Fort Worth protests light discipline for bar raid officers |
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Seattle Gay News
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posted Friday, November 13, 2009 - Volume 37 Issue 46 Fort Worth protests light discipline for bar raid officersby Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer Over 200 members of the Fort Worth, Texas, LGBT community packed the City Council chambers Tuesday, November 10, while others picketed outside in protest of the light discipline handed down to police and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) agents involved in the June 28 raid on the Rainbow Lounge Gay bar. In the first Council meeting since Fort Worth police and the TABC issued their final disciplinary reports, the Council responded to public anger by approving proposals to train police on LGBT issues, and adding protections for Transgender people to the city's anti-discrimination ordinances. LGBT demonstrators protesting the police raid were joined by right-wingers denouncing the new Transgender anti-discrimination ordinance. The Fort Worth Police Department and the TABC issued their long-awaited disciplinary reports on the same day, November 5. Two FWPD officers, including the sergeant in command of the Fort Worth officers at the Rainbow Lounge the night of the raid, were given one-day suspensions. A third officer was suspended for three days. Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead announced the suspensions at a press conference Thursday morning, November 5, on Jennings Street outside the Rainbow Lounge. TABC Administrator Alan Steen released results of an internal investigation the same day. According to the TABC investigation, their agents did not target the Rainbow Lounge because it was a Gay bar and did not use excessive force against three bar patrons who were arrested during the raid. One of the three, Chad Gibson, suffered severe head injuries and was hospitalized for more than a week following the raid. TABC agents Christopher Aller and Jason Chapman were fired for policy violations in August along with their supervisor, Sgt. Terry Parsons, based on the findings of TABC's first internal affairs investigation into the June 28 raid. However, TABC's second and final investigation clears Aller and Chapman of allegations that they targeted the bar and used excessive force against patrons Gibson, Jose Macias, and George Armstrong. Jon Nelson of Fairness Fort Worth, a group formed in response to the raid, said the FWPD report "falls far short" in terms of disciplinary actions, and reiterated his organization's earlier call for an independent investigation into the incident. "Five days suspension total is wholly inadequate for what happened that night at the Rainbow Lounge. & Five days - what message does that send to the LGBT community of Fort Worth? It's like a kid being told to go to the principal's office, and the principal just saying, 'Don't do that again,'" Nelson said. Nelson also said he was "disappointed" to learn that the TABC agents had been cleared of the excessive force allegations. "There were 32 eyewitnesses to what happened at the Rainbow Lounge," he said, "and although the specific details may vary from patron to patron, it is clear from their statements that excessive force was used, that the [FWPD] officers and the TABC agents were overly aggressive and they did in fact instill fear in those patrons." The radical group Queer LiberAction called for demonstrations at the City Council meeting on November 10. "The Fort Worth Police Department continues to fail in adequately addressing the needs and grievances of the Fort Worth GLBT community," they said in their statement. "Officers involved in sending Chad Gibson to the hospital for over a week due to serious brain injury will be given a light slap on the wrist by being written up and a possible day or two suspension." About 20 Queer LiberAction members picketed outside City Hall before Tuesday's Council meeting. Religious counter-protesters held signs condemning Gay people. At one point, the two sides went toe to toe, and even sang competing hymns - "We Shall Overcome" from the LGBT activists and "Amazing Grace" from the counter-protesters. Openly Gay Fort Worth City Council member Joel Burns would not comment on the disciplinary actions handed down in connection with the Rainbow Lounge raid, saying only that such decisions are "the police chief's prerogative." "I think the chief has done a good job overall. He's not even been here a year, and he's had a tough job. There are other major investigations going on, too," Burns told the Dallas Voice newspaper. "We can't change what happened on June 28. But what we can change, going forward, is how the city responds to its LGBT citizens," Burns said. The Council's vote on adding gender identity to the existing anti-discrimination ordinance was 6-3. The ordinance already prohibited discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation. Much of the Council's debate centered on proposals for better relations between city staff - including FWPD officers - and the LGBT community. City staffers will be trained on dealing with the LGBT community, and FWPD has appointed an openly Lesbian officer as liaison to the community. Other recommendations were referred for further study, including offering domestic-partner benefits and expanding the city health insurance plan to cover gender reassignment procedures, including sex changes. The TABC announced on October 29 that it had hired Resource Center Dallas to provide LGBT diversity training to all of its roughly 700 employees throughout the state. The training will reportedly make TABC the first state agency in Texas to undertake such an initiative. |
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