Cup Fans’ Hopes Die in Peace : Law enforcement: Santa Ana police were ready for trouble, but Mexico’s loss left no one in the mood to celebrate.
SANTA ANA — Caught off guard last week when celebrating Mexican soccer fans created gridlock downtown, police on Tuesday barricaded streets and posted extra patrol officers as Mexico competed in another game that could nudge them closer to the World Cup.
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But after the Mexican team lost a close match to Bulgaria, it was clear that no one was in the mood for riotous celebration. The rush-hour traffic rolled by uneventfully, with an occasional car displaying the Mexican flag with undaunted pride.
“We won’t know (if the plan would have worked), because Mexico did not win the soccer game. I’m sure there are a lot of unhappy soccer fans and I imagine that most people went home,” said police spokesman Lt. Robert Helton, describing the sunny afternoon as “exceptionally quiet.”
By contrast, he said, “last week we were caught by surprise. We didn’t know here would be that level of celebration.”
When the Mexican soccer team tied with the Italian team on June 28, he said, a mixture of flag-waving pedestrians and horn-honking drivers tied up traffic on 4th Street. Police made four arrests for public intoxication that afternoon and wrote scores of citations.
Helton said police were determined to prevent a recurrence of disruption in the heart of the downtown business district. More important, he said, they wanted to be prepared in case there was an outbreak of violence, as occurred last week in Huntington Park, when several businesses were looted, a 3-year-old girl was hit with a bottle and police were pelted with rocks, bottles and lighted fireworks.
About 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Santa Ana police cordoned off a command post in the parking lot of the Old County Courthouse on Broadway, which was filled with patrol cars, motorcycles and even specially armed tactical units, ready to be called upon if violence erupted.
In addition, 50 police were deployed for crowd control, with two-officer teams stationed at every major intersection in the area between French and Ross streets and between Santa Ana Boulevard and 1st Street, Helton said.
But police said the only disturbance was caused by one apparently inebriated young man carrying a large Mexican flag down Broadway who was arrested when he zigzagged into an intersection. He was taken away seated in the back of a police golf cart, his flag gently fluttering beside him.
In shops and restaurants on 4th Street, the atmosphere was subdued.
“I’m angry because Mexico is out” of the World Cup competition, said Jose Alveran of Garden Grove, who had watched the soccer game at the travel agency where he works.
Juan Orozco, manager of Rancho de Mendoza Restaurant, said about 300 people had gathered there to watch the game. When their team lost, he said, they reacted with silence.
“It was quiet,” Orozco said. “People are very depressed. Today is very sad for us.”
By 7 p.m. the crowd at the restaurant had dwindled to 30, Orozco said. “I put the game on VCR,” he said, “but nobody wanted to watch it again.”
