Ft. Worth Police have come up with a reason for why they raided the Rainbow Lounge, Stonewall-style, on June 28: Two days prior, police spotted a really drunk guy leaving the bar!
In what sounds like a “cover your ass” discovery, the FWPD say they have a report of a police cruiser spotting a man leaving the Rainbow Lounge two days prior, extremely intoxicated, and told him to find a ride home. Also: They’ve got in on video (pictured, left)! Which certainly helps negate any suspicion that they made it all up.
But it still doesn’t explain how the police managed to send a man, Chad Gibson (pictured, top), to the hospital and nearly break his brain. (Police say Gibson touched an officer’s genitals; he says that’s “a big lie.”)
Nor does it explain why, when entering the bar for the “check,” the police needed to call in back-up when — get this — a customer allegedly blew a kiss at the officer. Who was standing by the bathroom, naturally. (Need more LOLs? The police also say a female customer’s hips touched an officer in a “sexually explicit” way. Was she giving him a lap dance?)
How about we take this to the next level?
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What we have here is the police giving itself an excuse to raid a gay bar. We’re actually quite fine with the cops following up an incident of public intoxication with checking on the bar that served him.
But what happened on June 28 was not a simple check to see if the Rainbow Lounge was over-serving customers; there’s no way to observe bartenders pouring too many drinks for the same customer when you barge through the doors en masse. So while the cops may have a satisfactory reason for coming to the bar on that Saturday night, they are not off the hook for their intolerant approach and excessive violence. Because their version of things flies in the opposite direction of everyone who was at the bar.
(Not helping things, however, are the Ft. Worth activists who interrupted a city council meeting by acting like children.)
WFAA has a full video report here.
ALSO: The Dallas Eagle, the second Texas gay bar raided in as many weeks, acknowledges it was shut down because it didn’t fill out its liquor license paperwork properly. The owners claim a competitor tipped off the alcohol commission.
Cam
Um, in Ft. Worth on a Sat. Night the sidewalks pretty much smell like vomit and urine from drunks coming out of bars. Additionally, the violent crime rate there has skyrocketed in the last few years since the influx of new residents from New Orleans so please don’t try to tell me that the fact that people may have been drinking in this bar had anything to do with this raid. This was probably an initiation for some new officers, a “Smear the Queer.” party.
the other problem is that the Ft. Worth Police are so bigoted that they don’t understand how badly their continual changing story and list of excuses sounds. My favorite of course was the story that since somebody flirted with an officer it was right that they put a guy in the hospital.
I hope the next time any of those officers are wounded and end up in a hospital a gay male nurse is on the intake team.
galefan2004
If they spotted someone leaving the bar drunk off their ass then they have every right to shut that bar down. Maybe you should give the blame to where it belongs and blame the bar owners that over served this man because he was shilling out cash and then kicked his ass out when it was obvious they had over served him. That isn’t the cops fault. That lies squarely on the bar owners themselves. I don’t give a fuck if its a gay bar at that point. I blame both the patrons and the staff for not looking after a problem they created.
Also, we have the police’s word against the word of a bunch of people that were in a bar. What do people do in bars? They drink. Do people always remember things the right way when they drink? No. This is nothing more than trying to make something out of nothing at this point, and it makes the gay community look like it wants a viral relationship with the police. Promoting a viral relationship with the police is NEVER a good idea.
Get A Clue
Get a clue. The police reports were prepared long before the media got itself involved in this non-event. This isn’t a cover your butt thing…it’s a fact. Forget your conspiracy theories.
Cam
@galefan2004: You said “If they spotted someone leaving the bar drunk off their ass then they have every right to shut that bar down. Maybe you should give the blame to where it belongs and blame the bar owners that over served this man because he was shilling out cash and then kicked his ass out when it was obvious they had over served him. That isn’t the cops fault.”
_______________________________________________
That report is a red hearing. If he was that drunk they would have ticketed him. They’ve been digging around for a week or two trying to find any report that backs up their story. “Spotting” a person who was not drunk enough to be cited or arrested coming out of a bar” could be stretched to be an excuse for citing the bar. But I find it interesting that people here are forgetting that they went into the bar and started attacking the custorers. Which part of that is the bars fault?
Again, if this man was really the reason, then why not cite him for public drunkeness….remember, that is what they were trying to cite the customers in the bar for. Yet this guy was such a big deal he supposedly brought a raid down on the bar…but again, no ticket, no citation, no nothing.
galefan2004
@Get A Clue: But, but, but…
It was a gay bar…A GAY BAR. That means that there had to be an agenda to crush the gay agenda. After all everything that possibly involves a gay person in any way has to be completely about the gay community. Stonewall in this case is being used like our own personal black card. We are trying to excuse the detestable behavior of the gay bar owners and patrons to allow someone to walk out into the street completely drunk off their ass simply because they are gay.
