White Night riots
The White Night Riots, beginning on May 21, 1979, comprised two events: The first was the San Francisco, California, gay community's response to the minimal sentence given to former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White for killing George Moscone (then Mayor of San Francisco) and Harvey Milk (an openly gay supervisor of San Francisco), in November 1978. It began as a peaceful but angry march from the Castro District to City Hall, but turned into a riot after it reached its destination. Acting mayor Dianne Feinstein addressed the crowd as did Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver thus giving voice to the crowd's frustration with the judge's sentencing Dan White to only six years in prison.
Some unidentified observers were reportedly surprised that a group of gay men, supposed to be "sissies," could be so aggressive. Others reported that the broken windows and fires were the acts of men accompanied by their girlfriends. The crowd was generally peaceful and mournful, but rowdies caused significant property damage which was later attributed to the crowd by police and mainstream media. The damage included broken windows and glass doors on the City Hall and the torching of twelve San Francisco police cruisers, but no deaths and few injuries. It was reported after the rally that the police cars were set on fire by two men who arrived carrying railroad torches, who set their fires by opening the unlocked doors of the police cars to throw the torches inside.
By coincidence, a P. D. Q. Bach concert took place the same evening in the San Francisco Opera House, which is across the street from the City Hall. Well-dressed concert-goers walked out of the Opera House into the middle of the riot.
The second of the riots was a police riot. Later that night, after order was restored downtown, a number of SFPD cars headed into the Castro District. Police marched into bars, smashed fixtures, and beat patrons with clubs. Most of the assault victims had not taken part in the earlier rioting downtown.
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This article about lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender issues Also see the article on Sexual orientation |
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