Rainbow Lounge Eyewitness Accounts

Eyewitness accounts contradict statements from police on what happened at Rainbow Lounge Sunday morning

Todd Camp

A number of eyewitnesses have given their descriptions of what happened at the Rainbow Lounge around 1 a.m. Sunday morning, June 28.

Most of these accounts are very consistent, even though they come from different people who do not know each other.

Here are a few of the eyewitness reports of the incident, as reported to Dallas Voice.

Todd Camp

Todd Camp, founder of Fort Worth’s LGBT film festival Q Cinema, had gone to Rainbow Lounge Saturday night with friends to celebrate his birthday. He said he was standing in line at the bar when “seven or eight cops,” some wearing Fort Worth Police uniforms, others wearing clothing identifying them as “state police.”

Camp said an officer “shoved me out of the way to grab the guy in front of me” in line at the bar. The officer “told the man, ‘You’re drunk,’” and took him out of the bar, Camp said.

He said there were “about six police cars” and a “paddy wagon” waiting outside the bar, and that officers had several people in zip-tie handcuffs lined up on the sidewalk.

“No one I saw appeared to be highly intoxicated, and the way they were choosing people just appeared to be random harassment,” Camp said. “They were pretty violent in grabbing people, and one guy was shoved to the ground and handcuffed.

“I was absolutely stunned. They are saying this was a routine check by TABC. I have been in plenty of bars before when TABC checks happened, and this was not like anything I have ever seen before,” Camp added. “People were just grabbed randomly, told they were drunk, spun around, put in handcuffs and taken out.”

Camp said straight friends who were there with him were frightened to the point of tears by what they saw.

Read the rest at the Dallas Voice

Yep, it's a 1968 mentality, but the attitudes of the LGBT community are firmly planted in 2009. This abuse cannot, and will not stand.

More later.
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