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24 officers were found to have violated department protocols regarding search and seizures, illegally searching and detaining patrons, and engaging in a coverup. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade.” Eight patrons were arrested, but all charges were dropped or dismissed.Īn independent report commissioned by the city after protests found violations of the Fourth Amendment and departmental procedures against patrons and employees. Patron Nick Koperski was quoted as saying, “I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. Patrons were forced to lie face down on wet floors with broken glass, one sustaining injuries, one having a panic attack that resulted in a three-day hospitalization. Īlso in 2009, 48 police officers stormed the Atlanta Eagle without a warrant, including members of the elite Red Dog SWAT team. Five years later, the botched raid was remembered as the catalyst for positive institutional changes at the Texas ABC, the Forth Worth Police department, and the city at large. Protests at the Rainbow Lounge that forced Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead to apologize and institute reforms.Īfter protests, the raid was investigated and found to be motivated by homophobia, that the detentions were against departmental policy, and that the officers used unreasonable force. Halstead, initially stood behind his officers, saying Monday that patrons had provoked the scuffle by making sexual gestures toward officers.
It just seems like it was a deliberate jab at the community.” Īs another patron noted, “It felt so very Stonewall, but without the standing up for ourselves.” “Fort Worth’s police chief, Jeffrey W. They were singling out specific people, the men who seemed more effeminate. Five patrons were arrested for public intoxication and two were sent to the emergency room, one with a torn rotator cuff and other with life-threatening brain injuries. Approximately 20 patrons were detained in plastic handcuffs while six were arrested. On June 28 th, 40 years to the day after the Stonewall raids, Fort Worth police and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) inspectors entered the newly-opened Rainbow Lounge without a warrant. Yet while contemporary depictions of the 1969 Police raids on the Stonewall Inn are often as an event of the distant past, as recently as 2009 saw mass raids on gay bars in the United States. For most of the 20th century, going to gay bars meant that “you may be placing yourself in a position that you’re not just going to a bar but you’re going to jail that night.” This police repression played a key role in the radicalization of middle-class gays and lesbians in the latter half of the 20 th century. This is noteworthy because until recently police were often agents of violence at gay clubs. Police actions in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Orlando’s Pulse were heroic.