Memo Sheds Light On Kmart Parking Lot Raid

Houston KTRK Television ^ | August 26, 2002

[arthurus]

Aspiring officers and officers who would like to move to a larger cvity should get their resumes in to HPD. There will be some vacancies soon.

[FreePaul]

That memo must have shed more light on the raid. I see where ten more officers have been suspended. Looking good HPD.

[Larry Lucido]

This just gets better and better.

[Dog Gone]

The poll the station is currently running isn't looking too good for the cops.

[Dog Gone]

More fun.

[Pablo64]

Hmmmm....the thick plottens! ;-\

[neutrino]

Thanks for the ping!

Curfew violators or those drinking in public would be arrested too, but for everyone else -- the spectators -- the memo said they would be told to leave, then they would be checked for license and insurance -- a zero tolerance-type crackdown.

Exactly the point I've made...they can do lots of things legally. But Aguirre decided to play stormtrooper...and shatter (not just break!) the law.

[justlurking]

Fellow HPD supervisors told News2Houston that they were completely caught off guard when the raid detailed in the memo turned into an "arrest everyone on site" operation.

So why didn't they "Just Say No"?

[Tacis]

It is becoming my impression that the race of many of the participants is intentionally being excluded. Either the folks in the parking lot and K-Mart were mostly black or the offending cops were mostly black. Can anyone comment on the race of the Captain and the race of the Chief? If they are black, are they any good or simply affirmative action tokens?

[niki]

Interesting that Aguirre would give the press the May memo and not the updated one. Maybe in his mind the updated memo was not acceptable. I wonder if that is what the falling out with the other Captain was about.

I would love to hear what the other Captain has to say about this whole mess.

[Dog Gone]

I can't really do much more than make an educated guess on the arrestees. There's only about 10 seconds of film clips, and it's only maybe 30-50 of those arrested. The majority appear to be white in those clips, maybe 20% black and 20% hispanic. It definitely was a mix, but the Houston population is about 1/3 from each group.

Captain Aguirre is hispanic, but there's no information that he got his job through affirmative action. It's possible, but he seems to be fairly bright and certainly motivated. He's also a bully and a jerk and a thug who I believe deserves jail time, but a token he isn't.

The police chief is black. Bradford was chosen by our Mayor, Lee Brown, who is definitely an affirmative action token. The police chief strikes me as being 100 times brighter than our mayor, but he's a liberal who won't arrest illegal aliens because he doesn't think they're breaking our laws, and he's currently under investigation himself for possible perjury charges.

I don't know that I'd categorize him as an affirmative action token, but I think it's probably accurate that the Mayor would only have hired a black candidate for Police Chief.

In all honesty, I don't think race is much of a factor in this story. It's fair to ask whether or not it is, but I haven't seen any evidence of it.

[Dog Gone]

Maybe in his mind the updated memo was not acceptable.

No, the article states that he signed the recent memo.

This really puts the heat on Aguirre. He had tried to blame his superiors with the earlier memo he had written, but this operational memo just before the raid shows that he went far beyond what he had agreed to do.

I'm curious how they intended to arrest all street racers (who they never found). How do you go about identifying a street racer in a parking lot, especially since that's not where they raced?

[Thumper1960]

I'm curious how they intended to arrest all street racers (who they never found). How do you go about identifying a street racer in a parking lot, especially since that's not where they raced?

Racing helmets and numbers painted on side doors?

[niki]

::Maybe in his mind the updated memo was not acceptable.

No, the article states that he signed the recent memo.

Sure he signed it but in this mind he probably did not agree with it. That maybe where the problem came up with the other Captain.

But when Aguirre angered Mokwa during a command staff meeting by insisting he knew how the operation should be conducted, he and Mokwa got the permission of an assistant chief for Aguirre to take over, the supervisors said

[Dog Gone]

Oh, I'll bet you are correct. I doubt Aguirre wrote the recent memo. It was probably the plan by the other captain, whom he muscled out at the last minute. He signed off on it, but then decided to run it his way.

[Thud]

This is priceless. Aguirre signed that, and then had everyone in sight arrested anyway?

They're coming to take me away, ho ho, ha ha, he he, to the funny farm where life is wonderful all the time ...

"... but for everyone else -- the spectators -- the memo said they would be told to leave, then they would be checked for license and insurance -- a zero tolerance-type crackdown.

The plan approved by headquarters said citations would be issued for all violations discovered in the sweep.

Nowhere in the memo is there a single mention of arresting people for trespassing, which is the charge that sent 378 people to jail that night.

Fellow HPD supervisors told News2Houston that they were completely caught off guard when the raid detailed in the memo turned into an "arrest everyone on site" operation.

Aguirre signed the bottom of the memo, which is much more recent than the memo from May that he's now using to show that headquarters knew what he was up to."

[niki]

Oh, I'll bet you are correct. I doubt Aguirre wrote the recent memo. It was probably the plan by the other captain, whom he muscled out at the last minute. He signed off on it, but then decided to run it his way.

Interesting that we have not heard anything about the other captain. I wonder if he was 'relieved of duty' also.

[niki]

Article has information regarding the operational details of the Kmart raid.

[Dog Gone]

Interesting that we have not heard anything about the other captain. I wonder if he was 'relieved of duty' also.

Oh, that's not a hard guess. If you go back and read the early story about the raid "going to hell in a handbasket", that other captain HAD to be one of those who violated department policy by talking to the Chronicle.

The brass wants to can him for that, if nothing else.