Texas Intoxication Laws Target Gays, Hispanics

These people are not harassed. They are a protected class enjoying (via civil rights legal harassment threats) rights no white, straight tavern could claim. Spare us the dramatics, fluffy boys!

hate like this goes on all over the country more or less..
FTA:
"Irving police increased the number of Latinos they nicked for PI and other Class C misdemeanors by 150 percent...
...The Houston attorney puts it more bluntly. "As long as police are going out there fucking with the blacks and the Mexicans, until it hits the people with the power, they won't care."

I know.

It's like they think they should be able to go into a bar, have some drinks, and not get fucked up by the police then arrested. Some people just want EVERYTHING!

hate like this = Drug War.

the Drug War was/is still the test bed for destroying the American Constitution and stopping its global influence (re: Afghanistan, Central and South America, etc.).

The Drug War, by its very existence, proves, that at a very important level, the wrong people are still in charge in this country.

Sergeant Richard Morris had an idea. "Hey," he said. "Let's go to the Rainbow Lounge."

A half-dozen police cruisers, an unmarked sedan, and the prisoner van slid to a stop in front of the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth's newest gay club, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 200940 years, almost down to the minute, after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn with billy clubs and bullhorns. Inside the bar, the officers fanned out, grabbing and arresting six patrons for public intoxication. Benjamin Guttery, a 24-year-old Army vet, says an officer told him to put down his drink, then "bulldozed" him through the crowd to the paddy wagon but then let him go. "I'm 6'8", 250 pounds, and I had just finished my second drink," Guttery told a local reporter. "I might have had enough to have a loose tongue, but not a loose walk or anything like that." Another man alleges that he was slammed against a wall, elbowed, and fell on the ground, landing him in intensive care for a week with bleeding in his brain. He was charged with public intoxication and assault.

Not too unlike what Gitmo prisoners went through on a religously regular basis. I'll bet a majority of their "guards" were from Fort Worth as well..

Don't get caught drinking while brown and/or gay

I'm not brown and I'm not gay so I'm going to belly up to the bar and order a Black Russian on the rocks. 17 more days until St. Patrick's Day so I'm going to get an early start.

"These people are not harassed. They are a protected class"

Can you taste the stupid when you post bullshit like that?

"Stop lying."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, Timbicle.

"GITMO prisoners get treasted better than prisoners in Barstow"

Bullshit. How many prisoners in Barstow die while being "interrogated"?

Not too unlike what Gitmo prisoners went through on a religously regular basis. I'll bet a majority of their "guards" were from Fort Worth as well..
#6 | Posted by redlightrobot

Stop lying. GITMO prisoners get treasted better than prisoners in Barstow
#7 | Posted by StenWilly at 2010-02-28 04:45 PM

You will be hard-pressed to identify anything I type as a lie. Please attempt to cover your ass if you do so, because it's obvious that we've never discussed this prior - well, at least you haven't.

I wouldn't presume to understand what "better than Barstow" means. Perhaps you might find some of the Gitmo detainee Red Cross medical findings interesting?

Some of the torture includes slamming, walling, pressure positions, waterboarding, isolation, extreme cold, heat and sound, apparently medical experimentation has been added to the list, etc - for years and years that kind of "detainment" cannot be healthy. Is there a good reason why the Red Cross were denied access to the Guantanamo Bay prisoners for years and years as well? Perhaps it does have something to do with torture, or are they just a bunch of limp-wristed librulz who don't know what it takes to protect 'Merica?

On top of that, the people who were allegedly integral to interpreting the languages used in the ME were all fired - because they are limp-wristed librulz who have what it really takes to protect America.

Homosexuals and Mexicans peacefully drinking in their local bars are not any real danger - over zealous FASCISTS claiming to be "peace officers" are dangerous. These "police" are mere thugs with badges and should be treated as such.

Torture, Cover-Up At Gitmo?

The FBI does its own questioning of prisoners at Guantanamo, and those agents have been writing emails, classified secret, to FBI headquarters. They detail abuse by military interrogators. The agents wrote of finding prisoners "chained hand and foot in a fetal position" for up to 24 hours at a time, and of prisoners who had "urinated or defecated on themselves."

