Bushwick’s Happy Fun Hideaway is the only expressly queer bar in the area; a self-consciously funky space with a tropical fever decor serving up Frito Pie, pinball machines, kitsch films like Liquid Sky and Masters of the Universe, and an endless rotation of left-field music. On weekends, the place is a shoulder-to-shoulder squash of newly-out twenty-somethings, many making their first awkward forays into gay bars and New York nightlife in general.
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But if any fun was hidden away on Monday evening, it apparently wasn’t on the premises. Around 11:15 pm, as the bar teemed with a shellshocked crowd — many of whom had just returned from the Stonewall Inn vigil — an extremely intoxicated man threatened to “come back Orlando style” after getting into a drunken scuffle with the bouncer.
According to The New York Daily News, 40-year-old Justin Rice was throwing back cocktails with his girlfriend when the two of them began loudly arguing. An unnamed bouncer, 34, told the couple to chill out. When that didn’t help matters, he threw Rice out of the bar.
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“You fucking faggots,” Rice screamed. “I’m going to shoot this place up and get my fifty just like Orlando, Florida. I’m going to come back Orlando-style!”
Rice, after managing to hit the bouncer and throw a metal bucket filled with sand at him, was eventually restrained until the police arrived.
The bouncer only suffered minor injuries and bruises.
Rice has been charged with aggravated harassment and assault.
Billy Budd
The madness is contagious. It never ends.
Marky
Public drinking and domestic disputes are like a tank of gasoline and a blowtorch.
Endeavour not to combine them.
Dave Downunder
I hope this guy get’s flagged as a person to watch. Things said in anger or when drunk tend to reveal a person’s true nature and it sounds like his true nature is something the authorities should keep an eye on.
Sluggo2007
@Dave Downunder: You may be correct, but I think he’s just a star-spangled asshole with a big mouth.