On the flip side, if this was a gay bar that got a gay man all drunkard up and kicked his ass out of their bar we would be demanding they get raided.
galefan2004
@galefan2004: *straight bar that got a gay man all drunkard up…
Cam
@galefan2004:
By dissagreeing with me, you are showing that you must be self hating and homophobic. 😉 LOL!
galefan2004
@Cam: I know. You see every time I disagree with anyone that is always what they come back with. Its news to me though. I mean, as an out and proud man in a small assed town in the middle of the heartland its amazing to me how I can accomplish winning “souls” to the side of the light (away from their homophobia) when I’m such a self hating homosexual homophobe.
jazzinc
@Galefan2004
It is astounding that you believe anything these police officers say, let alone that they were justified in their actions.
Yeah, it is so plausible that when officers enter a gay bar that the patrons will grab the Police officers’ genitals. That is just the reaction I always have when a Policeman is around and I feel threatened.
If you believe the Fort Worth Gestapo’s version of this event, you are an enemy to the gay community, you big out and proud homo, you.
schlukitz
Shaking my head in disbelief at Galefan.
A gay man is lying in a hospital with his skull busted by the Ft. Worth police…and he is siding with them.
Unfuckingbelieveable!
And then he says that he is not a self-haring homophobe?
Yeah. And Christers don’t love Jesus.
Anjune
Cops are homophobic. This happens to be a reality. If we want change, there needs to be education about the subject.
When it comes to whar happened at the Rainbow Lounge, we can discuss this ad nauseam, but nothing excuses what happened to Chad Gibson. Even if he made a pass at a cop, bashing his skull is not the best response. What if he had died? Who would answer for it?
AlwaysGay
Jazzinc and Schlukitz, unfortunately there are a lot of gay people who are water carriers for heterosexuals, they are too dumb and self-hating to think on their own. They believe anything heterosexuals say.
The Rainbow Lounge was attaked on gay people by the heterosexual police. The heterosexual police wanted to “prove their masculinity and heterosexuality” by pushing around a few gay people and to “remind them that heterosexuals are lording over them.” The heterosexual police do not throw all the alcohol down the drain when a heterosexual bar doesn’t have the proper license and they don’t assault the heterosexual customers.
TANK
Are those water carriers those in gay media? Or most of those in gay media?
TANK
@galefan2004:
You are self hating, though. Aren’t you like thirty or thirty eight and were closeted for most of your life? Now that’s your choice, but you hafta realize that in terms of your emotional intelligence and awareness, you’re about half your age. You bought into a lot of stories.
Cam
As far as I’m concerned, they can try to come up with any excuse for raiding the bar….even if they HAD a legit excuse that in no way changes what happened in there.
It’s like defending somebody who went into a restaurant and killed people by saying “Well they were hungry and THATS why they origionally went in there.” It’s irrelevent. These cops went in, committed fellony assault and battery and possible attempted murder, come up with all the stories you want but be sure and tell them to your defense attorney and the jury because I am not listening.
schlukitz
Glaefan summed it up very nicely with this post from another thread.
I enjoy provoking argument and hatred on the internet. Its fun for me. Its even more fun when people like you try to counter me on it. When I’m in the right mood, its better than sex.
It doesn’t get any plainer than that, folks. Galefan is a sickie getting his jollies fucking with other people’s heads. He’s as mad as a hatter. And he admits it.
So, why are we feeding him?
Jim
@galefan2004: How can you defend our violent the police action was? If they wanted to ticket the bar it didn’t take storm troopers. And not everyone in bar is drunk – some go to dance. Whose side are you on anyway?
Jim
@Jim: sorry – meant “how violent”
Jim
@schlukitz: Sorry – wish I read your post before I fed that troll. Duly noted for all future rants of his.
Thanks.
petted
Just to clarify the Rainbow Lounge wasn’t shut down for having improperly filled out paperwork that was the Dallas Eagle – course reading the article helps.
schlukitz
@Jim:
No problem, Jim. I know just how provocative and infuriating Galefan’s baiting comments are and the overpowering need such comments generate to strike back. It’s hard to resist.
