Police Chief updates council on Rainbow Lounge investigation (updated)

UPDATE: Seven protesters were removed from Tuesday night's City Council meeting after they refused to allow the meeting to continue until the Rainbow Lounge presentation was moved up to the top of the agenda. More details here.

A large turnout is expected at tonight’s Fort Worth City Council meeting as activists plan to attend in droves, intent on keeping the spotlight on last month’s Rainbow Lounge Raid.

Both Fairness Fort Worth and the ACLU are encouraging supporters to attend. Many are expected to speak their mind to the council. John Nelson, an attorney with Fairness Fort Worth, has arranged to make a citizen’s presentation about the incident and the investigation.

During the pre-council meeting this afternoon, Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead gave the council an update on his investigation of the June 28 raid, when state and local police conducted a bar inspection at a gay bar and made six arrests, severely injuring one patron. The incident has galvanized the gay community.

Some key points from Halstead’s presentation:

--Internal affairs investigators have conducted interviews with 33 attendees at the Rainbow Lounge and expected to complete the investigation in approximately 30 days.

--The Fort Worth police consider the investigation a priority, taking some internal affairs investigators off other cases to focus on the Rainbow Lounge incident, he said.

--Halstead expects to update the police department’s policy regarding bar raids, after taking input from the community.

“I don’t want a police officer to say, ‘I’ve never been in that bar. Let’s do an investigation,’” Halstead said.

--Soon after the incident, Halstead said he decided he needed a police officer to serve as a liaison to the city’s gay/lesbian/bisexual community, just as the department has people serving in a similar position for other minority communities. Officer Sara Straten, a neighborhood officer in north Fort Worth and 17-year veteran of the department, volunteered for the position.

“I plan to work hard to heal the community as a whole, both the police department and the GLBT community,” Straten told the council.

Mayor Mike Moncrief and council members praised Halstead but added they support the current plan to have the US Attorney’s office review the police investigation.

“While June 28 was a difficult day, I’m pleased to hear that we are moving forward and not backward,” Mayor Mike Moncrief told Halstead. “This city is an inclusive city. This is not an exclusive city”

Comments

[Jean]

Texas (and Fort Worth 2007), for years the leader across the entire United States in drunk driving fatalities, is also one of only seven states that does not allow the use of sobriety check points.
These are the facts that upset me most about all the controversy in that where are officials to find/minimize drunk drivers if not the bars then?
Rainbow patrons, a special interest group, routinely made false accusations throughout this ordeal in terms of being "targeted," but in reality, Rainbow was the third stop that night as I understand it, and seven arrest had already taken place before officials even arrived.
Nevertheless,day one this population and it's supporters were demanding a ruling, days before anyone had even had the opportunity to investigate. Now we know from an interview, Chad G. was self-admittedly drunk, not having a few or enjoying a social drink, but drunk. As much as I support police and the TABC in their efforts, I wish the leaders would have either waited before calling in the Feds, or included in their visit, an investigation into the April tazing death of 155 pound, unarmed Michael Jacobs since overzealousness was the alleged complaint.
This selective involvement/assessment by the Dept. of Justice appears way too "select" to many, and downright racist to others.
Honestly, I believe the call to Feds went out on voting expectations, not a quest for justice.

[Leo Goodman]

Oh, Jesus, man, someone provide some perspective on this silly story. Before though, was that Blake Wilkinson part of that Dallas group? He appeared to be on a cocaine rage (I used to date a girl on coke, and I know all about it; he looked just like her).

Listen, here's the missing link to this story: The Rainbow Lounge (whose owners are no doubt profiting off this "scandal." Please keep this issue alive, they must be thinking.) and its patrons WERE treated just like everybody else. They weren't treated any differently; they were perhaps bullied by the authority of law enforcement just like everybody else.

Homosexuality doesn't provide special rights to avoid being the victim of bad judgments, law enforcement or otherwise.

We all deal with this. People make misjudgments and do stupid things all the time. Simply look at a number of those who made fools of themselves at the City Council meeting last night. It happens. That's life.

An aside: Isn't it funny, too, to hear the mayor talk about the city not being exclusive when no one knows more about exclusivity in this town than he does. Not just everybody can go to that special enclave on the West Side.

Now that I think about it, that's life, too.

That's all I have to say about that.