, are the same people, I bet, who would also bitch if one of their own were arrested without the due cause granted to Tata. That process is everyone’s hero when the truly innocent are at risk of being scapegoated, and it’s everyone’s bitch when the truly guilty are not tried and convicted on the spot because the ignorant masses have once again turned witch hunters. What is my bottom line? My wish, Santa, please pretty please, is that people remember that one of the golden rules is not so much “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all,” it’s this: If you can’t say something useful and intelligent, then duct-tape your damn mouth and keep your ignorance to yourself.” Asking questions is one thing. Having concerns is another. But reading a single article or two and then drawing ridiculous, blanket, unproven conclusions is quite another. Please tell me that so many of you are not as stupid as you present yourselves to be.

• Tatawas obviously not in the house during the fire. Dressed in that silly red hat -- she obviously had been out at the store. What an irresponsible bitch!

• Here's a case where arson investigators arrested a suspect: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/100618-serial-arson-suspect-arrested-twice-in-four-years

• Citation needed, captain. I'm not saying you guys are making that up, I'd just like to see where that is on the books.

• We'll you've learned something new today Wyatt, Arson Investigators do have the power of arrest. They also have cars allowing them to drive to hospitals. When they found out she wasn't home and she left hot oil on the stove, that should've been enough to take her into custody, DA permission, or not. Law enforcement can hold someone ( I believe it's 24 hours) without filing any charges. Now, she's escaped to Africa instead.

• Explain a scenario in which that would make sense. They're still looking at the fire damage long after she's been transported to a hospital. Cops are on the scene. Why would arson investigators need to even think about doing that? That's assuming they do have the power to arrest suspects; I've never heard that.

• it takes a criminal to assist a criminal. her parents are already guilty of aiding and abbeting her disappearance, they know a lot about her escape. they should know better that no crime goes unpurnished. i'm 100 percent sure she will be caught in Nigeria and brought back to face justice. nobody should have sleepless nights, she will be caught.

• Of course.

• Wait, so the fire department should have arrested her? What?

• I just read where the DA drug it's feet multiple times, even after being told she was a flight risk. Unacceptable.

• Arson investigators have the powers of arrest and should've used them after the neighbors told them she left the kids alone.

• That is not the way Texas has set up it's justice system. And also a arson investigation take time due to looking at burn patterns, and if something was used to start the fire or not. They did what they needed to do and it actually happened pretty fast but she knew that she was in trouble. I would tell her family either get her back on the NEXT flight or you will face charges of aiding and facilitating a fugitive.

• OMG. I can't believe how stupid HFD and HPD are. Children killed and burned, Tata clean and healthy. Hello the bitch was not in the fire . You need video footage from a grocery store to know this bitch was not in the fire. Arrest the bitch first get the rest of your info later. Another great job by our fine law enforcement crew.

• Apparently we now know how many 22 yo Nigerians it takes to get over on HFD,HPD and the DA's office. Tata

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