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| Title | Connections, Vol. 2, No. 7, July 1980 |
| Contributor |
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| Publisher | Gay Community Services |
| Date | July 1980 |
| Language | English |
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| Identifier | OCLC: 5962584 |
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| Rights | No Copyright - United States |
| Note | This item was digitized from materials loaned by the Gulf Coast Archive and Museum (GCAM). |
| Title | File 002 |
| Transcript | ■aaafaaaal ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ d^ a^ a.— a^ a^ a^ ^ ^ JULY 1980 AUSTIN TEXAS VOL.2 N0.7 MARY'S BUSTED FOR GAY PRIDE WEEK The Houston police force observed the beginning of Gay Pride Week by raiding Mary's. Fifteen uniformed and plain-clothes officers entered the bar shortly after midnight on Friday, June 20 and arrested sixty-two patrons for "public intoxication." Several customers were arrested before they had finished their first drink. Friday afternoon, Houston's acting Chief of Police held a press conference. He stated that sixty-two arrests wasn't an unusually large number and that it was only coincidence that the raid took place at the beginning of Gay Pride Week. He said the police action was based on a citizen's complaint, but declined to i- dentify the individual making the complaint, citing police department policy. Houston activist Ray Hill responded that this was the third year in a row of Houston Police harrassment during Gay Pride Week. A police spokesman denied any knowledge of previous attempts to intimidate the gay community and said he would look into it. Charles Gillis, owner of the Wilde 'n' Stein Bookstore, told CONNECTIONS that the community's reaction was mainly "what else is new?" He characterized the police attitude as "making sure the queens don't get too pissy." The police action which drew the most criticism was crowding 30 people into one small van, slightly injuring several. Despite the raid, the gay vs. police baseball game went ahead as planned. The gays lost, 22 to 7. Gillis said the Houston television and newspaper coverage was "pretty positive." It "left the impression that the raid could have been police harrassment. It wasn't normal activity." VICE SQUAD RAIDS AUSTIN BOOKSTORE Owner Sexually Harrassed by Jim Olinger Members of the Austin Vice Squad joined narcotics officers in a raid on long-time CONNECTIONS advertiser Anarchodillo Slow Burning Books and Papers at 2401 Manor Road on Monday, June 2. They arrested owner Gene Berk- man in the apparent belief that they were smashing a major drug distributor. It is unusual for Vice Squad members to participate in drug raids. Although no hard drugs were found, $6927 in cash, assets of Anarchodillo, the retail outlet of Berkman's Pacific Sunrise Trading Company, was seized as "evidence." Although Berkman cooperated fully with the police during the raid and has a history of community involvement fighting Austin's hard drug traffic, the police spent two and one half hours ransacking the store. Berkman was also subjected to sexual harrassment in the course of his arrest. "I believe the Vice Squad members were brought from their assignments in gay bars to see if they recognized me as a patron," Berkman says. "Since I'm not gay and I don't drink alcohol, this proved just another waste of the taxpayers' money." "The two Vice cops just stood around while the four narcotics officers searched," Berkman continued. "Finally, one offered to help because the search was taking so long. He found thirty-six boxes of Chinese Continued on page 4 ^ |
| File Name | uhlib_5962584_v002_n007_001_ac.jpg |