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News & ArtsMonday, July 6, 2009
Homo / News Their First Mistake
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 9:20 AM
The day after the raid on the Rainbow Lounge the chief of police in Fort Worth accused patron Chad Gibson of groping one of his officers and insisted that Gibson was to blame for the violent raid:
"You're touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive," he said. "I'm happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that."
Gibson, hospitalized with a life-threatening brain injury when FWPD chief Jeff Halstead attempted to use the "gay panic defense" to justify the attack that put Gibson in the ICU, wasn't able to speak up in his own defense. But Gibson is speaking up now:
Gibson said he wants the officers involved in the raid prosecuted. He also called the response by the city of Fort Worth a cover-up. Although the city has asked the U.S. Attorney General to review the investigation, Gibson said he has lost all confidence in law enforcement.... "They have blamed it on me, that I was drunk [and] that I hit my head," he said. "I groped the officer. I did this. I did that. You know what, no ... Accept responsibility."
And Gibson isn't buying the FWPD's latest excuse: that it wasn't their officers who assaulted Gibson, but officers from the state's liquor agency, the TABC.
"Even if the Fort Worth Police didn't touch me, they watched it," he said. "They watched other people do that to me."
The raid on the Rainbow Lounge seemed like an anachronism, a return to a time when the police could harass and brutalize gay men and women with impunity. Back in the bad old days the police knew that the gay men and women they roughed up—and often shook down—couldn't defend themselves. Back when gay men and women could be fired or thrown out of their apartments or imprisoned for being gay, back when the vast majority of gay men and women were forced to live their entire lives in the closet, the police knew that someone like Chad Gibson wouldn't—couldn't—show his face on TV and tell his side of the story and demand the prosecution of the officers who assaulted him.
And that's perhaps the most mystifying aspect of the raid on the Rainbow Lounge. The police burst into that bar as if it were 1968, the year before the NYPD's raid on the Stonewall Inn, as if all the old rules were still in force. They assumed that the other men at Rainbow Lounge that night—the men who witnessed four officers assaulting Chad Gibson—would disappear into the night, grateful that they got out of the Rainbow Lounge without being assaulted too. The police didn't expect the other gay men men at the Rainbow Lounge to talk to the media—or to organize a protest outside Fort Worth's city hall. The police didn't even seem to realize that there were men taking pictures with their cell phones during the raid. It's as if the police in Fort Worth didn't know what decade they were conducting this raid in.
And not only is Chad Gibson speaking up for himself, and not only did the other gay men who witnessed the assault on Chad Gibson speak up, but Chad Gibson's mother and sister came to Gibson's defense in the days immediately after the raid. And that may be the best indication of just how inoperative the old rules are. Back in the bad old days—back before Stonewall—the police knew that the men in a bar like the Rainbow Lounge had either been rejected by their families for being gay or lived in terror of their families finding out they were gay. Under the old rules gay men swept up in bar raids couldn't come forward to protest police brutality because their families would see their names in the paper or hear them on the news. Back then our families—our mothers and fathers and siblings—were our enemies. Today they're our allies.
Until a week ago Saturday the police in Fort Worth believed the old rules were still in force. Gay men and women tore that rule book up forty years ago. Now they know.
UPDATE: A couple of folks in comments wonder why Gibson doesn't specifically deny groping an officer. This interview clarifies that point:
26-year-old Chad Gibson is left to nurse a head injury and his face is still healing from an incident he can't recall. "I was at the bar buying drinks for my friends and I. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ICU," Gibson said. "I'm just appalled that they took it to the level that they did."
Eyewitnesses—men who can remember the incident because they didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury during it—say that Gibson didn't grope anyone.
1
I remember the days when the police would raid gay bars and claim people were dancing together as the excuse. I remember the days when you had to hide your face. Good bye to the bad old days. Prosecute the the people who did this and sue for damages. Maybe they will think twice (if they think at all) before they make us punching bags again.
2
I think that is the real lesson here.. the idea that the cops thought it was the 50s/60s -- and for Texas, that is more along the line of 1850s/60s;
Back pre-stonewall, the beaten queer who didnt die in the attack would slink off quietly back to the closet..
Now, your mother will stand up in your place and call out the cops; along with your coworkers, your family, your friends, and YOU...
I was initally depressed when I heard about the texass raid... "how could this happen again, is that how far we have come?" to "Oh, yeah, that IS how far we have come..."
