Having gone through the 32-page TABC report on their agents’ actions at the Rainbow Lounge, not much to report. The three agents did violate TABC policy, the report says, but these were for wearing the wrong uniforms, not getting supervisor approval, and not filing the right reports. And Chad Gibson fell on his own on the concrete outside, and did not get his injuries while being hogtied inside the club.
But here are two observations, one funny and the other more serious.
1) When the TABC and the FWPD were snooping around the club a few days earlier (when they found a drunk guy passed out in his car with his pants down), the TABC agents did a little spying. Here is how the report describes it:
“[TABC Agent Christopher] Aller recalled exiting the unit and walking through the parking lot, eventually making his way to a fence in the back. Aller said he and [FWPD] Officer Back looked through the fence openings into a patio area and observed six or eight customers. He saw two males dressed only in thong-like underwear or bikini bottoms sitting on some picnic tables. As he continued to view the area, he noticed the male subject who had earlier identified himself as the owner entered the patio area and quickly made his way to one of the individuals in the underwear and whispered in his ear. Aller said the male subject got up and ran inside.”
“Aller believed the subject’s actions were odd and could indicate the possibility of drug activity or lewd conduct.”
I guess intelligence is not on of the requirements of being a TABC agent. Gee, this was a gay bar that had men dancing in their underwear as part of the entertainment. Maybe the bar owner was whispering to the underwear-wearing guy to get up off his ass and start dancing. I ain’t paying you to be sitting on some picnic table.
2) The TABC report said the inspection/raid started at 1:30 am. Tom Anable, the club’s accountant who was there that night, took notes on the entire affair, and he put the start at about 12:45 am. Other bar patrons have backed up Anable’s timeline. That may not seem like a big difference, but you have to question the accuracy of any report like this if they cannot even get an accurate assessment of when they moved into the club.
A few observations on your flawed logic…
1. You use the phrase “hogtied” Do you even know what that means? Per the wikipedia, ” hogtie is any position that results in the arms and legs being bound, both tied behind the person and then connecting the hands and feet.” So you’re suggesting that the officers tied his feet to his legs with rope?
2. You refer to the law enforcement officials as engaging in the act of “spying.” This implies a degree of illegality on the part of the officers. They were actually conducting surveillance. Use the correct terminology.
3. Mr. Anable has no credibility as a witness because of his relationship to the establishment. This isn’t meant to impugn Mr. Anable’s honor, he may be the most trustworthy guy in world, but his relationship to the establishment deems him biased witness.
4. Perhaps it’s my ignorance of what’s deemed acceptable within Gay culture, but if I was at the Flying Saucer and there were a couple dudes sitting together wearing thongs at a picnic table, I think someone would call the cops.
Glad I could help.
I wonder: If these ‘agents’ had seen women in thongs and bathing suits, would THAT have warranted a raid at a later time?
I think we all know the answer to that, don’t we.
Those ‘agents’ would have entered the bar drooling like a bunch of pigs and asking for a closer look.
This was nothing more that typical Heterosexuality run amock. And like most Heterosexuals, they could care less about applying the law equally toward the very Gay & Lesbian people Heterosexuals themselves created. Most of you seem to feel you have carved out some sort of exception to the law as it applies to Gay & Lesbain citizens. It’s pretty disgusting to watch. All the while, many of you are screaming your heads off about morality, as you condone the abuse and violence toward YOUR VERY OWN OFFSPRING. Morality indeed.
Watching Heterosexuals these past months, with all of the gay marriage and gay rights stuff going on, and watching the depths of dispicable behavior that so many of you are willing to sink so comfortably into makes me so thankful to God for making me a Gay American.
I can think of nothing worse than being a part of a group that would bring MILLIONS of Gay & Lesbian children into the world, then spending the rest of your lives making sure those children are abused, degraded, dehumanized, murdered, rape, lynched or the many other illegal things that Heterosexuals commit against Gay Americans every single day in this country. And if you are apathetic to this vile behavior you are complicit in the crimes.
Morality indeed, Heterosexuals. Morality indeed.
Sorry Bill,
I’m due back on planet Earth so I won’t have time to comment on your paranoid rant.
Prof. Bud:
What if Sarah Palin and a moose and a polar bear were seen inside a bar wearing thongs. Would you call the cops then? Just a hypothetical that you need to explore.
Could you call up Chineseboomerang and have him come over here to blast Dan McGraw and Gay Bill. I think you guys need a new topic besides Bill Clinton.
ICD,
You raise an interesting point. My main concern would be that the thong wearing polar bear would require too much of our precious “mineral” known as water and that Tom Hicks wouldn’t be able to water his luscious Raleigh St Augustine lawn. Otherwise, I just be glad Slick Willie wasn’t there wearing a thong.
sorry… about the slip… please insert “would” between I and just. damned computers.
Hi ICD,
No, not going to blast McGraw.
But if you want to talk about intimidation by government (which is the overarching theme of the whole Rainbow Lounge situation) why don’t you explain your side’s (egged on by Obama) thugs beating up protesters at health care town hall meetings.
When gays start protesting Obama’s reluctance to fulfill his campaign promises he made to them do think his thugs are going to NOT start beating them up or worse. Remember, the black community is staunchly against gay rights – just look at they way they voted recently in California and the hatred expressed against gays in so many rap / hip-hop lyrics.
On a more general note –
In another post on McGraw’s waning interest in eating at Fred’s he does admit to his OWN biases –
“I had been taught growing up that anyone who said “y’all” and “fixin’ to” was a hillbilly moron. What I learned in Fred’s was that people who spoke that way could be intelligent and interesting.”
Then he goes on to talk about the diversity at Freds –
“I also learned about one of the things that set Texans apart from most other folks in this country [Including McGraw himself]. The Fred’s crowd came from all walks of life: Old geezers sat with construction workers and lawyers and the tattooed and pierced. And while many were more politically conservative than I was, this was a fiercely independent bunch. No one judged anyone else’s lifestyle. You were who you were, and more power to you.”
Indeed, McGraw learned some humility when he came here. Your Welcome for that Dan.
What does this have to do with the Rainbow Lounge? Well, we’re talking about bias and bigotry here aren’t we?
Dan admits to a phenomena that our country is suffering from, wherein – ignorant, arrogant and malicious reporters / writers who are supposed to inform the public are instead being slowly informed BY a public that knows more then them, a public that is more interested in the whole story then they are, a public that wants the truth. We are seeing this in spades with regard to the health care debate and slowly it will also be the case with, yes, gay rights but also history, racism and bigotry of any kind, abortion socialism / liberalism and fascism.
Thanks for outing your former biased self Dan. But like those fine folks at Freds did for you way back, why don’t you work on your comrades down there at the FW Weekly to rid them of their biases.