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Council members want investigation of gay bar raid
Man suffers serious head injury after Texas incident
Published Thursday, 02-Jul-2009 in issue 1123
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Two City Council members said Monday that the public deserves answers about a weekend police raid at a gay nightclub where a man suffered a serious head injury.
Fort Worth councilmembers and the Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks expressed concern after hearing from patrons and others in the community about what happened.
Chad Gibson, 26, remains hospitalized with bleeding on the brain, his sister Kristy Morgan told Dallas-Fort Worth television station WFAA. Gibson is not violent, and “for anyone to come back and say he did something to provoke this is ludicrous,” Morgan told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW.
Fort Worth police went to the Rainbow Lounge with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents early Sunday as part of routine alcoholic beverage code inspections, said police Sgt. Chad Mahaffey. They first went to two other bars and arrested 10 people, he said.
Then officers went to the Rainbow Lounge and encountered two drunk people who made “sexually explicit movements” toward officers and another who grabbed a TABC agent’s groin, according to the police report.
No one was arrested for assault but about half a dozen people were arrested on charges of public intoxication, according to police records.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Gibson had grabbed at the agent’s groin and was so drunk he was vomiting and fell and hit his head. Gibson was one of those arrested but was taken to the hospital instead of jail.
The TABC is waiting on a report from the Fort Worth office about the weekend incident, but “given the concerns that have been raised, it would not be unusual” for an internal probe to be launched, said agency spokesperson Carolyn Beck.
“He was yelling at me to stop resisting arrest, but I wasn’t doing anything. It was horrible. I really thought he had broken my shoulder,” Armstrong told The Associated Press on Monday. “I’ve never been so embarrassed and humiliated. I didn’t do anything to him.”
Armstrong was arrested, but he said no officers advised him of his Miranda rights or administered any tests to determine his blood-alcohol level.
He said he noticed that other people who were arrested were injured or said they had been tackled by police.
When Armstrong was released from jail the next day, he went to the hospital, where his arm was put in a sling after X-rays determined his shoulder and back were severely bruised and strained, he said.
Armstrong said he never saw anyone inside the Rainbow Lounge make lewd gestures at or grab the officers. He said the raid happened very quickly at the club that had just reopened.
Burns said he also was disappointed that the raids took place on the 40th anniversary of New York City police raids on the Stonewall Inn, but he said police didn’t realize it was the anniversary. The 1969 raid touched off demonstrations that helped lead to the gay rights movement in the U.S.
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