Thursday, September 9, 2010

Thursday Watercooler: Mitcham comes to defense of fellow swimmer

* Officer who led Stonewall Inn raid dies. Seymour Pine, the deputy police inspector who led the 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn, died last Thursday in New Jersey. The 91 year old was in charge of the eight officers who entered the illegal club on June 28, 1969. A few refused to to accept the standard police treatment, and soon the Stonewall Riots began. In 2004, the New York Historical Society held a symposium on that June night and Pine admitted the police “were prejudiced” toward gays. When someone in the audience suggested he should apologize, the officer did. David Carter, author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, interviewed Pine—he eventually retired in 1976. “He once told me,” Carter said, “ ‘If what I did helped gay people, then I’m glad.’ ”

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