AKA William

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This is something of a relief, isn’t it?

The head of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Alan Steen has apologized for the anti-gay behavior of two of the TABC’s agents during the Stonewall-style raid of the Rainbow Lounge:

. . . the supervisor directly responsible for the two agents — a sergeant in TABC’s Fort Worth district office — announced his retirement last week in the wake of the raid and amid an ongoing internal investigation.

“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. It’s real clear that however it is that we were doing business that night is not the typical TABC. … I have good policy in place, I have good training in place, and I have good supervision in place to ensure that things like this don’t happen.”

Steen said if the two agents, who are on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation, sought approval from the supervisor before the Rainbow Lounge inspection, it shouldn’t have been granted. The agents were accompanied by six Fort Worth police officers.

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.

Steen said he expects TABC’s internal investigation of the raid to be completed in the next few weeks, and he plans to release the results during a press conference in Fort Worth.

I’d say that, despite the Fort Worth mayor’s walking back of his apology, things are moving in the right, direction, yeah?