Los Angeles Times:
Todd Camp and some friends had just marked the 40th anniversary of the police raid on New York's Stonewall Inn by screening a documentary on the historic gay riots and then heading for drinks at the Rainbow Lounge.
Camp remembered looking across the bar, packed with gay and some straight couples, and marveling how much times had changed since Stonewall -- the spark that ignited the gay rights movement.
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Good old boys hiding behind a badge. There will be more. The people should be afraid of the government. It should be the other way around. Restore the Constitution!!
That "johnny come lately" LA Times article leaves out a lot of information and details that were in articles from a day or two after this raid in papers in that area.
And it is obvious from all of the fact-challenged opinions flying around that most of these people have only read about this just now and only here.
I do not believe, for one minute, that the officers were "touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar" as claimed by the Chief of Police. He makes it sound like the officers were in fear of being molested and that is complete bull. I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I know the gay community here very well. They are not any more interested in "recruiting" or seducing heteros than those officers were in being recruited or seduced.
That statement alone makes me believe that the officers actions that night were completely in the wrong.
And if any of us caused someone brain damage because we believed they touched us inappropriately we would be up on charges of attempted murder. Nobody touched them.
Absolutely!
Of course no one touched them. The police are making it up.
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"Protect and serve"? What a joke. When's the last time someone asked the police for protection and actually received any? They are not going to protect you. Their job is to roam around taxing (fines) people and trying to aggravate them into breaking a law and on occasion showing up on a scene and barking orders at everyone insight and trying to aggravate them into disobeying an order so they can taser someone. Protect?! How many women have pleaded with the police for protection, told there is nothing they can do until the woman is beaten, raped or dead? They are NOT going to protect you EVER! It's not their job.
"Serve"? When is the last time they served us? They refer to us as civilians. Be dammd if they will accommodate any of our requests. When is the last time you saw a cop do anything to serve us? Ever seen one help an old lady across the street or assist a handicapped person? They won't even bend down to pick up litter at their feet. The only time they make an effort is if there is a chance to beat, taser or arrest someone.
i saw a cop get shot trying to stop a robbery. id call that serving. Ive seen cops die trying to rescue someone from a car sinking in a flooded creek. id call that protecting.
but nah, all cops are pigs and worthless arent they?
No. Just the majority. I've seen a homeowner get shot stopping a robbery. I've seen pedestrians die saving someones life. So what's your point?
200+ disgraceful videos of police brutality organized here and counting:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CopsOutofControl
And these just the ones caught on video. Google police brutality and there are over 3,000,000 listings. YouTube counts over 30,000 videos. The cops are above the law, they have too much power and the people are scared of them. This is not supposed to happen here in America.
Police raiding Gay bars and then saying they were just checking on anyone who was too drunk is as phoney as can be. It never occured to them that someone having too much to drink in a bar might call a cab or have someone else drive them home? The showed up with a paddy wagon as the police used to do in NY all the time and then paraded about inside the bar just to show their power and intimidate. These police are no better than goons and thugs. That brian-injured guy should sue the city for all it has.
"It never occured to them that someone having too much to drink in a bar might call a cab or have someone else drive them home?" -Steamboater
What? This is pure genious. Guess all the drunk drivers who wreak havoc on the roadways did their boozing at home and then decided to drive across town, right? People in bars never get drunk there and then decide to drive themselves home because who is more responsible than a drunk person? Unbelievable.
Stop with this devolution into talking about Texas. The *point* here is that these sorts of things should NOT be happening ANYWHERE forty years after Stonewall--and that people were hurt, one man seriously, who has a clot in his brain.
The anger should be against the homophobia/heterosexism that is pervasive and rampant in this nation and it's time for the violence against LGBT people to finally stop--wherever it occurs.
The continuing insane prejudice against LGBT in this country must come to an end. It's time for all people of good will, LGBT people AND their allies, to speak out and fight for equality and respect for all Americans.
It's true. This stuff may happen more in certain parts of the country than in others...but it is a nationwide problem. The focus should be on homophobia and police brutality OVERALL, not Texas.
Texas is a lot more progressive than a lot of people realize. Even among conservatives, a LOT of those conservatives are the "live and let live" libertarian types.
Backwards thinking exists everywhere. I was at a party in Massachusetts this past weekend, with young people, and a man there talked about how women can't be trusted in positions of authority and should not be allowed in jobs like lawyers, doctors, soldiers, etc. And most of the people at this party AGREED with him.
It is silly to deny that some places in the country have a bigger problem with intolerance than others. I've live in the north and the deep south, and there's no comparison. That's just the facts.
But it's plain stupidity to not look at the issue of intolerance with a wide lense and realize that Texas is not the problem, intolerance in and of itself is the problem, and that exists in all 50 states.
and that is the answer i have been waiting to hear from someone here for months....
Gays and red-neck pigs, whoda thunk that these two groups were incompatible.
Hopefully there was some sort of security camera to capture all the antics of the that night.
There probably weren't any drag queens in that bar and the police are lucky there weren't. It was the drags who fought the police at Stonewall and started that riot against them.
I thought it was a lesbian that fought them?
