City of Dallas refuses to release records of 2010 The Club Dallas bath house raids.
My letter to the Dallas Mayor and copies to all the members of the city council.
Subscriptions are free.
Share this article. If I had a 1,000 subscribers the City of Dallas and others wouldn’t feel they could get away with this type of nonsense.
Refusal to release records.
Yesterday I was told that my payment of $67.50 for the records of the bath house raid in 2010 would be refunded. They said there were no “responsive” records. What this is, there are no records they are going to respond with. They have decided on some basis to refuse to give them. No explanation was given.
Originally I was asked for $67.50 since the records were extensive.
To refuse to release these records is to refuse justice to the victims of these raids.
This really is an outrage.
One of the reasons they think they can get away with this is that our so-called leadership doesn’t want any criticism of the establishment. It isn’t the so-called “Dallas Way” which is basically begging for things and never demanding.
This is our petition to demand the records be released.
They must not be allowed to get away with this.
My letter to Mayor Johnson
A copy of the letter and all the documents were sent to each and every Dallas City Councilperson. Substack automatically provides previews to any YouTubes, and has done so here for the links to the videos I had in the letter. I caught them out on their tactic, since they had released a record in 2010 and I had tracked it down.
Update: As of 2/23/2024 I have not heard from Mayor Johnson.
The following is the letter:
February 1, 2024
Edward H. Sebesta
Dallas, Texas
Mayor Eric Johnson
City of Dallas
1500 Marilla St.
Dallas, Texas 75201
Dear Hon. Johnson:
In 2010, Oct. 8th, the Dallas Police Department conducted a raid on The Club bathhouse. It is one of the 30 infamous raids in a compilation of world-historical important raids on Gay establishments compiled by the publication The Advocate. It goes from 1903 to 2016, from American, Canadian and British cities to include Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. Dallas managed to get on this list and managed to get on this list in 2010.
The last bathhouse raid of note in the United States was in Richmond, Virginia in 1981. Count on Dallas to do something really retrograde.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/2018/2/02/30-infamous-police-raids-gay-bars-and-bathhouses
I enclose the segment for No. 24 in their list for the raid on The Club Dallas in 2010.
From the materials I was able to discover I was able to write a history of the raid. I have it online at this URL and I enclose a copy.
https://dallasgayliberation.substack.com/p/justice-for-the-victims-of-the-2010
Eleven men were arrested and were sent to jail. Were they abused in jail? Did they lose their jobs? Was the arrest expunged from their records, or for every job application did they have to mention this arrest for lewdness? Did they have to leave Dallas? Did they end up unemployed, immediately or eventually with their impaired ability to get a job? Did they end up homeless? Did any of them have to get divorced? Did they get expelled from their church? Did they lose friends? Did they have trouble sleeping?
It wasn’t until February 2011 that the charges were all finally dropped. What was it like for them during this time with the prospect of a trial hanging over them? Have they ever completely recovered from what was a terrifying experience?
The Toronto Police Department has apologized in 2016 for their raids in 1981.
I recently requested records of the Dallas Police raid on The Club baths in 2010, D046078-122123. I got a response yesterday that there are no “responsive” documents.
Certainly there records of a raid and the arrest of eleven men in 2010. However, on one pretext or another you have decided you don’t have to give them to me, and so without explanation you just refuse and declare there are no “responsive” documents.
I enclose a copy of a document which was released in 2010 to the Dallas Voice. It was a letter to then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott by Dallas Assistant City Attorney J. Middlebrooks, dated Nov. 2, 2010, stating why he felt he could deny giving information to the Dallas Voice. If it was a “responsive” document in 2010, I would think it would be a responsive document in 2024. Yet, in 2024 the City of Dallas tells me there are no responsive documents.
https://dallasvoice.com/city-asks-ags-office-release-records-related-raid-clubdallas/
[This wasn’t in the original letter, but I put this link here so people can see the article for themsleves. I enclosed a copy with the letter. https://dallasvoice.com/city-asks-ags-office-release-records-related-raid-clubdallas/ I also have here the Internet Archive saving of it in case the Dallas Voice pulls the record. https://web.archive.org/web/20240202024734/https://dallasvoice.com/city-asks-ags-office-release-records-related-raid-clubdallas/]
The history raid on the Rainbow Lounge in Fort Worth in 2009 has gotten a full historical investigation and justice for the victims and a documentary.
Of course Fort Worth has had a human rights commission since 1967, and Dallas has City Council member Omar Narvaez saying it is Jaynie Schultz holding it up. (At least the excuses are evolving from the old excuse that the minority council member would love to have a human rights commission, but there aren’t the votes and so he or she won’t try.)
The victims of the 2010 bathhouse raids deserve justice. They deserve an apology.
To refuse to release the records is to refuse them justice.
Justice often starts with a historical documentation of what wrong was done. We see this in the South African government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigating apartheid.
To refuse to release the records is depraved indifference to the humanity of the LGBT in Dallas.
https://www.change.org/p/justice-for-the-victims-of-the-2010-vice-squad-club-bath-raids
These are the demands of the petition:
1. An apology from the Dallas Police Department for the 2010 raid on The Club baths.
2. A full release of the records about the raid on The Club Dallas bathhouse and the citizens complaints made about The Club Dallas on Oct. 5 and Oct. 13, 2010.
3. Reparations for those arrested at The Club Dallas baths on Oct. 8, 2010.
4. A historical commission to investigate all raids by Dallas Police and to propose reparations.
5. Explicit policies to prevent raids in the future.
6. A human rights commission for Dallas with advisory boards for different groups including an LGBT advisory board.
I repeat, to refuse to release the records of the police raid on The Club baths in 2010 is to refuse the victims of that raid justice.
A Dallas City government which refuses to release the records of this raid, is a city government which is in reality, the enemy of the LGBT regardless of what token activities it might do.
Release the records.
Sincerely yours,
Edward H. Sebesta
Cc: Dallas City Council members, Chad West, Jesse Moreno, Zarin D. Gracey, Carolyn King Arnold, Jaime Resendez, Omar Narvaez, Adam Bazaldua, Tennell Atkins, Paula Blackmon, Kathy Steward, Jaynie Schultz, Cara Mendelsohn, Gay Donnell Willis, Paul E. Ridley.
The following is the mailing to the Dallas City Council about this outrage.
The record of the campaign so far is here. I am going to be updating this post, until I decide to supersede it with a new post.
This is an outrage.
The Dallas LGBT needs to stand up to this and demand justice for the victims of raids on Gay clubs and bath houses.
Sign the petition and share the petition.
Subscriptions are free.
Share this article. If I had a 1,000 subscribers the City of Dallas and others wouldn’t feel they could get away with this type of nonsense.
