Fifty years after Stonewall, New York police apologize for the raid

New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill. Official photo.

Fifty years after the historic Stonewall riots, the New York Police Department apologized to the LGBT community for its role in the violence.

"The actions taken by the NYPD [at Stonewall] were wrong, plain and simple," police commissioner James O'Neill said Thursday during a Pride Month safety briefing.

He called the frequent harassment of LGBT men and women and laws that prohibited same-sex sexual relations "discriminatory and oppressive" and apologized on behalf of the department to the audience's applause.


The Stonewall Inn in New York City, 1969. Permission, New York Public Library.

The June 1969 uprising that began at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village is largely considered to have spurred the gay rights movement, after police raided the gay bar and patrons resisted arrest, sparking a six-day protest.

Related:
Stonewall: What pride looks like 50 years later
Stonewall and Pride; aging gracefully

The first Pride parade was hosted on Stonewall's one-year anniversary.

O'Neill ended his remarks by vowing the same discrimination would never happen to New New York's LGBT community again

By Scottie Andrew and Saeed Ahmed, CNN. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

The Gayly – June 6, 2019 @ 1:55 p.m. CDT.