www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1540867
Bradford ordered an investigation Monday into the weekend arrests of hundreds of people gathered peacefully at a westside parking lot by police who were assigned to stop illegal drag racing. Officers on the scene called the arrests "utterly, utterly senseless" on Monday, and said the captain in charge, Mark Aguirre, ordered them to round up everyone who was outside the 24-hour Kmart Super Center or eating at the Sonic Drive-In next door. The operation had been weeks in planning and involved dozens of officers. But officers involved said that when no drag racers were found, they were ordered to arrest the 278 people there. Police on Sunday said 425 people were arrested, but Monday revised the count. It was just utterly, utterly senseless," said one officer involved, who violated department policy by discussing the arrests and spoke on condition of anonymity. Also taken into custody were 42 juveniles who were cited for violation of the city's midnight curfew. Thirty of the juveniles also were charged with criminal trespass. Bradford issued a statement late Monday saying he had begun an inquiry into the arrests, including who was in charge and what instructions were given to the officers. Two police supervisors said Monday that Aguirre, captain of the South Central Patrol Division, had taken over the operation after a dispute with the assigned leader at a staff meeting. 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. The supervisors said the operation was part of a series of recent police efforts to stop illegal drag racing. During a June 15 raid, police found more than 300 cars gathered in the 7100 block of Business Park Drive, where eight people were arrested for reckless driving and three for public intoxication. Police also issued 32 traffic tickets and cited 16 juveniles for breaking the city's curfew. On June 22, another raid in the 7000 block of Westheimer to Texas 6 netted five arrests for reckless driving and 65 tickets. Bradford's statement also said he plans to investigate why police arrested the people gathered in the parking lots instead of issuing citations as in the previous operations. The Sunday raid "was a complete waste of weeks of work and a huge amount of manpower," said one of the supervisors. Hundreds of young people gather in the parking lots of the Kmart and adjacent Sonic on weekend nights. Those businesses and others in the area, as well as nearby residents, have in the past complained about the noise and litter, police said. Police were interested in the spot's role as a race staging area, where young drivers admire one another's vehicles, then go to other nearby locations to race, said one of the supervisors. The two supervisors said police had "scout cars" and undercover officers working surveillance at the gathering spot for weeks in preparation for Sunday's raid. Monday, Kmart corporate spokeswoman Susan Dennis acknowledged the store has had complaints about the weekend night crowds. HPD's internal affairs division was flooded Monday with people filing complaints over their arrests. She and several friends, all of whom were arrested, met at Demmler's house Monday to go file IAD complaints. An IAD officer said many of those who filed complaints Monday were discussing lawsuits over the incident. Martin DeLeon, an HPD spokesman, said the tow fee is $103 and the storage fee averages about $15 a day, but some auto-storage facilities can charge more. Ronald Beylotte, chief prosecutor for the city attorney's office, said the cases that are set for trial will probably be scheduled in four to six weeks. Aguirre has run afoul of department policy many times in his 20 years with HPD. The most recent, an allegation that Aguirre used foul and threatening language to his subordinates, garnered the captain a written reprimand from Bradford, which was overturned by an arbitrator. That incident also resulted in an investigation of perjury allegations against Bradford, who testified at Aguirre's hearing that he doesn't use profanity to his subordinates. Bradford later was contradicted by an assistant chief, who testified that Bradford had once called him a quite profane name.
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