Back pre-stonewall, the beaten queer who didnt die in the attack would slink off quietly back to the closet..
Now, your mother will stand up in your place and call out the cops; along with your coworkers, your family, your friends, and YOU...
I was initally depressed when I heard about the texass raid... "how could this happen again, is that how far we have come?" to "Oh, yeah, that IS how far we have come..."
4
so have a protest march already!
gays friends moms dads kids of gays fuck invite Al fucking Sharpton!
gays friends moms dads kids of gays fuck invite Al fucking Sharpton!
5
Thank god he appears to be doing ok - praying he stays that way. I hope those officers are fired and he gets a nice settlement from the city. I swear, sometimes it seems the only way government officials will stand up and take notice of something like this is when you start hitting them where it hurts - the bank account. Good luck to Chad.
9
@6 Well, I'm sure that's a brain damage-worthy offense under Texas law.
Dan: I wish I could share your feeling that this event was an anachronism. Here in the midwestern heartland, I think something like this could happy in many communities with just as little provocation and just as little remorse by the cops. People don't talk like it's the 50's, but many in power still think like time has stood still.
Dan: I wish I could share your feeling that this event was an anachronism. Here in the midwestern heartland, I think something like this could happy in many communities with just as little provocation and just as little remorse by the cops. People don't talk like it's the 50's, but many in power still think like time has stood still.
10
So what's his version of the story then? It doesn't say?
Devil's advocate: was he too drunk to remember?
Devil's advocate: was he too drunk to remember?
12
TABC will say they're "reviewing their policies" and pretend this never happened if the heat gets turned up too high. Apologies from the TABC are so full of it you can fertilize the hill country with them.
13
too drunk or not, it doesn't matter for any of the following reasons:
1. there are eye-witness accounts backed up by photographs
2. even if he groped, the response was an still an over-reaction
3. male police officers haven't beat a female groper in texas
1. there are eye-witness accounts backed up by photographs
2. even if he groped, the response was an still an over-reaction
3. male police officers haven't beat a female groper in texas
14
Gibson didn't say *what* he was doing before the event. Which means either he's been told by a lawyer to shut it or the reporter is just bad and didn't actually ask for clarification.
The 'witness' also didn't say what happened before the choke hold. So from this story you can't even figure out what happened that *may* hav precipitated, rightly or wrongly, this.
So, basically, we have bad reporting and useless witness accounts. And a guy in the hospital who still hasn't said that he either made any movements at all toward the officer (he didn't have to 'grope', I'd imagine any officer having someone come anywhere near his gun or him is going to be trained, rightly, to avoid or take down) or doesn't remember or... what.
I don't give a shit if it was a gay bar or not. I want to know some more facts and this article doesn't give me any.
The 'witness' also didn't say what happened before the choke hold. So from this story you can't even figure out what happened that *may* hav precipitated, rightly or wrongly, this.
So, basically, we have bad reporting and useless witness accounts. And a guy in the hospital who still hasn't said that he either made any movements at all toward the officer (he didn't have to 'grope', I'd imagine any officer having someone come anywhere near his gun or him is going to be trained, rightly, to avoid or take down) or doesn't remember or... what.
I don't give a shit if it was a gay bar or not. I want to know some more facts and this article doesn't give me any.
15
Back in the 50's, my uncle was arrested in one such raid in SF. In his prim and proper way, he was always embarrassed that he had a police record, but I saw it as a badge of honor, and, in a way, a gift to me. In a sense, Uncle Tony dealt with that shit so I wouldn't have to.
18
A very nice piece, Dan. Here's hoping that you will have a venue for it beyond Slog (as the points made deserve a wider audience).
What a nice treat this morning to see a post with a picture of Chad Gibson sitting up, alert, and with a report that he is speaking. A very fine thing indeed.
I wonder how many more changes will be made to the story/stories being told by the officers and their departments now that Mr. Gibson is able to be a vocal witness to their transgressions. Which further makes me wonder how much they were counting on Gibson never recovering.
What a nice treat this morning to see a post with a picture of Chad Gibson sitting up, alert, and with a report that he is speaking. A very fine thing indeed.
I wonder how many more changes will be made to the story/stories being told by the officers and their departments now that Mr. Gibson is able to be a vocal witness to their transgressions. Which further makes me wonder how much they were counting on Gibson never recovering.