And that’s precisely what he is counting on.
dlpca
With the numerous reports of gay bashing, police harassment, employment sabotage and now highly publicized gay bar raids we (the Gay community) must see this in perspective. There is an outright war, passive-aggressive in some instances, against the Gay community to exist, live and work peaceably in the US. There are still civil rights violations, often by law enforcement, but many times done under the radar to avoid the the homophobic label or civil rights law suit. And what about the instances that do not make the headlines or online blogs? What about the instances of homophobic abuse which cause people to lose their jobs, homes and family ties?
The incident in Fort Worth is obvious indication why the national Gay community needs to align and come together in stand against this outrageous injustice and blatant attack upon civil rights, human rights. I won’t speak on the personnel of law enforcement but consider the demographic of individuals who joins this organization. that alone should explain the nature of the police abuse against gays. There is an obvious subversive movement against the Gay community since the oncoming changes in Gay marriage and Gay rights in some US states. The fear and hate has turned into an apparent campaign to squash the Gay effort for civil equality.
If this is not obvious to our Gay men and women of influence, then the hate will win. We will continue to be harassed, sabotaged, set-up, abused and victimized without civil or equal rights and protection under the law. The incident in Fort Worth will happen again, somewhere, anytime because there is no legal defense to protect Gays and no one has the courage to hold the responsible sources lawfully accountable. We have to begin protecting ourselves by speaking up.
The hate must be confronted and defeated!
Freud's Mamma
@schlukitz:
Quoting Galefan2004I enjoy provoking argument and hatred on the internet. Its fun for me. Its even more fun when people like you try to counter me on it. When I’m in the right mood, its better than sex.
Thank you for posting this. Reading his/her posts, I suspected as much, but didn’t really expect him/her to explicitly acknowledge such. I really think that we should collectively post his/her admission in any thread in which he/she posts so that any new or unfamiliar or uninitiated commenters understand his/her schtick.
The obvious conclusion is that he/she is a psychotic self-loather, but that doesn’t discount the possibility that he/she is merely a hetero Mor(m)on provacateur…..i.e., merely psychotic. Not sure whether to feel more pity or contemptuous disdain, although both seem appropriate.
KyleR
Shouldn’t the real question be why they waited 2 days to raid this bar? If they saw the drunk on Thursday night/Friday morning. Why wait until Saturday night to raid the bar and go on a take down?
and galefan go back to 4chan and stay there.
Dabq
More LIES and all the while they were letting real crooks get away with crimes as they figured they could gay bash and seriously injure this man for no reason other than hate and not get held accountable, despicable and when is Texas going to leave the Union?? Not fast enough IMO.
galefan2004
@jazzinc: I don’t believe what the police have to say. I think they are full of shit when it comes to the actual raid. I don’t think its acceptable that they put someone in the hospital. I think their reasons might have been justified with the guy that they picked up outside of the bar. However, there IS NEVER an excuse to conduct the raid in the way the police did, and they gave themselves a very bad name. I can’t even imagine how they can justify the unprofessional nature of their actions. Thank you my gay/lesbian/ally brothers and sisters for taking their asses to task in Texas.
galefan2004
@Anjune: The sad truth is that they would have much likely denied all blame in that same situation. Nothing excuses what this guy went through, but I REALLY hope he gets enough money to never work again when all is said and done.
galefan2004
@TANK: No, I’m 30, and have been out for most of my life. I’ve been out for 12 years. I came out when I was 18. To say that I didn’t struggle every day for years between religion and homosexuality would be incorrect though. However, that struggle ended long ago with the conclusion that I have to be me. However, when I post here my agenda is normally to piss off as many people as possible, and I normally do whatever it takes to do that. It was fun for me. I’m changing that mind set though.
TANK
@galefan2004:
I thought you were like eighty or something. You punk ass mf’er! Calling me a kid when you’re only two extremely long years older than me? SHENANIGANS! Stop hating yourself, it’s ugly. Now you appear to have done a 180 reversal…split personality?
galefan2004
@Freud’s Mamma: He is an idiot that has a lot of deep rooted homophobic tendencies because he grew up in an area where you either fit in or didn’t exist. He still has a shit load of drama involved in trying to remove that mentality. Its being pealed away slowly. However, I don’t accept your pity, so if you want to use disdain go right ahead.
On a personal note, if someone put my boyfriend in the hospital for any reason, I don’t give a fuck if they are a cop or not, they better watch their backs.
galefan2004
@KyleR: The answer to the question is simple. They wanted to make a huge impact on a very certain day. It seems that the state of Texas has gone insane. No offense to any Texans, but when the state decides to rewrite history when it teaches in school but conveniently remembers history when it comes to sending a message to the LGBT population, this state needs to get its wish to be its own country.
