What’s With the Undercover NYPD Cop Screaming ‘Faggot’ Outside a Black Gay Bar?

Chi Chiz, “New York City’s only black gay bar” on Christopher Street where we’ve seen more than one or two exposed dongs, and which has a 4.5/5 star review on GayCities, is the unpleasant victim of police raids and forced closures, thanks to citations of drug dealing inside the venue. Fine. But what’s this about an undercover NYPD cop screaming “faggot” at bar patrons?

The court’s action [that lifted a restraining order that would’ve kept the bar closed] on March 6 allowed the club — which the owners said caters largely to African-American men, and some Latinos, of all ages — to reopen that evening at 9 p.m., about 24 hours after being shut down. Later the same night, Allen Roskoff, a longtime gay activist who had been told of the previous day’s raid, dropped by the club, where he said he was harassed by a young white man standing outside who he later learned was a Sixth Precinct undercover cop.

According to Roskoff — who was with Corey Johnson, also a gay activist and the 1st vice chair of Chelsea’s Community Board 4 (which does not encompass Christopher Street) — as they arrived at the club, the young white man was standing outside yelling, “This fag establishment should be closed.” When Roskoff and Johnson confronted the man, he responded to each of them, “You’re a faggot.”

No, you’re a faggot. Whatever.

As it stands, Chi Chiz’s long-time owners Ronelle McKenzie and Everett Ray are still fighting in court with the NYPD over how to keep their bar open.

The most recent court proceeding in the Chi Chiz case was a conference that ran more than three hours in which Judge Michael Stallman sought to broker agreement between the NYPD and the club owners over procedures to which they would commit in order to keep the establishment open. According to Shanahan, the police are looking for an ironclad guarantee that no drugs will be used or sold in the club, to which he said he responded, “We can’t guarantee that. When the city figures out how to keep drugs off Rikers Island, they can hold us to the same standard.”

Haha. That was clever. Not exactly kosher, but clever.

[Gay City News]