19
16
facts are stuborn things, shitass.
neither Gibson nor the witnesses contradict the police account, a fact Sharpton..I mean Savage, conveniently glosses over.
facts are stuborn things, shitass.
neither Gibson nor the witnesses contradict the police account, a fact Sharpton..I mean Savage, conveniently glosses over.
20
No one is blaming the victim here, 16.
Blame is a pretty nasty accusation to throw around when Dan himself has been blaming authorities without any facts or testimony of the victim's behavior.
I'm not the type to always side with the police version of what happened.
Spare us the impartial bullshit when you yourself have already made up your mind about who to blame before the victim has even spoken up about what happened to him.
kthx.
Blame is a pretty nasty accusation to throw around when Dan himself has been blaming authorities without any facts or testimony of the victim's behavior.
I'm not the type to always side with the police version of what happened.
Spare us the impartial bullshit when you yourself have already made up your mind about who to blame before the victim has even spoken up about what happened to him.
kthx.
21
Good on the other bar patrons for taking pictures. Photographing the police is dangerous but necessary.
23
@6, 10, 14,
He states he still doesn't remember what happened. He remembers being there, and remembers waking up in the hospital, but remembers nothing in between. Head trauma is like that. He likely never will recover those memories.
He states he still doesn't remember what happened. He remembers being there, and remembers waking up in the hospital, but remembers nothing in between. Head trauma is like that. He likely never will recover those memories.
24
the moral Dan wants police all over America to take away is that gays can get falling down drunk and behave as lewdly and obnixously as the want anywhere they want and there's not a fucking thing you can do about it
26
I have suffered a traumatic brain injury. I have no memory of the 30 seconds or so up prior to the injury.
27
good. someone needs to teach these backwards hicks that times are changing. shit they pulled 40-odd years ago isn't going to fly anymore. maybe this will teach their attitudes to evolve. evolve or go bankrupt.
28
@24 and that warrants a brain injury? yeah. let's go around and bash every straight guy's brains in when he gets falling down drunk. fucking trolls...i swear...
29
Eyewitnesses—men who can remember the incident because they didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury during it—say that police didn't headslam anyone.
30
A very good piece.
I am very glad he is doing better and will stand up for himself in Texas. I am much too young to have every remembered a time where this was common and probably too naive to think why it wasn't reported.
Trolls: Yes, traumatic head injury causes memory loss.
I am very glad he is doing better and will stand up for himself in Texas. I am much too young to have every remembered a time where this was common and probably too naive to think why it wasn't reported.
Trolls: Yes, traumatic head injury causes memory loss.
31
Even if he did grope him, then just arrest him for whatever charge touching an officer brings. Don't knock his ass out.
Bad cops. Welcome to the rest of America.
Bad cops. Welcome to the rest of America.
32
@18 This story has been picked up by the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05t…
and the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/…
Much to the dismay of the FWPD, this story isn't going away any time soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05t…
and the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/…
Much to the dismay of the FWPD, this story isn't going away any time soon.
33
I have the most profound feeling that all these trolls -- or a major percentage of them -- are really just one person. A person wearing a tie.
34
Fort Worth is Southern Baptist Central. This will need to go to Federal court, because if it is tried in a Texas court, the judge and jury will give themselves a manicure during testimony, then decide justice according to their pre-trial prejudices. That's Texas, y'all.
35
Does it make it easier for you to ignore dissension when imagining it is one person antagonizing you?
If all you want t o find is likemindedness, please google the phrayde
"the daily me"
You will find everything you have be confirmed by your own bias there.
YEAH! ME AND MY OPINIONS! THE DAILY ME!
GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME
If all you want t o find is likemindedness, please google the phrayde
"the daily me"
You will find everything you have be confirmed by your own bias there.
YEAH! ME AND MY OPINIONS! THE DAILY ME!
GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME
38
I, too, am suspicious that a guy who has been in a fucking COMA for over a week doesn't remember every detail from that night.
Oh, and I'm going to conveniently forget about all the eyewitness testimony and photographs showing Gibson all bloodied up at the bottom of a fucking cop dogpile. Then I'm going to claim that my doubts are due to a desire to be objective until I receive more evidence. Then I'll probably ignore that evidence, too, and say that anyone who pays attention to real evidence that favors one side over another is being biased. See how that works?
If I always take the middle road automatically, I can be just as intellectually lazy as an extremist, but can still pretend to be thoughtful and unbiased! How convenient!
