This article includes graphic details about police brutality.
Police attacked gay bars in Des Moines and Raleigh this week, simply because those bars were providing medical assistance to those wounded by police. The scenes in multiple states were eerily reminiscent of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn in 1969 that touched off the modern gay liberation movement.
In a Facebook post, the owner of The Blazing Saddle in Des Moines wrote that he was watching the protests on TV with his staff when they saw that police were firing chemical agents at peaceful protesters. The staff gathered first-aid materials and stood outside to offer help to anyone in need.
The Iowa State Capitol is just down the street from the bar, and numerous groups of people escaped the police violence by heading in their direction. Before long, bar staff found themselves tending to various passersby who were in “agonizing pain,” according to a post by one of the workers. The bar’s security camera captured the scene, with good samaritans handing water to people who were injured by police.
That’s when two trucks full of officers arrived — it’s unclear if they were local or state troopers — with guns drawn. Some of the staff fled into the bar, where they hid until police ordered them to emerge.
Footage from the bar security cameras shows police arrive with guns pointed at people administering first aid. The police force those people onto the ground, and eventually restrain their hands behind their backs. Officers detained three people, then ordered the rest to go back inside the bar, lock the doors, and not come out again. There’s no word on what happened to those detainees.
A similar scene unfolded in Raleigh, North Carolina. After the owner of Ruby Deluxe reported that police failed to stop white supremacists from vandalizing his business, he decided to remain present with a first aid station.
He provided water and food to people who had been injured by police forces, and for most the evening there were no incidents. But then police arrived and ordered him to stop. In a video posted online, he explains that he owns the space, but police order him to get out. Then, as he’s walking back to the bar, they open fire on him.
Police spokesperson Eric Curry confirmed that police forces attacked the bar because it was providing food and water to protesters, and refused to say what sort of munitions officers fired.
Local officials say that they’re “distraught” over the police raid, and have asked for an investigation. One of the people who will participate in the investigation is Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown, raising questions about how such an investigation could be impartial.
There was also police violence adjacent to the Stonewall Inn in New York. After a rally outside the historic site, a group of queer people were beaten and seized by police this week. According to writer and organizer Jason Rosenberg, police ambushed peaceful marchers and beat them until bloody, breaking Rosenberg’s arm and hitting his head so hard he required staples. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed not to have seen videos of police beating protesters, despite those videos widely circulating online.