Another FBI document says an interrogator grabbed a detainee's thumbs and "bent them backwards" and "grabbed his genitals." One FBI agent reported that he saw a detainee had been "gagged with duct tape that covered much of his head." The interrogator explained that the prisoner had been "chanting the Koran and would not stop."
..
"Interrogations were set up so the VIPs could come and witness an interrogation, and in fact the interrogation would be a mock interrogation, basically," says Saar.

"They would find a detainee that they knew to have been cooperative. They would ask the interrogator to go back over the same information that they reviewed on whatever date they had previously interrogated the detainee," says Saar. "And they would sit across a table and talk as though you and I are talking, and this was a fictitious world that they would create for these VIP visits, because in fact, it's not what generally took place in Guantanamo Bay."

The Guantnamo "Suicides": A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle

According to the NCIS documents, each prisoner had fashioned a noose from torn sheets and T-shirts and tied it to the top of his cell's eight-foot-high steel-mesh wall. Each prisoner was able somehow to bind his own hands, and, in at least one case, his own feet, then stuff more rags deep down into his own throat. We are then asked to believe that each prisoner, even as he was choking on those rags, climbed up on his washbasin, slipped his head through the noose, tightened it, and leapt from the washbasin to hang until he asphyxiated. The NCIS report also proposes that the three prisoners, who were held in non-adjoining cells, carried out each of these actions almost simultaneously.

Al-Zahrani, according to the documents, was discovered first, at 12:39 a.m., and taken by several Alpha Block guards to the camp's detention medical clinic. No doctors could be found there, nor the phone number for one, so a clinic staffer dialed 911. During this time, other guards discovered Al-Utaybi. Still others discovered Al-Salami a few minutes later. Although rigor mortis had already set inindicating that the men had been dead for at least two hoursthe NCIS report claims that an unnamed medical officer attempted to resuscitate one of the men, and, in attempting to pry open his jaw, broke his teeth.

The fact that at least two of the prisoners also had cloth masks affixed to their faces, presumably to prevent the expulsion of the rags from their mouths, went unremarked by the NCIS, as did the fact that standard operating procedure at Camp Delta required the Navy guards on duty after midnight to "conduct a visual search" of each cell and detainee every ten minutes. The report claimed that the prisoners had hung sheets or blankets to hide their activities and shaped more sheets and pillows to look like bodies sleeping in their beds, but it did not explain where they were able to acquire so much fabric beyond their tightly controlled allotment, or why the Navy guards would allow such an obvious and immediately observable deviation from permitted behavior. Nor did the report explain how the dead men managed to hang undetected for more than two hours or why the Navy guards on duty, having for whatever reason so grievously failed in their duties, were never disciplined.

CIA doctors face human experimentation claims

An appendix to the report, marked "top secret", provides guidelines to employees of the CIA's internal Office of Medical Services "supporting the detention of terrorists turned over to the CIA for interrogation".

Medical workers are given the task of "assessing and monitoring the health of all agency detainees" subjected to enhanced techniques. These techniques include facial slaps, sleep deprivation, walling where their padded heads are banged against walls confinement in boxes, and waterboarding or simulated drowning.

The guidelines instruct doctors to carry out regular medical checks of detainees. They must ensure that prisoners receive enough food, though diet "need not be palatable", and monitor their body temperature when placed in "uncomfortably cool environments, ranging from hours to days".

The most controversial guideline refers to waterboarding, the technique where prisoners are made to feel as though they are drowning by having water poured over a cloth across their face. The guidelines stress that the method carries physical risks, particularly "by days three to five of an aggressive programme".

Too Terrible To Be True?

The bodies of the three alleged suicide victims were returned home to their families, who requested independent autopsies, which then revealed "the removal of the structure that would have been the natural focus of the autopsy: the throat."
..
"This deserves to be the biggest story on the torture issue since Abu Ghraibbecause it threatens to tear down the wall of lies and denial that have protected Americans from facing what the last administration actually did."

