NYPD, NY Daily News apologize for Stonewall actions

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Just about 50 years after New York police clashed with gay-rights activists at the Stonewall Inn, the city's police commissioner, James O'Neill, has apologized for the department's raid on that tumultuous night in 1969.

Department officials had expressed regret about the aggressive crackdown in the past, but they had never gone so far as to apologize for the raid, until now.

"The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple," said O'Neill at police headquarters on Thursday. "The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize."

O'Neill had been under pressure by activists and local officials to make an official apology as New York prepares to host World Pride, an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.

Before the police stormed Stonewall, it had long been the scene of police harassment, but just after 1 a.m. on June 28, 1969, police descended on the bar in hopes of closing it down for good. They began roughing up people, pushing people against walls, searching them and hurling insults. And in response, patrons lashed out. They shoved back at police, tossed stones and bottles and did everything they could to resist until police retreated, according to NPR interviews with raid witnesses.

The riot became a watershed moment that ignited days of nationwide demonstrations by LGBTQ activists demanding equal rights.

Millions of people from around the world are expected to be in New York for this year's World Pride events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

And while Segal said O'Neill's apology will help work toward closure, he is calling on O'Neill to appear during the June 30 pride parade and apologize in person, something O'Neill has not committed to.

"We're all going to be there; come on over and say hello to us, apologize face to face," Segal said. "That would mean something to us."

June marks the beginning of a summerlong celebration in which LGBTQ members and advocates across the country will hold events and march in parades.

Thursday, Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill apologized on behalf of his department, stating unequivocally that “the actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize."

He is not alone. We here at the Daily News played an unhelpful role in helping create a climate that treated the victims as the punchline of jokes, not as dignified individuals with legitimate complaints about mistreatment. For that, we apologize.

We are a tabloid; our coverage has color and energy and attitude. But in using juvenile language to caricature individuals simply because they happened to love people of the same sex, in gratuitously making light of their grievances, we erred.

“Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad,” screamed one notorious headline on July 6, 1969. The text beneath could not contain the writer’s mockery: “She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a humming-bird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn’t bothered to shave. A day-old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.”