Last weekend's police raid at a Fort Worth gay nightclub where a man suffered a serious head injury last week is now instilling fear in the gay Texas community that the incident that occurred on the 40th Anniversary of the
Stonewall riots proves that times haven't really changed after all, according to
LA Times.
Todd Camp, a Fort Worth gay man, and his entourage had just marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots by screening a documentary on the police raid on New York's Stonewall Inn and the subsequent historic gay riots. Camp and his friend then decided to go have drinks at the newly opened Rainbow Lounge. The festivities were going smoothly until suddenly the police came.
Reportedof a routine alcoholic beverage code inspection, both Fort Worth police and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents headed out to the Rainbow Lounge after checking two other bars and arresting 10 people prior.
According to police Chief Jeff Halstead, officers went to the
Rainbow Lounge and encountered two drunk people who made "sexually explicit movements" toward officers and another who grabbed a TABC agent's groin.
No one was arrested for assault but about half a dozen people were booked on charges of public intoxication, according to police records.
Meanwhile,witnesses said, officers forced their way through the crowd and grew physically and verbally aggressive. They claim the officers randomly arrested people and never asked for identification. Reportedly, they didn't either check blood-alcohol levels on site. Chad Gibson, 23, one of the civilians at the Rainbow Lounge who was brutally arrested by police, was not sent to jail but instead rushed to the ER and hospitalized with bleeding on the brain.
Gibson's sister Kristy Morgan told Dallas-Fort Worth television station
WFAA, Gibson is not violent, and "for anyone to come back and say he did something to provoke this is ludicrous."
Police Chief Jeff Halstead defended his officers, claiming Gibson had grabbed at the agent's groin and was so drunk he was vomiting and fell and hit his head. Halstead said he didn't have more details about how Gibson was injured but that the department had started an internal investigation into the raid. City and state lawmakers are demanding Gov. Rick Perry to call for an independent investigation.
The Human Rights Campaign on Monday also called for an investigation into the incident
In the meantime, both gays and straights question whether the incident was an horrible replay of Stonewall or just an unfortunate untimely coincidence. The 1969 raid touched off demonstrations that paved the way to the gay rights movement in the U.S.
