Black & Blue At Blue's

Letters
Village Voice
842 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

October 8, 1982

Dear Editor:

The vicious police raid of Blue's, a black gay bar in the Times Square area, last week (September 29) showed New York's Finest at their very worst. As reported by WBAI and the Village Voice ("Black Tie and Blood," October 12), this raid involved the beating and robbing of patrons, the destruction of bar property, and the use of anti-black and anti-gay language--by the men in blue.

I think an immediate investigation should be initiated by Police Commissioner Robert McGuire. And those officers found guilty of abusing their authority during the raid should be dismissed from the force as unfit. We are not yet a police state.

One officer quoted in the Voice piece said that "Blue's is a very troublesome bar. There are a lot of undesirables who hang out there." That may be so, but lashing out at the bar and its patrons with such brute force is not the way to alleviate the problem. And it certainly isn't the way to win the police department any friends among the black gay community. This sort of police abuse, if it is allowed to go unchecked, will lead to an eventual bloodbath. People will tolerate only so much abuse.

If the higher-ups in the department ignore what happened, it is a clear message to the community at large as well as to the cops on the street that police abuse of gay men--especially if they're black--has been given official sanction.

How can the police department apprehend civilian gaybashers with a clear conscience when many of its own people are no better? Fortunately for both sides there were no deaths. But what about next time?

Sincerely yours,

Charles Michael Smith

(An unpublished letter-to-the-editor.)