nightlife

Ft. Worth Police Stonewall’d Gay Bar Because … They Saw a Drunk Guy 2 Days Before

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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!

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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.”)

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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?)

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.

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