Action Alert: Fort Worth Police Raid on the Rainbow Lounge - “You shall not stand by [the shedding of] your fellow's blood.”

On June 28, 2009, I was in New York City with approximately one million other people. We were in New York City to mark the 40^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a New York City Police Department (NYPD) raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village (in New York City). The Stonewall Riots are considered the birth of the modern gay and lesbian civil rights movement.

On June 28, 2009, the same day we were marking the 40^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the Fort Worth Police Department and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission tried to reenact the failed NYPD raid on the Stonewall Inn. As there is no Stonewall Inn in Fort Worth, Taxes, they raided the Rainbow Lounge, a Fort Worth gay bar that had been open for approximately two weeks. They made a series of questionable arrests for public intoxication. More importantly, these law enforcement officials physically attacked bar patrons. It appears they deliberately went looking to beat up and arrest the patrons without cause. One patron, Chad Gibson, has been charged with public intoxication. He is suffering from a head injury after being attacked by five law enforcement officials and he may not survive.

Owing to the wonders of the Internet and cell phone cameras, this incident has been reported and documented. An excellent account of this incident can be found at: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/06/30/fort-worth-police-chief-that-faggot-had-it-coming

Judging from the numerous misleading statements made by the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD), as well as the misleading statements made by the Chief of the FWPD and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), I have little faith that justice will be done in this case. The FWPD and TABC have launched their own “investigations.” Maybe they will conduct complete and through investigations. So far, both the FWPD and TABC seem more interested in public relations and lying about what they did.

The FWPD and TABC now want us to believe that after they went into a gay bar and without provocation violently attacked bar patrons, then lied about the attacks; that the very same people who they attacked should go to the very same FWPD and TABC that attacked them and swear out statements against the FWPD and TABC officers. They want the victims to believe that their complaints will be taken seriously, will be fairly investigated, and that FWPD and TABC officers will not retaliate against them after the make charges against FWPD and TABC officers.

I suspect there will not be an investigation by either the FWPD or the TABC. I suspect there will be a whitewashing of the incident and the whitewashing will be called a “complete and thorough investigation.” I suspect that being Fort Worth is run by politicians who will want to be re-elected, the FWPD will find a scapegoat to blame the incident on. The scapegoat will probably be the TABC. I suspect there will not be any criminal prosecutions of the FWPD or TABC officers who attacked the patrons on the grounds that no one was willing to come forward given the situation I described in the preceding paragraph. I suspect that no FWPD or TABC officers will be disciplined. I suspect the FWPD and TABC will prosecute bar patrons in an attempt to publicly justify their outrageous conduct during a ridiculous bar raid, a bar raid that appears to have the sole purpose of intimidation of the gay community in Texas, especially Fort Worth, Texas.

This brings me to Leviticus 19:16, which states: “You shall not stand by [the shedding of] your fellow's blood. I am the L-rd.”

<http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9920/showrashi/true>

Rashi the great Torah commentator explains, “I am the L-rd” as follows:

I am the Lord: faithful to pay reward [to those who heed the above warnings], and faithful to exact punishment [upon those who transgress them].

<http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9920/showrashi/true>

The question is not if we are supposed to stand by while this blood is shed, but how we are supposed to this outrageous attack. Leviticus 19:16 demands that we do something.

The answer is before the US Congress. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act has been languishing in the US Senate. Those bigots who hate, including some members of the clergy and some members of Congress, have lied about this proposed law and its consequences. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) went so far as to lie about Matthew Shepard’s death and make cruel insensitive remarks in front of the dead child’s mother, Judy Shepard.

The fact of the matter is that the FWPD and TABC have proven in shed blood that local law enforcement cannot be trusted. If the victims of this attack are to see justice (“Justice, justice shall you pursue” – Deuteronomy16: 20), it is imperative that federal law enforcement be empowered to launch a complete investigation of this and other incidents. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act would give the federal government the authority to investigate incidents such as the one at the Rainbow Lounge. Sadly, this needed legislation is stalled in the US Senate. I call upon you to contact the President, your two Senators and your Representative and demand that they push for immediate passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909). I call upon you to demand that the FBI launch an independent investigation into this unprovoked attack.