Go get your own thread, pussy.

Go get your own thread, pussy.
#14 | Posted by LetUsPrey at 2010-02-28 08:20 PM

Are you are going to flag me for participating in the thread?

No, you're posting stories that if you had any conviction you would create your own thread instead of hi-jacking someone else's. Or don't you know how?

No, you're posting stories that if you had any conviction you would create your own thread instead of hi-jacking someone else's. Or don't you know how?
#16 | Posted by LetUsPrey at 2010-02-28 09:38 PM

So, I'm lacking conviction because I hijacked this thread comparing the marginalization and false conviction of a minority by an overtly sadistic authority? We're an occasionally violent species and no less occasionally stupid.

How about this?

www.hartfordadvocate.com

boohoo, terrorists died

now if we could just do the same with eco-terrorists and the like America would be even safer.

compared to how Nazi's were treated after World War II I have absolutely no problem with how we handle terrorists, personally I think some of the practices of summary execution of Nazi's was far more appropriate then the BS we go through today to handle terrorists.

its a fucking war people, what the hell do you expect?

until we see 50 million people dead like we did in WWII quit crying about this minor police action, that since obama took it over is barely even news now.

"at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 2009, 40 years, almost down to the minute, after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn with billy clubs and bullhorns."

Man, that almost sounds calculated.

The public intoxication standard, backed by the Texas-based Mothers Against Drunk Driving,

I hate those fuckers.

its a fucking war people,

#20 | Posted by jxnman81

Really? What country are we at war with again? Can you show me a declaration?

Hey wait a minute, this story was written by a mexican homo, someone do some fact checking.

compared to how Nazi's were treated after World War II I have absolutely no problem with how we handle terrorists

You mean public trials in Nuremberg and following the Geneva Conventions? Yeah we were just awful to those poor SS guys. Other than the ones we imported and gave citizenship to, because they could make rockets or tell us about the Russians.

If the guys at Gitmo are terrorists, why did Dubya let half of them go home? Do all Republicans love terrorists, or just the Texas branch?

sounds to me like the cops target them, not the law...big difference, but equally sucky.

The law doesn't target anyone, the cops do. The headline is inaccurate.

Texas is going to single handedly show the rest of the world how fair and honest republicans can make a better world for us all.

Texas Authorities Target Gays...

They look for the Zima bottles and Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers?

Hey wait a minute, this story was written by a mexican homo, someone do some fact checking.

Good advice for anything written by a conservative too.

Texas Authorities Target Gays...

You'll note the conservatives don't hold conferences there, either. Now if the Texas authorities only bothered going after the Mexican cartels propping up their economy.....

I call bullshit.

I call bullshit.

#31 | Posted by somoco

And you know more than a reporter for Mother Jones how?

Cops like those in this story deserve to be fired, brought up on charges and then sent to jail for a very long time.

They won't of course.

Wot with cops being cops and Texas being Texas and all that.

Be Well.

Awesome! All non-Hispanic, heterosexual people meet at Gilly's for a real blowout!

/sarc

And you know more than a reporter for Mother Jones how?

#32 | POSTED BY TFDNIHILIST AT 2010-03-01 03:12 PM | REPLY | FLAG:

Mother Jones is in business by creating controversy where there is none. It's how they stay relevant with their readers. Gays and hispanics are protected groups, and I doubt very seriously any police force would intentionally go after those groups solely due to status.

But, whenever those groups wind up in any kind of trouble, it's all too easy to play the card. Mother Jones will kindly do that for them to keep the "issues" on the front burner. No department wants to spend all its money fighting discrimination charges. While there might be some officers here and there that might act in such a manner, it is not an institutional problem.

it is not an institutional problem

Ever hear of statistical analysis?

#35 | Posted by somoco

So in other words, you have no statistics or proof to back up your claim. I'm not defending or decrying the article, but they at least present some evidence and reason. Neither of which you have.

So Dubya still has a 50-50 chance of getting busted? Man, he and Speedy Gonzalez best keep their drinking to indoors.

