50 years on, New York police apologise for Stonewall riots

New York’s police chief apologized Thursday for the first time for a crackdown on the city’s gay community during the notorious Stonewall riots, winning praise from LGBTQ activists ahead of the 50th anniversary of violence considered to have given rise to the Gay Pride movement.

“I do know what happened should not have happened,” said police chief James O’Neill. “The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple. The actions were discriminatory and oppressive and for that I apologize.” The June 1969 riots, sparked by repeated police raids on the Stonewall Inn -- a well-known gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village -- proved to be a turning point in the LGBTQ community’s struggle for civil rights.

The police chief made the comments during a briefing on safety measures for the city’s Pride Month, the annual celebration for the city’s diverse LGBTQ community. His remarks triggered a long round of applause. In 2017, O’Neil, like his predecessor William Bratton, said an apology over police behavior at the outset of the Stonewall violence was not necessary. But a number of people have called in recent days for the police department to apologize, including the speaker of the city council, Corey Johnson, who is himself gay, and the organizers of Gay Pride.

“I think it would be an important step toward further healing and reconciliation,” Johnson said in a radio interview Wednesday. After Thursday’s comments from the police chief, Johnson tweeted: “We appreciate this apology. Thank you @NYPDONeill. This is so wonderful to hear during Pride.”