Riot Erupts at Stonewall Faerie Gathering Re-enactment Turns Real After Motorists Ram Crowd
NEW YORK [July 10, 1989] — What began as a reenactment of the Stonewall Rebellion on its twentieth anniversary erupted into an actual riot on Saturday, June 24 [1989], which sent four persons to the hospital, and left at least a half dozen others injured and one car nearly destroyed. In at least two separate incidents, motorists purposefully drove their cars into crowds of demonstrators, knocking down some and causing others to chase the drivers through the streets of the Village, according to eyewitness reports.
Scores of uniformed and undercover police, including a riot squad, were called in to assist officers at the Sixth Precinct, who were at times overwhelmed by the sheer size of the crowd, which at its height swelled to over 1,000.
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The evening began peacefully, even joyously, at a gathering called by the Radical Faeries, a collective of gay men given to spiritual individualism and drag. The Faeries gathered outside of the Stonewall, which is now a men's clothing store, armed with yellow foam-rubber bricks. The re-enactment was arranged with the blessings of the store's owner, Statish Malik, who had closed his store for the occasion, and allowed the Faeries to set up a "Stonewall Shrine" in the basement of the store.
Participants threw the "bricks" (yellow for the Yellow Brick Road, explained one Faerie), while others dressed as police officers playfully pushed and shoved journalists and demonstrators and hit them with fake nightsticks, which were actually long, party-colored balloons. After about a half-hour of mock rioting, several people in the crowd reportedly shouted out, "Let's take Seventh Avenue," and the group, now numbering in the hundreds, moved north up the Village's main thoroughfare, blocking traffic as it worked its way towards Greenwich Avenue.
"It was kind of up and fun and bubbly at that point," said Gerri Wells, an OutWeek photographer who participated in the re-enactment. "A lot of people in the cars were getting into it. It was more like Mardi Gras than a riot," she continued.
Chanting "No more homophobia" and similar slogans, the crowd, led by a line of people carrying a blue police barricade above their heads, picked up steam and participants. But as it moved down Greenwich Avenue and then west on 10th Street, the mood somehow changed.
"There were people there hoping for some sort of affirmation of gay power," claimed David Hamburger, who was visiting New York from Boston and was present for the entire happening. "Everyone had their own idea of why they were doing it. Suddenly someone yelled about the two murders and how the police weren't doing anything about [them]," he added, referring to two Black men who were killed on the Morton Street pier early on Friday morning[.] The pier is a popular cruising area and gathering place for gay men, especially gay men of color.
That, according to Hamburger, provided the impetus for the marchers to proceed to the Sixth Precinct on West 10th Street. But others in the growing demonstration did not hear the announcement, and did not know the exact reason for going to the precinct.
As more and more marchers arrived at the police station, police officers inside quickly came out and formed a line in front of the entrance, The crowd cheered as several among them set fire to American flags. Police reported that windows at the police station were smashed by rocks. "The potential for a riot was there, The emotions were high, people were angry, it was hot," Wells said.
[... Commanding Officer Julia Thompson] told the crowd that the homicides did not appear to be bias related, and that they were under investigation. Many of those gathered responded by chanting "Bullshit," "No more lies," and by pelting her with condoms.
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Once away from the precinct building, the marchers picked up the air of revelry again. But the mob continued its march around the Village[. ...] "I think we should do this every Saturday night." Michael Nesline, another of the marchers, characterized the evening as "a completely spontaneous, mob-led action."
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It was apparently other angry motorists that precipitated the evening's most serious violence, In two separate incidents, cars allegedly sped through lines of demonstrators, The first injuries occurred on West 10th Street near Julius, a gay bar, after the mob had returned from West Street. "He tried to run us over," said a tearful Ralph del Valle, who said he had been hit and sprained his ankle, "Then he backed up and tried to run us over again."
An angry mob chased the car through the streets of the Village, as it sped around other cars and up onto sidewalks, ignoring orders from the police to pull over. The crowd caught up to the car, a red Chevy Cavalier[. ...] As police removed the driver and four passengers and shoved them through a side door at the theater to protect them from the crowd, people in the mob surrounded the car and began smashing the windows and lights, using a police barricade as a battering ram." Others pulled off the hood and kicked in the sides, before the police could move them away from the car.
"They all had their middle fingers up, They thought they could get away from us, but they don't know our territory," said Sean Ortiz, an 18-year-old high school student from Forest Hills.
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By midnight the mood of the crowd had once again become mellow and celebratory, although the glass from the smashed car's windows still glittered along Christopher Street, Much of the crowd seemed unwilling to end the night, and the Radical Faeries led cheers of "sodomize tonight." At one point, everyone in the intersection joined hands above their heads and sang, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," as they swayed gently back and forth, and then began dancing to "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead."
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Well after midnight, and after the police had blocked off the Village to traffic, a police captain at 14th Street and 7th Avenue was asked by a motorist why he could not drive through. "You've got to avoid Christopher Street, Sheridan Square, that whole area," the captain replied. "A bunch of homosexuals blocked off ... oh, don't ask."
— Andrew Miller, OutWeek Magazine No. 3, July 10, 1989, p. 8.