Source:
Fort Worth Star Telegram,
CBS11 TV,
KDAF TV,
Associated Press 
Protesters gather outside Tarrant County courthouse in Fort Worth in one of several actions in the wake of the Rainbow Lounge raid.
Flickr photo by txspikedSarah Bryant told the Fort Worth city council last night that she was at the Rainbow Lounge with her boyfriend on June 25 when city police and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) entered and began to roughly detain patrons. “That was the first time I was ever afraid of the police,” she told the council last night. “After that, I was overwhelmed with disappointment and I guess a little bit disturbed…. We just need your help to move on.”
During what officials later claimed was as a “routine bar inspection” one man suffered a severe head injury and others say they were roughed up by overly-aggressive officers with Fort Worth Police and the TABC.
The incident has galvanized Fort Worth’s gay community and grabbed national headlines.
Bryant was one of more than two dozen people who were eventually able to testify about the raid at last night’s Fort Worth council meeting, which was been interrupted several times by protesters.
Responding to a call for an apology from a sometimes tense overflow crowd, Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief said, “If you want an apology from the mayor of Fort Worth: I am sorry about what happened in Fort Worth.” The crowd erupted in applause at the statement.
“We need to know what happened”, Reverend Carol West told KDAF TV before the meeting. She is part of an advocate group called Fairness Fort Worth. “I really think this incident means that officers need more training in diversity”.
During a meeting with council members prior to last night’s council meeting, Fort Worth Police Chief Fred Halstead said he decided soon after the raid that he needed a police officer to serve as a liaison to the city's LGBT community, just as the department has people serving in a similar position for other minority communities, the Star Telegram reports.
He introduced Officer Sara Straten, a neighborhood officer in north Fort Worth and 17-year veteran of the department, who volunteered for the position.
“I plan to work hard to heal the community as a whole, both the police department and the GLBT community,” Straten told the council.
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