June 29th, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
Stonewall-Style Raid
Saturday night, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in NYC, police reportedly entered Fort Worth’s Rainbow Lounge gay bar and began arresting people with unnecessary force for public intoxication. Multiple first-hand accounts suggest that the arrests were random and unwarranted.
In all, seven were arrested and one remains hospitalized with a brain injury that occurred during the incident: “About 18 hours after officers with the Fort Worth Police Department and agents with the Texas Alcoholic Beverages Commission raided a Fort Worth gay bar, about 150 to 200 people gathered on the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse in downtown Fort Worth Sunday night, June 28, to protest the raid.”
I’m sure more details will come to light as time goes by, but they couldn’t have had better timing to plan a raid on a gay bar if they wanted to get publicity for their beatings. The 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots?
If they are legit in their bar raid (they have every right to raid bars to check for intoxication in Ft. Worth) then they should have at least attempted to not create a huge news situation by beating the hell out of gay bar patrons on the 40th anniversary of cops beating the hell out of gay bar patrons in a way that sparked the beginning of the gay rights movement.
