Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Texas officials want investigation of gay bar raid
06.30.2009 12:35pm EDT
(Fort Worth, Texas) Two city officials are seeking an investigation into a police raid at a gay nightclub that ended with the arrests of several patrons and the hospitalization of a man with a head injury.
“I’ve asked for as thorough a report as possible … to reassure folks that the police are not singling out any group,” Councilman Joel Burns said Monday.He said he was particularly disappointed that the raid occurred on the 40th anniversary of New York City police raid on the Stonewall Inn. That 1969 raid touched off a riot and subsequent demonstrations that fueled the gay rights movement in the U.S.
Burns said Fort Worth police were unaware of the anniversary.
Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks, also calling for an investigation, said she was “very concerned” after hearing from patrons and others in the community about the early Sunday morning raid at the Rainbow Lounge.
More than 100 people gathered outside the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday evening to protest what they said was police harassment and abuse.
One of those arrested during the raid, Chad Gibson, 26, remains hospitalized with bleeding on the brain, his sister Kristy Morgan said.
Gibson is not violent, and “for anyone to come back and say he did something to provoke this is ludicrous,” she told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW.
Fort Worth police went to the Rainbow Lounge with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents early Sunday as part of routine alcoholic beverage code inspections, said police Sgt. Chad Mahaffey. They first went to two other bars, where 10 people were arrested, he said.
Officers then went to the Rainbow Lounge, which had opened about a week ago. They encountered two drunk people who made “sexually explicit movements” toward officers and another who grabbed a TABC agent’s groin, according to the police report.
No one was arrested for assault but about half a dozen people were arrested on charges of public intoxication, according to police records.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Gibson was the patron who grabbed at the agent’s groin. Gibson was so drunk he was vomiting and struck his head when he fell, the chief said. Gibson was arrested, but was taken to the hospital instead of jail.
Halstead said he did not have additional details about how Gibson was injured.
The department has started an internal investigation into the raid, he said.
The TABC is waiting on a report from the Fort Worth office, but “given the concerns that have been raised, it would not be unusual” for an internal investigation to be done, said agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck.
George Armstrong, 41, said he had been at the Rainbow Lounge about 30 minutes when officers stormed inside. He smiled and flashed a peace sign at one officer, but was then grabbed and tackled to the floor with his arm twisted behind his back, he said.
“He was yelling at me to stop resisting arrest, but I wasn’t doing anything. It was horrible. I really thought he had broken my shoulder,” Armstrong said Monday. “I’ve never been so embarrassed and humiliated. I didn’t do anything to him.”
Armstrong, who was arrested, said he noticed that other people who were arrested were injured or said they had been tackled by police.
Armstrong said he was released from jail the next day and went to a hospital, where his arm was put in a sling after X-rays determined his shoulder and back were severely bruised and strained.
Armstrong said he didn’t see anyone inside the Rainbow Lounge make lewd gestures or grab the officers.
“To me, it seemed like they were trying to make a point,” he said of the police.
We need to form a gay legal group that does nothing but file suit after suit after suit at the SLIGHTEST of infractions against our community.
We need this group to file suits not ONLY against agencies but EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL involved directly in harrassment! In this case, the city, the sheriffs department and each individual officer.
EVEN IF most complaints are ultimately tossed out, as most things of this nature are, we cost them TONS of money, and for the individuals involved, we force them to have to come up with the money to defend themselves.
Eventually, the assholes will start to think twice before fucking with us just for kicks if they know that it’s going to mean five years of headaches and lawyer fees…EVEN IF the incident is eventually likely thrown out.
We need to form such a group and start pouring MILLIONS into its coffers! Enough is enough. If they know that we’ll lie down and take it, they will just continue.
Let LAMBDA and such handle the big picture issues and let’s form a nuisance lawsuit group that makes city officials and agents treat our community with kid gloves as they are cursing us out under their breath.
Yet another city to cross off my list of Places to go to.
We need a hate crime law now, outside of Austin,usually Dallas and Houston a Gay persons life is in danger in Texas. I have learned the hard way in this state that when cops come up to you, put your hands in the air and fear for your life. Fort Worth police will walk on this because Texas cops know they can get away with it. I am even thinking right now I need to sugar coat this as I don’t want Perry’s boys knocking on my door.
Sounds like the police and others are using a “gay panic” mentality to justify their appalling abuse of power. Can we PLEASE just let Texas leave the Union like it has been wanting to? Obviously “American History” is not “TEXAS History”….nobody ever heard of or knew anything about the 40th anniversary of STONEWALL?, but I bet they all know the details of Sam Houston’s birthday or the original desire to break Texas into 5 states for admission to the Union….WAKE UP TEXANS and start recalling mayors and officials that aren’t getting “it”….remember a certain Dallas cop that was “power tripping” on the black football player rushing to the hospital to be with his mother-in-law on her deathbed, this past spring? He was fired for his “abuse of power”. Cops need to be brought back to earth and made accountable to the people again….especially, apparently, in Ft. Worth and other big cities.