And you know more than a reporter for Mother Jones how?
#32 | POSTED BY TFDNIHILIST AT 2010-03-01 03:12 PM

Mother Jones is in business by creating controversy where there is none. It's how they stay relevant with their readers. Gays and hispanics are protected groups, and I doubt very seriously any police force would intentionally go after those groups solely due to status.
But, whenever those groups wind up in any kind of trouble, it's all too easy to play the card. Mother Jones will kindly do that for them to keep the "issues" on the front burner. No department wants to spend all its money fighting discrimination charges. While there might be some officers here and there that might act in such a manner, it is not an institutional problem.
#35 | Posted by somoco at 2010-03-01 03:34 PM

What? There is no "fight against discrimination charges" - it's a 1993 ruling that was brought back in 2006 claiming that no breathalyzer test is required, the suspicions of drinking IN A BAR result in 100% incarcerations. They just happen to be hitting 9 Mexican-frequented bars in a row? Texas also has laws against gays having sex in their own bedrooms, so don't tell me this corruption of authority is not "institutional".

I wonder what the incarceration statistics are for the ethnic groups? What is the main charge? Public intoxication? If that doesn't smack of disingenuous use of police and authority in general then nothing less than a cop telling you "I hates Mexican and faggots" will do?

By what right did those police have any authority to bust bars and harass peaceful patrons? It might behoove the good people of Texas to set up a sting and get these corrupt fuckers on video for the world to view.

Grand Master Richard Morris

Grandmaster Richard Morris is a devoted husband and father of two black belts.

Grandmaster Richard Morris is a Ninth Degree Black Belt in both American Karate and Tae-Kwon-Do. He has trained and ranked with Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, the Father of Tae-Kwon-Do in America, and Grans Master J. Pat Burleson, the Father of American Karate.

As one of the original Texas Gladiators and Fort Worth Texans full-contact Karate Kickboxing, Mr. Morris is a member of the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame.

He is a Fort Worth Police Sergeant and has served as a patrol officer, detective, defensive tactics instructor, chaplain, and peer counselor for over twenty-eight years. He has been teaching Karate for thirty-five years and was instrumental in establishing the police defensive tactics training program in Fort Worth which has been a model for other police departments all across the nation.

Formerly with Zig Ziglar Seminars, Mr. Morris is a highly sought-after and dynamic motivational speaker and has taught tens of thousands of students as well as taught self-defense courses and seminars across the United States.

Mr. Morris is widely known for his principals-based teaching. He currently trains with and teaches professional boxers, wrestlers, and ring fighters.

He is a founding member of the American Karate Black Belt Association(AKBBA) and the World Martial Arts Ranking Association (both under Grand Master Pat Burleson), and the World Martial Arts Congress for Education (under Grand Master Jhoon Rhee).

Grand Master Richard Morris can be reached at his e-mail listed. He teaches exclusively private lessons and seminars.

You may contact Grandmaster Morris via Email here: PastorRMMorris@aol.com

Whoops - 2 bars, 9 patrons from them arrested for PI, all Latino.

Although the two TABC agents have been fired and three of the cops are on short suspensions the police are still lying about their "side" of the incident.

Here's a video interview with a patron of the Rainbow Lounge: Witnesses Challenge Police's Account of Gay Bar Raid

"We were walking this way to the bathroom," said Gibson's friend, Matt Meador, pointing to the back of the bar. "I had his hand."

Meador said a Fort Worth officer shoved Gibson against the wall without provocation, apparently offended the two men were holding hands.

Two other witnesses also insisted Gibson had done nothing, and was not resisting when two other officers and a TABC agent jumped in.

"After they pulled his head back, he had time to ask, What's going on?'" said Rocky Croker.

Officers tied Gibson's hands behind his back before they threw him to the ground, hitting his head on a step, the witnesses said.

They said a TABC agent later held him down outside.

"They had him down like this with his knee in his back," Meador said.

Fort Worth Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead said he ordered an internal investigation after learning a patron in police custody was seriously injured.

"In the police report, it stated he was handcuffed and showed signs of over intoxication, possible alcohol poisoning, and he fell face first," Halstead said.

