It seems that police in Ft. Worth, Texas decided to celebrate Stonewall in their own special way and stage a little re-enactment 40 years to the day later.
From The Dallas Voice's blog Instant Tea:
According to [former Ft. Worth Star-Telegram critic Todd] Camp, the newly-opened Rainbow Lounge is “the only cool gay bar in town,” but the police raided it, arresting numerous patrons for no reason.According to the reports I've read, this sounds very much like a case of the police putting out a message that they won't tolerate teh Gays in their town. The police are saying that patrons were drunk and making sexually explicit movements toward them, something I seriously doubt, people aren't that stupid and none of it fits with eyewitness accounts. 40 years after Stonewall it seems people in some places still have a lot to learn, and I'm talking about the Ft. Worth police.
I got another perspective in my in-box this morning:
The not awesome thing was the paddy wagon of homophobic police that showed up … looking for trouble. My group and I were sitting on the back patio at a picnic table. Nobody was being wild out there. [The police] came through with flashlights, being loud asking what was going on out here, then asked why everyone was all the sudden being quiet. When one group started up their conversations again, they took one guy away. I left shortly after and as I walked through the front bar there were numerous cops with plastic handcuffs all ready to go. I [left] the bar and they [had] a big van in the parking lot and numerous cars on the street. And just so you know, it wasn’t fire hazard crowded or seedy wild in there. … The worst part is [friends later told me] that [the police] had numerous people face down on the ground outside. I just moved to Fort Worth from Dallas, so this is such a shock to me. I know Dallas would not put up with this. … I am still so shocked it is 2009 and this just happened.
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