The Fort Worth Police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission did not target the Rainbow Lounge Sunday morning because it was a gay bar, insists Chief Jeff Halstead. Sound familiar? It should, because that’s just what the NYPD brass said at the time — and continues to.
Seymour Pine, then the NYPD’s deputy inspector who led the Stonewall raid, just got done telling an interviewer, “I don’t think not liking gay people had anything to do with it.”
Now Halstead wants us to believe the same. And that the Rainbow Lounge raid — which was the third in a string of bar raids that night — went down on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall? Totally unrelated! Just “take a deep breath,” he’s telling critics.
Perhaps he should whisper that into the ear of 26-year-old Chad Gibson, who remains hospitalized with a brain injury after being knocked unconscious during the raid. His sister Kathy says Chad “remembers going to the bar. He remembers having a drink. He doesn’t remember anything else.”
(Photo: Star-Telegram)
Fitz
So what was the supposed purpose of the raid?
Cam
In a city that has around 10,000 bars and a sky high crime rate,, just why was this one raided then?
galefan2004
In all fairness, wouldn’t we be just as pissed off if any gay bar in America was raided in this day and age rather there was an obvious reason to raid them or not? Even if they have a good reason are we going to listen to it or just claim they are making it up? I know the timing on their part absolutely sucked, but who is to say that they didn’t have reasons other than trying to beat down the gays.
Cam
@galefan2004: How dare you try to be reasonable?
Seriously though, my response was based on the story that they broke in and started hitting. Anywhere I’ve ever lived, when bars were “Raided” for being over crowded, noisy etc… it was always a few police talking to the owner. That was why I made the assumption.
galefan2004
@Cam: A million different stories will come out of this. Some will be true. Some will be false. We need to actually weigh both of them before attacking the police as the gay hating badge wearers that they most likely are.
T&P Tom
The reason the FW police and officers from the TABC entered the bar was to conduct what they said was a routine inspection of the bar–looking for over-served patrons, proper bartending technique (for lack of a better description), and compliance to the state liquor laws. They also brought along a “prisoner transport van” in anticipation of finding drunk patrons, since Texas law enforcement can arrest someone for Public Intoxication even inside a bar, and even if someone brought along a designated driver. Usually when a TABC inspection takes place, one TABC officer and one member of the local PD conducts the inspection. The crotch-grabbing story doesn’t ring true….if you’ve ever encountered a Texas lawman, especially in a bar conducting an investigation, you know that it’s a “sobering” experience.
Qjersey
No they weren’t targeted for being gay, but the patrons were treated differently and roughed up for being gay.
Jake the libertarian
That’s right, take a nice deep breath… and then shout out as loudly as possible against police brutality and abuse of power.
Jim G.
Does anyone think these cops even know what Stonewall is?
james p. p.
the TABC are modern day Nazis. they are the worst state-run organization violating everyone’s rights and are being allowed to do so because they hold the key’s the the liquor cabinet (literally).
everything in this state is controlled by the TABC… from the way strippers dance to the hours of bar operations. every bar has to purchase their liquor from the TABC. They are allowed to use actual minors in sting operations. and even as the above instance notes, they are allowed to go onto private property and cite people with public drunkenness and arrest them.
gay bars are always more scrutinized by the Drinking Nazis. gay people drink more socially than their straight counterparts. there have been several gay bars in Texas with constant TABC problems… and all of them have been shut down.
so don’t fool yourselves. nothing about that ‘good old boy’ pompous bloated-bellied sorry excuse for “protecting the citizens” is healthy, good, or gay-friendly. i cannot wait until someone stands up to them and says “no, you can’t act like this anymore – you are violating our constitutional rights.”
Casey
So let me get this “straight”. The Fort Worth Police Dept. raids a newly opened gay bar on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, They use excessive force when dealing with the patrons of the bar, and then they use the same “gay panic” defense of their actions that the murders of Matthew Shepard used? And now we(homosexuals) need to take a deep breath???…..WOW…..maybe after we take our deep breath we can start shouting till we get justice and heads roll in this case….
BradInDallas
I live in Dallas. I moved here from Boston four years ago because the type of engineering I do pretty much has dried up in the North East.
I defer to my therapist on this one. He grew up in Fort Worth and has lived in this area all his life. He is gay and is well aware of what goes on around here. He sees this event as police harassment pure and simple. Probably after harassing the previous gay bar at that site they are back to reinforce the message that they dont want any more gay bars. THis happens all the time.
The cops on the beat here are just as rednecked as the Texas Cop stereotype suggests. THe further up the ladder, the more sophisticated the veneer. Since things got a bit out of control – fractured skull and all that – bad show – the city is going to have to come up some good cover stories – but with so many witnesses giving consistent accounts, that is going to be hard.
ANyway, his take. Sounds plausible to me – but what do I know. There is hip political group here called Queer Liberaction and I plan to support them and attend their rallies and events – this is precisely the point at which you have to stand up for yourself
Matt
@Cam: With a crime rate like that you would think these boys in blue would have other things to do than bash innocent heads? No?
Tom in Lazybrook
Yea right, we’re supposed to wait for the Police Internal investigation to clear the officers regardless of the facts of the case. I will not STFU over this.
rick
HE’S HOT!
Tony in Dallas
This incident is like a visible lesion. A sign of a sub-dermal cancer that is endemic of FWPD’s intolerance of residents’ alternative sexual orientation. The Chief himself is to blame for letting this cancer grow unchecked to the point that it manifested itself in a planned raid scheduled to coincide on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion.
I don’t live in FW but I hope they demand the Chief’s resignation, the firing of all bad cops involved in this travesty of law enforcement, the establishment of a GLBT community liaison like we have in Dallas, and proper screening of intolerant Police Academy applicants among other necessary reforms.