TANK
@galefan2004:
So you’re referring to yourself in the third person for what reason other than to convince everyone that you have a hole in your basement where you keep people against their will?
galefan2004
@TANK: Lets just say I woke up and saw how fucking stupid I was being. That might or might not have something to do with meeting someone very special. The gay part of mind was shut down as a survival instinct for a long time.
I was an idiot when it came to many gay rights issues because I just had major problems accepting my own homosexuality for such a long period of time.
You are two years younger than me so I called you kid. Besides, I thought you thought life ended at 30. Or is it that you just wouldn’t date anyone over 30?
galefan2004
@TANK: Because “I” is a general neutral pro-noun, so when I’m responding to a post that called me he/she for the entire post, I’m not going to use a gender neutral pro-noun to apply to myself.
Sean
I gotta say, as a gay man in Texas the real problem here isn’t the Rainbow Lounge raid. It’s the fact that in Texas, the Prohibition-era drinking laws still make it illegal to be at all inebriated in public. Even if not driving, if walking or taking a cab home. Even while inside a bar. Allowing people to drink but making it illegal to be drunk is basically inviting police (here, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) to abuse their power by targeting any bar they choose.
I’m not a drinker: I’ve been dry for six years now. But allowing people to drink, but never be drunk is idiotic, it creates way too much room for incidents like this to happen, and does nothing more than to further damage the image of this great state in the eyes of a nation tired of backwards thought.
galefan2004
@Sean: Its not just Texas, Ohio has a public intoxication law as well. I’m not sure how many other places do. However, in Ohio, the bars aren’t exactly considered as public institutions.
Marius
The “drunk in public” guy just shows that they are getting more desperate. Maybe the cops had no clue that this story would be a story at all. News travels pretty fast now and it doesn’t stop at state borders. Even in Texas.
Texas cops, we have camera phones and this internet thing now.
Sean
Galefan2004: Sadly, that’s one of the differences between our states:
‘In 2006, the Commission led Operation Last Call, in which persons in bars and other alcohol serving establishments were arrested for being intoxicated. Said Captain David Alexander, head of the Operation Last Call Task Force, “Going to a bar is not an opportunity to go get drunk…It’s to have a good time, but not to get drunk.”‘
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Alcoholic_Beverage_Commission
schlukitz
@Marius:
we have camera phones and this internet thing now.
Umm…I wouldn’t say that too loudly. The Religious Right of the State of Texas might just decide to make those illegal as well, on the grounds that they are the devil’s play toys.
Hey…in a state that did not allow the sale of an artificial vagina or penis in a sex-shop (The Texas Obsenity Statute) from, 1973 until 2008, on the grounds that it would destroy the nucular [sic] family, anything can happen.
As might be expected, The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union had a strong influence on the bringing about of national prohibition.
Wherever and whenever an oppressive law is passed, one can find some Christians behind it.
Jayson
Was this the only bar raided? If so, then it seems like it is an attack on gay people, and not as they say, a raid to stop “over serving “.
If not, then i say, what others were targted? Normally bar raids are about single mindedness.. IE drugs, underage drinking and so forth.. so its not a stretch to say, the police wanted to put the gay folks in line during pride, to show them who is in charge.
And dont these officers have training to deal with drunks? Hurting a man so bad he is in hospital after, seems excessive, for a “touch” , if he did in fact touch said officer.
And the street drunk, why was he not arrested? Fined? is that not the way it’s supposed to be?
Jeff
Just because a drunk man is walking away from a bar doesnt mean that the bar served him. Isn’t it possible that the bar turned the drunk away?
I have been in many of the nicer bars in Fort Worth. There are just as many drunks in those places as in the Rainbow Lounge, but you never see a police raid in the “respectable” places. If you go in any bar in just about any city after midnight on a weekend you will find someone drunk.
Brian
Recent published pictures of Chad Gibson show him laughing and smiling after his injuries. Some blood on his face and vomit on his shirt, but laughing and smiling.
Remember, this guy said the following day that “he couldn’t remember anything that happened.” We usually call this an alcohol induced black-out, not a bump on the head, which very rarely leads to memory loss.
BrianZ
@Brian: Is that so? Where might one find those pictures? Where might one have had the opportunity to find a good natured Chad Gibson, given that he was taken into custody and from there the hospital?
Honestly, if they are going to employ people to post such nonsense in order to manage the message in the blogosphere they should contact the Obama administration for a few tips.
Jim
@BrianZ: LOL. Was thinking the same thing. Very ham-handed.
Keep The Heat On
@Brian:
Right. And the blood clot that those doctors found was all fake, right?