Don’t be shocked if the “wolves in the henhouse” find “nothing wrong” or “out of the norm” with their raids or any of the policies.
Next time let the drag queens start and handle this issue, just like at Stonewall…
Kristy Morgan, sister of Chad Gibson, said Chad has awake today, but that he has no memory of the incident in the bar and that his memory of events today have been spotty. She said he remembers her being there, but that he doesn’t remember talking to the doctor this morning, and he doesn’t remember visits by some of his friends during the day.
Videos at
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Witnesses-Challenge-Police-Account-of-Gay-Bar-Raid.html
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Tempers-Flare-During-Raid-at-the-Rainbow-Lounge.html
Someone explain why this isnt national news. Even better, someone explain why you need a squad of police to “check a liquor license”?
Doesn’t this smell. Just like the germans rounding up the Jews. We pay our taxes. But now we have to be afraid of the ones that are suppose to protect us. It is time the federal Goverment step in and guarntee our equel rights. I hope the patrons there start a class action law suit against the police Dept. Fire everyone involved. The City needs to Pay. Pay dearly for what they did. Maybe stonewall right might just be in order. Let them know we are not going away. That we will stand up for our rights.
John Said:
“I have nothing else to add.”
Strike that; I do have something else to add:
May 21, 1979
Daniel White shoots George Moscone and Harvey Milk- five times-, finishing with point-blank shots to the head.
Murder dropped, found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, sentenced to 7 years & 8 months, served five years.
After the verdict was announced and the White Night riots ensued that night and dissipated, police made a retaliatory raid on the Elephant Walk bar, made two dozen arrests and beat patrons while wearing full riot gear for two hours.
Regarding the riots, Harry Britt, who had replaced Milk, told reporters “Harvey Milk’s people do not have anything to apologize for. Now the society is going to have to deal with us not as nice little fairies who have hairdressing salons, but as people capable of violence. We’re not going to put up with Dan Whites anymore.” Reporters were shocked that a public official would condone the violent acts. Subsequent attempts to find a gay leader who would apologize proved unsuccessful.
The point is that Mayor Feinstein gave much the same speech when Dan Whites verdict was announced. The police continued the attack nonetheless.
And that is the sum of your power of government rhetoric.
And what these memories, this age, converging in my view of today compel me so sorrowfully to ask is:
What is going on, what happened?
How did we go from this-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_mvk4istzo
to this-?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vecmfE5hxS4
Wtf has happened to us?
This is outrageous. The timing simply screams of redneck Christian machismo trying to put us queers in our place. Thank goodness that in a city the size of Forth Worth there will be liberal voices on our side within the political and media establishment. At least that much is different 40 years after Stonewall.
“Burns said Fort Worth police were unaware of the anniversary.”
And I say the Fort Worth(less) police are simply “unaware”. Clueless, in fact.
“Club manager Randy Norman told the newspaper that, unlike in a routine bar inspection, officers immediately began arresting people without first asking to see the liquor license.”
Statement from Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks regarding the Rainbow Lounge incident:
“…I join with Councilman Joel Burns in wanting all citizens of Texas and Fort Worth to know and be assured that the laws and ordinances of our City will be applied fairly, equally and without selective enforcement or targeting. As an African American I understand the distrust and fear that grows throughout a community when the belief that there is no recourse or protection is allowed to grow and fester…
…It is truly ironic and unfortunate that this incident occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall protests. Unlike 40 years ago, though, the people of this community have elective representation that will make sure our government is accountable and that the rights of all of its citizens are protected.
For more information, please contact my assistant, Will Trevino, at (817) 392-8808.” — Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks
___________
Cry havoc.
I have nothing else to add.
We’ve heard of ignorance of the law. Well obviously, if there was ignorance of history or not by trying to make a point, they royally screwed up.
Utter abuse of power.
“No one was arrested for assault but about half a dozen people were arrested on charges of public intoxication”
Wow. You mean to tell me that there were intoxicated people at a bar. Amazing abuse of power. This charge is usually used when someone is disturbing the peace and generally causing problems. Obviously, the cops and the TABC chose to harrass the patrons.
I’d be interested in finding out what other bars were targeted during the raids.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead is a liar.
Can anyone say “blue wall of silence”.
These kinds of actions are exactly why police rarely have the respect of the public anymore.
The officers involved are scum and should be fired.
If the Fort Worth GLBT community does not follow through on this, they will NO DOUBT regret it!
Just what did all these people get arrested for? When most people go to a bar they are going to drink and therefore be intoxicated. Not one person in the department knew that it was the 40th anniversary? Please