Teenager Bashed The Stonewall Inn's Window
The Stonewall Inn is LGBTQ history.
This now historic and iconic bar was the start of the LGBTQ rights movement. While protests and Harvey Milk were happening in California, it was in New York that Stonewall happened.
Police abused their power to force frequenters of the New York City bar to pay them for their “protection.” Eventually, the bar goers got fed up with the cops and revolted.
It was thanks to trans activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera (along with their gay friends and fellow bar frequenters) throwing rocks and breaking windows at the police that we have LGBTQ rights and Pride today.
That said, it looks like history has repeated itself in the strangest of ways.
A teenager was upset that he’d been kicked out of the Greenwich Village bar in the early morning last Sunday and decided to bash in the window with a baseball bat.
More: Google Donates $1 Million To Preserve Stonewall’s History
19-year-old William Gomez was hanging out with co-workers when he was kicked out of the bar by a bouncer. He then returned around 4:30 to smash in the window and damage the neon sign with a baseball bat.
Gomez caused approximately $7,000 worth of damage to the establishment.
Police arrested Gomez near the scene and charged him with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. Gomez was then freed after his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court this past Saturday.
Gomez’s mother talked to the New York Daily News to say her son was the real victim in this incident.
“He said that a bodyguard was messing with one of his co-workers and he told him to stop,” she said. “He then thought the conversation was over but at one point he was punched in the face.”
“He’s a quiet boy,” his mother said. “He doesn’t get into trouble.”
That said, police sources say Gomez has been arrested on several occasions. He was charged with assault in Brooklyn last year, accused of criminal impersonation in 2015, and arrested for robbery in 2014.
As for the Stonewall Inn, it reopened at 2pm this past Saturday with the window and sign already fixed.
