Gay Bars Inspected More Often, Study Finds

Gay bars are inspected at a higher rate than straight establishments, according to a Los Angeles Police Department report aired at the city Police Commission meeting Tuesday.

Responding to complaints that detectives and city Alcohol and Beverage Control agents were targeting the bars and that patrol officers were harassing gay men and women, Commission Vice President Art Mattox ordered the department in December to comb through arrest and raid records.

The citywide study found that 37 so-called “community identified gay bars” account for 1.46% of all establishments where liquor consumption is licensed but were disproportionately subject to 2.89% of last year’s inspections.

The study also showed that within the department’s Northeast and North Hollywood division boundaries, gay bars account for 8% of the establishments and were subject to 20.4% and 14.5% of inspections, respectively.

Despite initial privacy concerns, the Police Department’s liaison to the gay community, Officer Lisa Phillips, compiled the list of establishments by searching gay publications and consulting the homosexual community. She conceded that such a list could never be completely accurate because of fluidity in ownership and clientele.

But Mattox directed that similar audits take place annually and that anonymous complaints against gay bars be recorded. Gays in North Hollywood and Silver Lake have charged that homophobic officers fabricate anonymous complaints as a justification for harassment.

“As a gay man, I need to know police officers are protecting and serving this community,” Mattox said.

Maurice Destouet, a leader of an organization of gay lawyers involved with the issue, questioned the study’s methodology.

He pointed out that it included restaurants that served liquor as well as bars. He added that what officers and ABC agents do inside the establishment is also significant. For example, he said, straight establishments have been known to receive warnings when they are overcrowded while gay bars have been shut down for the night for the same offense.

“There is a qualitative difference in the way people are handled,” Destouet said.

He also noted that the study does not address alleged intimidation on the streets, citing complaints by some residents along portions of Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake.

At the December Commission meeting that prompted the study, witnesses testified that some LAPD officers were parking outside gay bars and swearing at patrons. During a March 20 community meeting attended by police, members of the gay community and elected officials, one man said an LAPD cruiser blocked his way as he tried to parallel park outside a gay bar. As he waited for the police car to move, an officer wrote him a ticket for double parking.

“Some of the complaints don’t sound outside the realm of possibility,” Phillips said. “I wish I could say they were, but unfortunately they’re not.”

Cmdr. Dan Watson of the LAPD’s Central Bureau, citing arrest and violation records, said Tuesday that each inspection was warranted.

Authorities added that gay “cruising” along Griffith Park Boulevard has caused residents to call for increased patrols. But some perceive the police attention as an anti-gay crackdown.

Watson said that regular meetings with the gay community will be set up in the Northeast and North Hollywood divisions to help ease tensions and that officers will continue to be trained to deal fairly with all members of the public.

“Like every one else does, we have some employees who have strong feelings against one group or another, whether it be gays or other minorities,” he said. “But we insist on the proper behavior and insisting on that behavior changes their attitudes.”