Graph Legend
8 Events
4 Places
5 People
2 Orgs
13 Titles
May 21 San Francisco, Calif. The […]
When
1979-05-21
Description
May 21 San Francisco, Calif. The White Night Riots occurred outside San Francisco's City Hall as the international gay community reacted with shock and anger after Dan White, murderer of gay supervisor Harvey Milk and pro-gay mayor George Moscone, was handed a lenient sentence in a trial by jury. White was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder, and could be paroled in less than thirty-six months. White's defence attorneys had argued that his eating too many sugar-laden Twinkies had contributed to his "temporary insanity" at the time of the shootings. About 5,000 people demonstrated, besieging City Hall and setting police cars on fire. Unarmed gay men were beaten by police during the riots, both at City Hall and on Castro Street. More than a hundred policemen and forty demonstrators were injured. Complaints of police brutality sent to the Police Internal Affairs Bureau were dismissed as "unfounded" until Police Chief Charles Gain later overruled the bureau's report and declared that he had personally witnessed police brutality and misconduct during the event. Mayor Diane Feinstein removed Gain from office in 1980 because of Police Officers' Association opposition to him. (As a note of interest, Gain had served briefly as the chief of police in Calgary, Alberta, in 1972.) (See also July 3, 1979.)