And by the way, all TX is not like this...Austin is a liberal oasis and Houston's Montrose neighborhood is the gay center of the south. It's just those REDNECKS up in North Texas.......and of course West Texas, but that's another story.....
It's the same here, in Michigan. The southeastern part of the state is cool. Not so much as one moves northwest.
Dallas has elected openly gay politicians to office. The current Sheriff of Dallas County is an example. The Oak Lawn section of Dallas is at least as popular a haven for gays as is the one in Houston, if not moreso.
I laugh at the very idea that the areas surrounding Houston are any more liberal than the ones surrounding Dallas. Ha-ha.
It is well known in Texas that Houston is jealous of Dallas for lots or reasons.
Why make an inspection from a place that's only been open a week?
Normally (up here in Oregon at least) there has to be complaints or incidents of DUI arrests where it's known that a specific place was responsible for over serving or serving minors before the police and liquor license inspectors show up. Sounds like all they had to go on was homophobia.
They do that pretty much all over Texas.
That's what the TABC does. They raid bars checking ids and they will close down clubs in a snap if there are any violations. They don't mess around, they're known for raiding bars and arresting drunks inside the bars (since bars are considered public space they can arrest you for public intoxication).
Texas is a lot different from Oregon in this respect.
"Texas is a lot different from Oregon in this respect."
Boy you can say that again!
The only good reason not to give Texas back to the Mexicans is because Molly Ivins was from there, and lived there. She redeemed it enough to save it.
"To protect and serve. " And in Fort Worth they can add "To harass gays."
"Protect and serve"? What a joke. When's the last time someone asked the police for protection and actually received any? They are not going to protect you. Their job is to roam around taxing (fines) people and trying to aggravate them into breaking a law and on occasion showing up on a scene and barking orders at everyone insight and trying to aggravate them into disobeying an order so they can taser someone. Protect?! How many women have pleaded with the police for protection, told there is nothing they can do until the woman is beaten, raped or dead? They are NOT going to protect you EVER! It's not their job.
"Serve"? When is the last time they served us? They refer to us as civilians. Be dammd if they will accommodate any of our requests. When is the last time you saw a cop do anything to serve us? Ever seen one help an old lady across the street or assist a handicapped person? They won't even bend down to pick up litter at their feet. The only time they make an effort is if there is a chance to beat, taser or arrest someone.
how many cops have died trying to stop a robbery? how many cops have died trying to rescue someone trapped in sinking/burning car?
sounds like you are stereo-typing. i hope you arent a minority or the irony would cause the planet to implode.
I know it's not a solution to run from a problem, but if I were g@y I'd be gone. You don't mess with Tex@s. Call me a coward, but I don't think I could live there as I wonder how Tex@s liberals deal with the political climate.
We have very similar b!gotry here in rural and northern Michigan, which is why I will always need to live in the big city. I have no fear of diversity. It's the b!gotry that scares me.
Texas is a lot more blue that some states are, and Austin is liberal central. Some of the most progressive and tolerant people I've ever known are from Texas. Also it's not all red neck Republicans even among conservatives. There are plenty of conservative Texans who are the more libertarian, "live and let live...and mind your own business" types who just don't have a problem with fays.
Yes there are regions in Texas where it's, frankly, nothing but crystal meth, homophobia, and racism. And there are parts that are born again evangelical far right wingers.
But that's not ALL of Texas nor even all of conservative Texas.
It does not matter what part of the country or world a person is from or their personal beliefs. No one has the right be beat, harass or hurt another human being. It is a crime to violate others and that should include the police officers who believe they can mishandle people.
er, gays not fays.
Um, three of the 10 biggest cities in the country are in Texas. So based on your logic, you'd be pretty safe in Texas if you were gay. As safe as you'd be where you are or anywhere else in the country.
It's just been my experience that rural areas here in Michigan are ignorant and racist.
There is a vast gay population in Texas; they stay there because it is their home. They are not necessarily liberals; it would not have surprised me if the Rainbow lounge had erupted in a firefight between well-armed gay cowboys and cops.
I wonder how much alcohol one would have to have on board before grabbing a police officer's crotch would seem like a good idea?
You're making assumptions thatdon't ring true. If someone did grab a cop's crotch, it wasn't sexual and I could understand it more as a protest and making the police feel as emasculated as they tried to make those bar patrons.
Laughable. No gay man made a pass at a cop in a gay bar when the cop was there on official business. It doesn't happen. Gay men are generally not stupid, even when drunk.
I've seen that used a couple times now. It's pretty bad the police need "Cultural training" (or anyone for that matter) in order to be humane towards gay people.
I have sat in those classes. They do not do any good. It is just an easy way to for the police department to appease the public, avoid civil liability and to avoid punishing the police officers who committed crimes. Enforcement of the law against police officers would go much further than a class on how to treat LGBT equally in their enforcement of the law and with the same dignity afforded all citizens.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
40 years from Stonewall forward -- 41 years from Stonewall backward.
trust me, that little incident at the bar was nothing like what it was pre-stonewall...nothing.
First, we take Manhattan, then we take Fort Worth.
Thanks to Leonard Cohen.
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Los Angeles Times | P.J. Huffstutter
First Posted: 07- 6-09 08:33 AM | Updated: 07- 6-09 09:40 AM