Oh, and I'm going to conveniently forget about all the eyewitness testimony and photographs showing Gibson all bloodied up at the bottom of a fucking cop dogpile. Then I'm going to claim that my doubts are due to a desire to be objective until I receive more evidence. Then I'll probably ignore that evidence, too, and say that anyone who pays attention to real evidence that favors one side over another is being biased. See how that works?
If I always take the middle road automatically, I can be just as intellectually lazy as an extremist, but can still pretend to be thoughtful and unbiased! How convenient!
39
For the edification of the above trolls:
Fallacy: argument to moderation [also known as the 'gray fallacy']
Fallacy: argument to moderation [also known as the 'gray fallacy']
41
I live in New England. Never in the 26 years I have been going out to bars, both gay and straight, have cops ever come in for a raid. This is what you do in a bar, you go out to drink, socialize, dance, laugh, perhaps find someone to pick up, either for the night, or to date, in other words, FUN. So why in the world is it okay for cops to go in there and harass people for doing what you are supposed to do in a bar? I don't get it. I see some comments on here that say he was drunk in public, etc. Well, it was a BAR for cripes sake. Does not anyone else think its ridiculous that just by going to a bar and drinking, cops can just come in and arrest you because you look a bit too drunk? How do they know how drunk you are?
I will say this, if cops could do that up here in New England, I'd never go out. Who wants to be there for cops to suddenly come in, bark questions at you, detain you, require you to show ID, and possibly arrest and assault you, all because you decided to go out to have FUN?! I don't think so. I'm surprised any of you in Texas actually go out to bars, knowing this could happen. Or do you all just have one drink, because any more and you could be publicly drunk? Yeah, that must be it, especially at all the straight bars, none of you must drink too much because the cops don't cause head injuries in straight bars.
And while I Seriously doubt any of these men groped the officers, that does not give anyone the right to cause broken bones and head injuries.
Did anyone see that rotten editorial over the weekend by the Fort Worth Newspaper? I came on here looking to see if Dan had mentioned it, it was pretty bad.
I will say this, if cops could do that up here in New England, I'd never go out. Who wants to be there for cops to suddenly come in, bark questions at you, detain you, require you to show ID, and possibly arrest and assault you, all because you decided to go out to have FUN?! I don't think so. I'm surprised any of you in Texas actually go out to bars, knowing this could happen. Or do you all just have one drink, because any more and you could be publicly drunk? Yeah, that must be it, especially at all the straight bars, none of you must drink too much because the cops don't cause head injuries in straight bars.
And while I Seriously doubt any of these men groped the officers, that does not give anyone the right to cause broken bones and head injuries.
Did anyone see that rotten editorial over the weekend by the Fort Worth Newspaper? I came on here looking to see if Dan had mentioned it, it was pretty bad.
45
Nobody could really believe FWPD and TABC stories. Nobody who sees the photos and hears the witness accounts. Nobody would believe Tex-ass cops are just such hot pieces of ass.
That being said, they'll probably get off. It is Southern Baptist Central and juries are still 12 people too dumb to get out of jury duty.
That being said, they'll probably get off. It is Southern Baptist Central and juries are still 12 people too dumb to get out of jury duty.
46
Y'know, it might be my rage talking over this, for for right now, I hope Chad owns Ft. Worth by the time this is done. I want to see Ft. Chad or Ft. Rainbow pinned on the map of Texas.
47
I hardly see how trying to figure out the rhetoric and scree from good eyewitness accounts and better reporting count as being trollish.
Did photos show what happened right *before* and during the moment Chad was starting to be taken down that definitively show either version of the story? No, apparently not (yet, anyway). They recorded the result. That's not the same thing unless there's a photo floating around that shows a cop slamming Chad's head into the ground when he was already effectively pinned down.
He has a brain injury and can't remember? Then he's getting his entire perspective on his injury from eyewitnesses that are hardly going to be unbiased in what they saw (if they even had a full sight line of Chad and Cop #1 just before he went down). He just doesn't know what he or that cop did.
And I'm including the cops in this, too. I haven't read any accounts by the individual officers themselves. They're probably being shut down by the Police Chief and told to zip it but it would be good to hear what they say now about what the hell where they expecting to do that night, what they thought they were going to encounter and what they saw or did (and a good reporter would push to get those statements), while this is still fresh, because it could either shed some light on why they did what they did (which doesn't make them right, thanks, you can leave the yelling over there -->) or hang them out to dry (which'll look lovely in Chad's future lawsuit). But trying to pull as many strands of facts out of all the knots in these stories, trying to eliminate some obvious faulty or just plain wrong suppositions and starting to build a coherent timeline and case is *exactly* what will be part of the invariable basis of any investigation and lawsuit. So why doesn't the media just start asking some of these questions now... to ask *everyone* before everyone gets so personally entrenched in this that they're susceptible to influences.
