The commanding officer during the Stonewall Inn bust that led to the famous riots and had a huge role as the catalyst for the modern gay rights movements is speaking out, and still defending the actions of the police on that day.
The Advocate reports,
"NYPD deputy inspector Seymour Pine, now 89, joined a special broadcast of The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC-FM on Tuesday that looked back at the Stonewall riots…. When pressed
about the motivation for the raid, Pine, speaking by
telephone, said, 'I don’t think not liking gay
people had anything to do with it.' Instead,
[Pine] listed complaints from the community about the Stonewall Inn
that included Mafia connections, dirty drink glasses,
and the violation of contemporary dress codes."
Hmm dirty glasses? Not buying it. It's been established that mafia connections did play a part in it, but to say that being gay had nothing to with it isn't really credible.
– Andy
I was only 4 or 5 years old when Stonewall happened, and only vaguely remember seeing some news reports on it on our 13″ BW TV, but I have read accounts of it, and seen movies and documentaries about it since then. I’m willing to give the officer the benefit of the doubt, but not much of one. If the rebellion hadn’t started then and there, it would have started soon, and in one of the other gay bastions of the time.
At the time it was a violation of the NYS Alcoholic Beverage Control laws (which regulate bars) to serve homosexuals and/or to permit them to loiter in a bar establishment. That is why the mafia operated a sizeable number of gay establishments in the 60s, because of discriminatory laws against the GLBT community. The mafia saw an unserved or underserved market and took advantage of it.
To say that the clientele of the Stonewall had ‘nothing to do’ with the raid is to turn history on its head. That the police officer in charge is still in such blatant denial of those facts is sad and disappointing.