The chief said police check bars all the time looking for drunken patrons, and were not targeting this one.

"If anyone was a witness to something they feel was unprofessional, they need to come forward," the chief said.

Other questions involve the police timetable.

Police wrote Gibson a ticket for public intoxication and assaulting an officer at 2:10 a.m., noting he couldn't sign the ticket because he was "at the hospital."

But Medstar ambulance service reported it didn't get the call for "an assault" outside the bar until 2:22 a.m., 12 minutes later.

Gibson's friends say his head injury occurred even earlier.

"A good 30, 45 minutes before they even called the ambulance," Croker said.

Chad's mother said her son will remain in the hospital at least a week as doctors try to control bleeding on his brain.

"I think they made a big mistake when they did what they did," Karen Carter said. "And they're trying to cover it up now."

Carter said a neurologist told her that her son's injury could not have been caused by a simple fall.

Councilman Joel Burns, the first openly gay elected official in Tarrant County, said he is also looking into what happened.

"I've asked for as thorough a report as possible ... to reassure folks that the police are not singling out any group," Burns said Monday.

Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks said she was "very concerned" after hearing from patrons and others in the community about what happened.

George Armstrong, 41, said he had been at the Rainbow Lounge about 30 minutes and had ordered one drink when officers stormed inside. He said as an officer passed him, he smiled and flashed the peace sign, but then he was suddenly grabbed and tackled to the floor with his arm twisted behind his back.

"He was yelling at me to stop resisting arrest, but I wasn't doing anything. It was horrible. I really thought he had broken my shoulder," Armstrong told The Associated Press on Monday.

"I've never been so embarrassed and humiliated. I didn't do anything to him," he said.

Armstrong was arrested, but he said no officers advised him of his Miranda rights or administered any tests to determine his blood-alcohol level.

He said he noticed that other people who were arrested were injured or said police had tackled them.

When Armstrong was released from jail the next day, he went to the hospital, where his arm was put in a sling after X-rays determined his shoulder and back were severely bruised and strained, he said.

Armstrong said he never saw anyone inside the Rainbow Lounge make lewd gestures at or grab the officers. He said the raid happened very quickly at the club that had just reopened.

"To me it seemed like they were trying to make a point," Armstrong said.

The Human Rights Campaign on Monday also called for an investigation into the incident. It is the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.

Burns said he also was disappointed that the raids took place on the 40th anniversary of New York City police raids on the Stonewall Inn, but police said they didn't realize it was the anniversary. The 1969 raid touched off demonstrations that helped lead to the gay rights movement in the U.S.

Allowing bars to be open until 2 am and making being drunk in a bar illegal seem to be at real odds with each other.

It appears they suspended the cops and the chief apologized. Why does this seem like really old news?

If they are doing a round up based on race or gayness--there will be ACLU suits filed soon enough.

But the MJ author wants to continue stirring the pot.

Why does this seem like really old news?

#44 | Posted by MURPHY

Maybe it's nothing new in Texas.

It appears they suspended the cops and the chief apologized. Why does this seem like really old news?
If they are doing a round up based on race or gayness--there will be ACLU suits filed soon enough.
But the MJ author wants to continue stirring the pot.
#44 | Posted by MURPHY at 2010-03-01 07:09 PM

TWO TEXAS ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE COMMISSION AGENTS LOST THEIR JOBS, THREE COPS GOT SUSPENDED.

What part of "serious abuse of authority" don't you understand?

Mexicans and gays are potentially much more dangerous when they are intoxicated. Imagine waking up and seeing a drunk Mexican cutting your lawn and singing at 3:00AM or how about seeing some drunk gay wad prancing about and re-decorating your living room.

Mexicans and gays are potentially much more dangerous when they are intoxicated. Imagine waking up and seeing a drunk Mexican cutting your lawn and singing at 3:00AM or how about seeing some drunk gay wad prancing about and re-decorating your living room.
#47 | Posted by fwthom at 2010-03-01 10:01 PM

Dude, we've finished the redecorating and the whiskey. Could you pay us now, please? Juan and I have other freaks to attend to.