Lincoln/Coverdale

Apparently, Chief Halstead of the Fort Worth Police Department has promised to give officers “multicultural training.” Holy non sequitur, Batman. I’ve been to a training like this. It amounts to being told that calling coworkers names is bad and it’s not okay to ask to touch a black person’s hair. Not once did I hear anything about not cracking skulls. Do you know why? Because not cracking skulls has nothing to do with respecting diversity. You don’t crack skulls. Period.

One could say that the hate in people’s hearts can lead to crimes and this makes tolerance more than just a virtue—it may make targets of this hatred safer. You know what else makes these targets safer? Prosecuting the people who use the state’s monopoly on violence to crack skulls.

EDIT: I got scooped big time on this.

Reading about the raid on the Rainbow Lounge left me appalled and angry. So angry, in fact, that I actually took Dan Savage’s suggestion to write a letter to the members of the Fort Worth City Council who had not joined in calling for an investigation. I’m not much of an activist letter writer type, but I’m trying to stand up a little more for things I believe in. Here’s what I wrote:

Dear Councilmembers,

While Forth Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead claims to be “happy with the restraint used” by his officers at the Rainbow Lounge, Chad Gibson lies in a hospital bed with life-threatening injuries. I am writing to urge you to join fellow Councilmembers Joel Burns, Sal Espino, and Kathleen Hicks in calling for an investigation into the recent police raid on the Rainbow Lounge. Even though I am not one of your constituents, the events that took place at the Rainbow Lounge have become national news and are of concern to me as a fellow American citizen.

Although the law may grant immunity to the officers against civil damage claims by Gibson, some measure of justice may still be served by an investigation initiated and supported by members of city government such as you. An investigation may shed light onto the motives of the officers and whether they acted in accordance with Federal, Texas, and Fort Worth law, or whether they took it upon themselves to enforce their interpretation of community norms.

As members of a representative body, you surely understand that elected bodies are best situated to define the norms of a community. And regardless of whether the presence of a gay bar is contrary to the values of the Fort Worth community, non-violent avenues exist to monitor and regulate such establishments and the drinking that goes on therein.

Did the police abuse their privilege to lawfully apply the use of physical force? A thorough investigation into this incident will help answer this question. Not calling for an investigation may be seen as a tacit agreement with the tactics used by the police department, and an abdication of your responsibility to oversee the questionable actions of municipal bodies.

Sincerely,
Jesse Kirchner