In an interview with Brian Lehrer on WNYC, Seymour Pine, the police officer who led the raid forty years ago, said that anti-gay bias didn’t play into the raid (though another participant did mention that “flame queens” were a cause for concern). The Advocate reports:
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, the former member of NYPD’s vice and gambling unit listed complaints from the community about the Stonewall Inn that included Mafia connections, dirty drink glasses, and the violation of contemporary dress codes.
Is it a coincidence that the first thing the riot-instigating drag queen Sylvia Rivera threw at police was a bottle? Frankly, if we went to a gay bar and didn’t have our clean stemware and our Abercrombie t-shirts, we’d riot too.
photo by Brandon Norris
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All his accusations are true, unfortunately. But he does neglect to mention that the cops were on the take from the mob and the bars would get raided when the cops wanted more money. Specifically the Stonewall Inn because it was notorious for being a gay bar.
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