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Earlier this year, for example, headlines read “South Florida’s Last Big Gay Bar Raids Happened 25 Years Ago.” Broward County Sherriff Nick Navarro brought media, visiting dignitaries, and his wife to witness a raid on the gay clubs Copa and Club 21 in Fort Lauderdale when “100 armed officers, masked drug agents and the U.S. But for any reader of the gay press, police raids had never ended and are part of a long and continuous history of violence at gay bars that are actively commemorated on their anniversaries. What was different about raids in the 2000s was the outrage they provoked in the mainstream press and the fact that gay patrons did not expect to be going to jail just for being in a gay bar. “Over five years after the Atlanta Police Department’s inexcusable conduct in the Atlanta Eagle that we are still in court dragging the APD towards more competent and safe policing,” noted Greg Nevins, Lambda Legal Counsel. District Judge found the City in contempt of court for not complying with orders in the 2011 Eagle settlement. Unlike in Fort Worth, however, a five-year follow-up in Atlanta did not show positive changes. Six officers were fired, the elite Red Dog unit was permanently disbanded, and the City setlled a Federal lawsuit for more than $1 million. “By allowing the sexual orientation of the patrons to influence tactical decisions of the Raid, Brock allowed his preconceived notions of a class of persons to dictate the treatment of individuals.”Įleven officers were found to lied during subsequent investigations, many deleting cell phone data to cover up their actions. Two offers were found to have made discriminatory references to patrons: “Officer Menzoian falsely imprisoned the Deck patrons and Rawhide occupants when they were detained without probable cause or reasonable suspicion.” 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.
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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.
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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.