The Dallas Voice has an exclusive interview with the official in charge of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the agency behind the June 29th raid on The Rainbow Lounge, a Ft. Worth, Texas gay bar. According to the Voice, TABC Administrator Alan Steen said TABC agents involved in the raid committed several “clear violations” of agency policy.
“I don’t think you have to dig very deep to figure out that TABC has violated some of their policies,” Steen said. “We know that, and I apologize for that. Like I said in my original press release, we have in the past and we will in the future act very swiftly in making sure that those issues are corrected.”
From the Dallas Voice article:
Steen said he doesn’t think there was sufficient cause for the inspection, which apparently was based on the fact that one person had been arrested for public intoxication at the Rainbow Lounge on Thursday, June 25. Steen also indicated that the eight law enforcement officers and the paddy wagon that were present likely constituted an excessive show of force.
“You can read that policy and you can figure out really quickly, TABC shouldn’t have even been there,” Steen said. “If our guys would have followed the damn policy, we wouldn’t even have been there.