NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill apologized today to the LGBTQ community for the 1969 raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village that took place 50 years ago this month which is seen as the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Said O'Neill: “I think it would be irresponsible to go through World Pride month and not to speak of the events at the Stonewall Inn in June of 1969. I'm certainly not going to stand up here and pretend to be an expert of what happened at Stonewall. I do know what happened should not have happened. The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple. The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize.”
O'Neill's remarks come one day after NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the apology was an action that the NYPD should take.
