This is the one and only --
known or unknown -- New York City Police Department mug shot as a
result of the
total of 21 arrests from the notorious 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in
Greenwich
Village, New York City. There were 13 arrests the first night
(Friday, June 27th), 6 arrests on the second night (Saturday, June
28th)
and 3 arrests on the third night (Sunday, June 29th). There was
no rebellion on Monday and Tuesday due to rain. For your information, Gays
do not 'rebel' when it's raining! When
the rebellion resumed for its fourth night (Wednesday, July 2nd)
and, then,
the fifth and final night (Thursday, July 3rd), there were no arrests.
There were, however, plenty of signs such as "Gay Power", "Gay Rights", "Gay Marriage" and "Gay Unity".
The original raid by the New York City Police Department very
late Friday night on June 27,
1969 was not, as it turned out, the typical raid. It was not
just instigated by the local police Sixth Precinct. This
raid came from much higher up as they
were aware about the Gay bar pay-offs to some
local police. The invasion involved the First Division
Detectives and even included the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ("ATF").
"The Face of
Stonewall" (shown above), as has been named by many astute observers, if
one is familiar with the times of Gays and the police in New
York City in the 1960s, of course, did not use his real name. By
the way, elsewhere in America and throughout most of the World, the
situation would have been far worse than in N.Y.C. Back on
point with the unwritten Gay community two-point policy back then: don't bring any identificartion ("I/D") and don't
use your real name!
Therefore, with no I/D on a Stonewall person and a
clean record in
the system for any name, there was literally nothing for the police to
check and nothing to compare. There was no I/D for probably
ninety percent of patrons who went to any Gay bar, particuarly one
that was Mafia-run such as The Stonewall and, also like The
Stonewall, was previously raided (many times) by the police. Gay patrons
notably Stonewallers made sure not to bring one item with them to the Gay club... I/D!
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