I wish the Fort Worth bar raid had gotten national attention

[dsc]

It is hard to imagine more ironic timing for a raid of a gay bar to go horribly wrong; 40 years to the day after the Stonewall Inn raid Fort Worth police accompanied Texas liquor control agents on a raid which left one man critically injured and seven arrested. One man is still in hospital from his beatdown. Texas is the same state where, in 1998, a man was arrested for concentual sex in his own home with another man. The conduct during this raid was an unabashed abuse of police power against an unpopular minority. It was bullying by the police plain and simple. It deserved to be a national issue just like another recent abuse of police power. It is a symbol of just how far gays still have to go in many states of this country not to mention on the federal level. Too bad that nearly no one learned of it.

[PBS Poll-435]

1. You should have heard the Mayor, Mike Moncrief

And his lame-ass "apology."
:puke:

[dsc]

2. I read it and it would have to work hard to rise to lame.

[grantcart]

3. thanks for reminding us

[FrenchieCat]

4. Could you post some links and OpEds on these incidents please.....

that way those of us who did not pick up on this story initially can catch up now.

Thanks.

[ruggerson]

5. Here you go FC

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05texas.html?ref=us

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6530315.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-rainbow_22met.ART0.State.Edition1.4c134ea.html

[FrenchieCat]

6. Thanks!

:hi:

[ruggerson]

7. you're welcome

I listed them chronologically so you can follow the storyline over the past few weeks.

[dsc]

8. Here is the link of the raid

the Lawrence is from the famous Lawrence case.

http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=25947

[FrenchieCat]

9. So the police believed that going into a "bar" to seek out those

intoxicated was logical?

This is as sensical as arresting someone in their own home.

Sounds like an excuse to harrass patrons of this bar to me.

[dsc]

10. I will give them that bars are a good place to find drunk people

[BlooInBloo]

11. Hard to argue with that part of it. (snarfle)

[FrenchieCat]

12. Doh......

plainly obvious as to the real motive.

Guess cops don't have shit much to do these days in certain localities.

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. That's what the cops do here.

Not specifically gay bars, but any bar. They observe who appears to be fucked up, and usually they sit in a parking lot nearby and wait for 2 AM. And if the people they presume to be drunk get behind the wheel, they tail them. Though I've also seen them on occasion dragging someone out of the bar who had clearly been "overserved", but they usually deserved to be thrown out at that point.

I suppose it's an effective way of "profiling" drunk drivers, but it obviously has potential for other abuses, as happened in this case.

[dsc]

14. I don't have a problem with making sure drunks don't drive

but I do have a huge problem with invading a bar and beating its patrons.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. As I said

the pretense of drunk profiling does open up the possibility of other abuses. Probably more likely to happen in Texas than here, but just as with the Gates case, it's another hint of a growing police state in this country. And even in my so called "liberal" town, I've seen the cops engaged in what I would consider racial profiling, though I've never seen them profile LGBT's that I'm aware of.

[Leo The Cleo]

27. Abuse of Power Is Championed . . .

by the gov't and by many of the people. There is no doubt in my mind that this is THE REASON for the lack of civil and human rights in the country. Instead of looking out for the welfare of the population of this country, as promised in the the constitution, our governments seek to destroy the fabric of our freedom.

[Uzybone]

16. if only a prominent gay professor were involved

its sad that so many of these incidents are generally ignored by the media until someone famous is involved. Minorities of all stripes are harassed by law enforcement daily.

[Number23]

17. Thank you. I don't understand why a few here seem to be trying to create some competition

Black folks have been getting their asses handed to them FOREVER. But it's always, ALWAYS been that cases had to be either be videotaped (Rodney King); especially egregious (Abner Louima who was actually RAPED by the NYPD) or Dr. Gates who is a famous, much respected individual for them to get the slightest bit of attention. If EVERY incident of racial profiling against people of color in this country was given any attention, that's all any of us would ever see on the news.

It's almost as if some on this web site are perturbed that certain groups are getting more attention than they are or, even more shameful, more attention than they feel that particular group is WORTHY of getting. Either way, I wish they'd cut it out.

[FrenchieCat]

18. I'm starting to believe that it is simply that some issues get more attention.....

and they are not always of equal weight.

I remember when what-his-name anti-Gay minister guy was gonna speak at Obama's inauguration;
that got a whole lot of attention here and everywhere else for weeks.


I just think it depends on our media and who/what we think seems important at any given moment.

[Number23]

20. That's probably true. And it's sad that you can't remember the anti-gay minister's name

because I can't either!

But during that time, were there blacks, women, Asians or other minority groups noting and criticizing others for the lack of coverage or attention for our issues? I certainly didn't see any of that. And we all know that the media will focus on whatever people are screaming about most. RIGHT NOW, that happens to be Gates. Next week, we all know it will be something completely different.

People did get fed up with all of the drama surrounding the invocation eventually, but it certainly wasn't because the issues of OTHER minority groups were not being represented or addressed. It was a case of I think people were just tired of seeing the same stuff over and over again.

ETA: The man's name was Rick Warren! Good Lord, I must need a cup of coffee.

[dsc]

19. and of course it only started to happen to gays last week or something

and of course gays are never murdered or harassed by police.

[FrenchieCat]

21. I believe that this kind of violence should be what we pay attention to....

and what the news reports on... not all of the celebrity stuff.
Injustice is just that....and it should be given fair treatment.

I'm telling you, if we had a more humane media that actually cared to be what they should be,
we'd have a much more humane world.

It is really fucking terrible that they get to pick and choose what will be important to us,
on any given day, and 1/2 of the shit that they pick couldn't be more unimportant!

I wish I could do something about that shit, cause until we right this fucked up media,
none of us have much of a chance for change round here.

It's all very tragic.

[NMDemDist2]

22. i caught it on GayUSA

and you're correct

[noiretextatique]

23. i am in california and i heard about it

i think that means it got national attention.

[quakerboy]

26. Oregon here

And I heard about it. I thought more might come of it, but it seems to have just died away without anyone learning anything from the incident. Fucked up.

[cwydro]

28. It made our local paper here,

via the AP.

[Leo The Cleo]

24. FUNNY

Republican, in particular, argue about too much government and government invading on people's rights. However, they are the biggest proponents of the police state which terrifies and invades people's domiciles. They are the very defenders of government abuse. Some DUers her defend that type of abuse. I for one think that the attacks on any communities with laws created to publicly humiliated and criminalize individuals is not only reprehensible, but a violation of everything sacred and Godly.

[AspenRose]

25. I totally agree with you

K&R

Edit: Too late to rec :-(