On Anniversary of Stonewall, Police Raid Texas Gay Bar

Add this to the file of "You've got to be kidding me!"  On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, police in Fort Worth, Texas violently raided a gay bar known as the Rainbow Lounge, arresting nearly half a dozen people and showing that the more things change in this country, sometimes the more they stay the same.  Count the Fort Worth Texas Police Department as the most clueless and insensitive police departments around.

Protests sprung up throughout the day in Fort Worth, as LGBT rights activists demanded to know why the police chose the anniversary of Stonewall to make a violent raid on a gay bar.  Here's the scoop on the protests and the ridiculous antics of the Fort Worth police department, fresh from the Fort Worth Star Telegram.  Hat tip to reader Marlin Bynum for the heads up on this:

A crowd of more than 100 protesters chanted "No more!" from the steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse Sunday evening as they demanded an investigation into a police raid earlier in the day at a gay night club.

One patron was seriously injured in the raid, several protesters said, as police used excessive force in making seven arrests. Police defended their actions.

Speaker after speaker demanded an inquiry into the late-night raid at the Rainbow Lounge on South Jennings Street.

"I was scared," patron Todd Camp said at the protest Sunday afternoon. "I have never seen anything like this in my life."...

Witnesses say that police arrived at the nightclub about 1 a.m. Sunday and arrested seven people and that one of those arrested suffered a fractured skull during the takedown and is at a Fort Worth hospital.

Police brushed this off as a normal bar check, to make sure patrons were not breaking the law and that no minors were in the crowd.  But as Todd Camp (founder of Q Cinema, and also quoted in the excerpt above), this was no normal bar visit by police.  Instead, police showed up with zip cuffs and paddy wagons, which sure as hell sounds like they were trying to re-create Stonewall some 40 years ago.

"I have friends who are cops and I know what to do when officers are working," Camp said. "No one was acting aggressive to officers."

Camp said that he has been attending bars for years in Fort Worth when TABC conducts raids.

"Usually, they're very orderly and respectful – they work with the bar staff and check IDs, it's quick and painful and then it's over and then they're out," Camp said. "This was not that. This was harassment, plain and simple."

General manager Randy Norman said the bar had just been open a week and they had complied with all ordinances.

"Officers just don't come in armed with zip ties and a paddy wagon for a routine check of a bar," Norman said.

A group has now sprung up on Facebook for folks to receive up-to-date information on this incident. Unbelievable.  Police departments are supposed to protect people from violence; they're not supposed to be raiding gay clubs with zip ties and paddy wagons, and cracking people's skulls.  Stay tuned and see if we get some sort of apology out of this sad story.