An excellent statement in support of this important legislation can be found at: http://forum.themonastery.org/index.php?showtopic=5936.

Your congressional delegation can be reached at 202-224-3121 or at http://www.house.gov/ and http://senate.gov/. The White House can be reached at 202-456-1414 or at http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/.

Forty years after the NYPD raid on the Stonewall Inn, police raids of gay bars and attacks by police on bar patrons should be a thing of the past. It is time that we make it a thing of the past. For G-d tells us “You shall not stand by [the shedding of] your fellow's blood. I am the Lord.” Furthermore, the L-rd is faithful to pay reward to those who do not stand by while their brothers’ blood is shed.

A Heavy Heart

I write this with a heavy heart. I write this in pain, the pain one gets from freshly inflicted wounds, wounds inflected by those who preach hate.

As most of you know, I am doubly blessed, gay and Jewish. Everyday, I get to hear or read about my brothers and sisters who are persecuted or violently attacked because they are gay or lesbian or transgender or Jewish.

I live in the NYC Metropolitan area, which has a significant Jewish population. Therefore, while I experience hatred on a regular basis, it is not the same intense filth that one gets in areas without a sizable Jewish population.

For the last two days in a moderated, all faiths, religion forum, I and my Jewish brothers and sisters were attacked by a Pastor who preaches replacement theology. For those who do not know what replacement theology is, it is a discredited Christian teaching. Replacement theology is the religious justification for persecuting and murdering Jews during the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.

When the bigot was called on his hatred, he was defiant. He was proud of his disrupting an all faiths forum. He was proud of the hate and pain he brought to people. He was proud of his perverse use of religion to inflict pain. He was proud because he believes that only he and his followers know the true word of G-d. While he was preaching hate, one of his supporters was actively ridiculing Judaism and making fun of the prophet Elijah and also one of the Jewish sages.

Today, in a Jewish Yahoo group, a Messianic Jew tried to convert me. For those who do not know what a Messianic Jew is, it is someone who converted to Christianity, yet has the nerve to claim to still be Jewish. Typically they try to then convert Jews to Christianity.

I have seen hate and violence close up. I have seen the NYPD do nothing while glass bottles were thrown at gays and lesbians during an anti-violence march in NYC.

I have seen some of the finest human beings I will be privileged to know die from AIDS while the government did nothing because; they were expandable, because they were a persecuted minority, because it was politically convenient to let them die. Yet none of that hate has prepared me for the last two days.

My life was threatened by a homophobe soon after Mathew Shepard’s murder and the Fair Lawn, NJ Police Department refused to make an arrest citing “insufficient evidence.” Insufficient evidence according to the Fair Lawn police would be footprints in the snow leading from the perpetrator’s property to the crime scene and back. The failure of the Fair Lawn Police Department ultimately lead to the situation deteriorating and becoming violent. By the way, years ago, a similar incident was handled very professionally by the Nassau County, NY Police Department and instead of violence, further incidents were avoided.

None of this has prepared me for the onslaught of hate in the last two days. None of the horrors I have seen have prepared me for the filth I have experienced in the last two days.

My heart is heavy because we are all children of G-d and there are those of us who preach hate and practice cruelty instead of love, peace, kindness and goodness. My heart is heavy because there are those of us who get off on causing misery to others. My heart is heavy because there are those who do not understand the concept of respect. My heart is heavy because there are those who insist on going into places they do not belong because they are so convinced they are right that they think they are exempt from matters of common courtesy and decency. My heart is heavy because one would hope after endless bloodshed and war that maybe, just maybe, a moderated all faiths forum would be a safe place to learn about each others' faiths, traditions and beliefs.