I'm not saying Chad's lying. I'm not saying eyewitnesses are lying. I'm not even saying the cops are lying. I'm saying an effective media (especially one who knows that this event is going to shine a dark light on Fort Worth, regardless) should be doing some investigatin' of its own at this point. Because I don't give a shit that this happened at a gay bar; a raid that ends in anyone getting injured like this is a failed raid. Period. I'd like to think the same people upset about this raid would be just as upset if the bar patrons were urban cowboys or an university/artsy crowd or any other group not traditionally associated with violence ('cept rednecks... they's trouble, man).
More...
Did photos show what happened right *before* and during the moment Chad was starting to be taken down that definitively show either version of the story? No, apparently not (yet, anyway). They recorded the result. That's not the same thing unless there's a photo floating around that shows a cop slamming Chad's head into the ground when he was already effectively pinned down.
He has a brain injury and can't remember? Then he's getting his entire perspective on his injury from eyewitnesses that are hardly going to be unbiased in what they saw (if they even had a full sight line of Chad and Cop #1 just before he went down). He just doesn't know what he or that cop did.
And I'm including the cops in this, too. I haven't read any accounts by the individual officers themselves. They're probably being shut down by the Police Chief and told to zip it but it would be good to hear what they say now about what the hell where they expecting to do that night, what they thought they were going to encounter and what they saw or did (and a good reporter would push to get those statements), while this is still fresh, because it could either shed some light on why they did what they did (which doesn't make them right, thanks, you can leave the yelling over there -->) or hang them out to dry (which'll look lovely in Chad's future lawsuit). But trying to pull as many strands of facts out of all the knots in these stories, trying to eliminate some obvious faulty or just plain wrong suppositions and starting to build a coherent timeline and case is *exactly* what will be part of the invariable basis of any investigation and lawsuit. So why doesn't the media just start asking some of these questions now... to ask *everyone* before everyone gets so personally entrenched in this that they're susceptible to influences.
I'm not saying Chad's lying. I'm not saying eyewitnesses are lying. I'm not even saying the cops are lying. I'm saying an effective media (especially one who knows that this event is going to shine a dark light on Fort Worth, regardless) should be doing some investigatin' of its own at this point. Because I don't give a shit that this happened at a gay bar; a raid that ends in anyone getting injured like this is a failed raid. Period. I'd like to think the same people upset about this raid would be just as upset if the bar patrons were urban cowboys or an university/artsy crowd or any other group not traditionally associated with violence ('cept rednecks... they's trouble, man).
48
How much does anyone want to bet that the Sunday morning after this horrible incident, there was some preacher telling his flock how Leviticus says that gays deserve to die because they are an abomination to God.
No surprise if some of those parishoners are cops or young boys that want to grow up to be cops and carry out the word of God and "kill some fags", ala Fred Phelps style.
And Texas wants to leave the Union, well I say fine! See 'ya! Just give time for the gays to get the heck out!
No surprise if some of those parishoners are cops or young boys that want to grow up to be cops and carry out the word of God and "kill some fags", ala Fred Phelps style.
And Texas wants to leave the Union, well I say fine! See 'ya! Just give time for the gays to get the heck out!
49
Where the fuck were the cops when I was legitimately fending off unwanted gropings in bars in Milwaukee? Goddamn.... I'm just sayin'.....
Even if dude did grab a piece, I don't think that warrants beating the snot out of him.
Even if dude did grab a piece, I don't think that warrants beating the snot out of him.
50
@47-we have, on the one side, a cop more or less saying "he touched my twinkie/butt" and a bloodied guy on the other saying that he doesn't remember anything other than winding up flat on his ass. Methinks someone overreacted.
Cops are supposed to be able to diffuse situations without beating the crap out of people. He could have been forceful without being violent.
Cops are supposed to be able to diffuse situations without beating the crap out of people. He could have been forceful without being violent.
51
50
He was arrested because he was drunk.
He fell down because he was drunk.
The groping is just icing on the cake...
He was arrested because he was drunk.
He fell down because he was drunk.
The groping is just icing on the cake...
52
Cops in NYC get off after killing innocent people. I bet these cops get off too. Not the way it should be, but the way it is.
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