Houston PD's Aguirre claims he was used as scapegoat

Houston Chronicle ^ | January 30, 2003 | KRISTEN MACK

[Dog Gone]

Raid's toll on HPD

The Houston Police Department disciplined 32 officers -- including 14 supervisors -- for last year's mass arrests. All the suspensions starting this week are without pay. Officers' names were not released publicly.

Capt. Mark Aguirre: fired.

Sgt. Ken Wenzel: resigned.

One assistant chief: seven-day suspension.

One captain: two written reprimands.

One lieutenant: demoted to sergeant.

One lieutenant: two written reprimands.

Three sergeants: 84-day suspensions.

One sergeant: 49-day suspension.

One sergeant: 28-day suspension.

Three sergeants: seven-day suspensions.

One officer: 30-day suspension.

Eight officers: One- to eight-day suspensions.

Nine officers: Written reprimands.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Nope. He deserved it.

[RolandBurnam]

I agree. You can't just arrest 300 people for just standing there, and expect to keep you job.

[No Truce With Kings]

You got there first with this one.

Shall I ping the usual suspects?

[Dog Gone]

Aguirre certainly deserved to be fired, and he deserves to be prosecuted for what he did.

My objection is that the Houston Police Department believes it is now putting this behind it, without a full airing of the facts.

For example, we know that someone in the police department bought NO TRESPASSING signs and posted them at the parking lot that night in order to give the appearance that the arrests might be justified.

That was an act of conspiracy and it's being glossed over.

This raid was a repeat of a much smaller raid at a different location the night before. Why didn't alarm bells go off with police management? Mass arrests are highly unusual.

Fortunately, the Department won't be able to sweep all this under the rug with this firing and the suspensions to unnamed officers for unnamed offenses. There is the criminal trial of Aguirre upcoming, and the lawsuits filed by those wrongfully arrested.

But at least one bad cop is off the street permanently in Houston, and that's good news.

[Dog Gone]

Yes, please.

[JoJo Gunn]

If memory serves, those Stormtroopers even arrested a woman in her car at a drive-up window, who had a couple of kids in the car with her.

I say to Hell with them all. No sympathy from me on this.

[No Truce With Kings]

Ping to those that might want to see how it finally ended.

[Dog Gone]

Andrew Innerarity / Chronicle

With the portraits of past Houston police chiefs in the background, fired HPD Capt. Mark Aguirre leaves police headquarters on Wednesday

[SerpentDove]

>>"They treated me like a department piñata," Aguirre said. "This department is hopelessly corrupt, and this is a grotesque charade posing as justice." <<

He has no concept that he has done anything wrong. Which underscores the need for his removal.

The man is delusional and dangerous.

[PatrioticAmerican]

Good! The more of these fascist bastards that are removed, the better!

[PatrioticAmerican]

Bump to your #5!

[PatrioticAmerican]

""They treated me like a department piñata," Aguirre said. "This department is hopelessly corrupt, and this is a grotesque charade posing as justice.""

He helped create that corruption, and now he complains that it bit him.

[steve-b]

That he deserved to be fired and that he is being used as a scapegoat to protect higher-ups who also deserve to be fired are not mutually exclusive.

[Wolfie]

"This department is hopelessly corrupt, and this is a grotesque charade posing as justice."

"And damn it, I wanted to hang around and get mine".

[Thud]

The Devil made him do it.

[anymouse]

So when is LeePeeBrown going to resign over this? /sarcasm

I guess his alabi is that he was swerving across Westhiemer Blvd. and crashing into an oncoming car at the time. He couldn't possibly have been working closely with the HPD to crack down on dragracing on Westhiemer, if he himself was driving recklessly a mere few blocks from the K-Mart lot at the time. :)

[Dog Gone]

When is the Mayor EVER going to say anything about this?

Not that it matters. The man is dumber than a bag of hammers.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Fair enough. What I was saying was that to the extent that he thinks he was fired merely because he was being made a scapegoat, he is mistaken. He deserved to be fired based on his actions and statements alone.

Are there others out there who are deserving of blame that are trying to protect themselves? Most likely, but that will come out in Aguirre's lawsuit.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Meant Aguirre's trial.