You Have Been Lied to About Stonewall (The Police Were Heroes)

This episode examines the Stonewall riots through primary accounts and historical research, revealing the mafia-run bar’s exploitation of patrons via blackmail, stolen liquor, and unsafe conditions. It details how a small group of officers from another precinct uncovered police corruption and faced violent resistance while protecting lives without firing on the crowd.

The discussion covers the bar’s operations, the limited role of certain figures in the events, the broader context of laws aimed at curbing disease spread, and how later narratives have rewritten the incident. It argues for recognizing the officers’ restraint and the raid’s focus on organized crime rather than the patrons themselves.

Episode Transcript

Malcolm Collins:Hello, Simone. I’m excited to be here with you today. Genuinely excited because digging into this subject has completely changed my understanding of the pivotal moment of the Stonewall riots, which is seen as a central part of the gay movement, but it’s sort of a founding moment. It was when the gays pushed back. Let me tell you what. We should absolutely be celebrating yearly the heroes of the Stonewall riot. Wow. The problem being the heroes were the cops. And I don’t mean this in a bombastic sense. I mean, the cops at the Stonewall riots genuinely were brave people saving lives, stamping out corruption, and in a genuinely harrowing situation. So, for people who are unaware, Stonewall was a mafia run bar. Okay? This mafia run bar ran on exploiting gay people, and we will get into this. We... They they would run campaigns where they would blackmail people. One admiral, ended up committing suicide because they were blackmailing him so aggressively.

Simone Collins:Right. Because by the way, this is... This all happened in 1969, and this was when that could really, like, ruin your life. You know? Now it’s different. This was not then.

Malcolm Collins:And all of the people... Everything you’ve heard, like, the transgender woman of color through the first break, she wasn’t even there. What? And and we have multiple accounts. Like Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

Simone Collins:Wait. So she was just, like, later was like, yeah. It was there, and people believed her.

Malcolm Collins:And and her her best friend who she said handed her the brick said, that didn’t happen, and she wasn’t there that day.

Simone Collins:Best friend, former now, I guess. Ouch.

Malcolm Collins:So, yeah, that’s all fabricated as well. It was almost all white men who were there. Oh, lord. Oh, I’m gonna paint a scene for you. Okay? Okay. So this bar had been paying the police, for cover protection, and they had been

Simone Collins:Oh, wait. Wait. Wait. They they were paying off a corrupt police force.

Malcolm Collins:They were paying off a corrupt police force.

Simone Collins:Okay. Okay.

Malcolm Collins:Okay. And the police force was letting them know whenever they were gonna do raids, and they would change the lights from blue to white, and everyone would change what they were doing because this was... So the the corrupt police were being paid off by this bar. And a internal... Like, a... Another precinct of police began to dig around. They’re like,

Simone Collins:this Oh, but they were getting paid off.

Malcolm Collins:Look really corrupt, and we need to figure out what’s going on. We need to break down whatever’s happening here.

Simone Collins:And so Wait.

Malcolm Collins:So they go in. They had only eight officers, including a couple of female officers. Oh. It was six male officers and a couple female officers. They entered a packed bar of around 200 people at 01:30AM. Okay? So they’re in this bar. You know, nobody expects to be, like, arrested or anything like that. Right? Yeah. Lot of these people who went in undercover to try to root out this police corruption are like, you know, we’re the police. We’re gonna start taking names. We’re gonna start arresting people. Now this bar is full of... You gotta understand who went to Stonewall at the time. A huge number of the people were homeless, thugs, gangsters. Keep in mind, this was a... Truly the worst of the worst. I mean, this bar was run by Catholics. I mean, the mafia. Goodness. Sorry. I’m choking there. but, no, truly, like, says, like, genuine dirty scumbags. People were not going there to find love. They were going there to find hookers and prostitutes. Right? Like, that’s what’s

Simone Collins:big about. Enough to hold 200 people. I’m concerned. You’re just

Malcolm Collins:a few police. Right? Six guys. 200 people. And then what happened is, obviously, because the bar was used to getting warned about this beforehand and you got a bunch of drunk gangsters in it Yeah. They decide, well, we’re gonna beat up these police officers who are trying to arrest people. So then the police call for backup. But the problem is is that the precinct that controlled that area that they were calling for backup was the one that they were busting for corruption. And so they didn’t send the backup. And so they ended up... Can you imagine how you are? And so the situation is getting worse and worse. They ended up getting everyone out of the bar and ended up like a zombie movie, boarding up the walls of the bar and stuff like that.

Simone Collins:Oh my. What... Wait.

Malcolm Collins:The the

Simone Collins:ace hiding inside the bar?

Malcolm Collins:Were what? Yeah. They were hiding inside the bar from

Simone Collins:the How did they get... Did they, like, tear gas inside the bar to get it? What happened? Technology. Oh my god.

Malcolm Collins:They they didn’t they didn’t have the preparation for what was about to happen. So, anyway, as the resistance started outside and the crowd grew, the officers ended up retreating inside the bar and barricading themselves. The crowd outside threw bottles, garbage, coins, and other objects. Somebody used a Coin Oh, no. Somebody used a parking meter as a battering ram to knock down the door. Oh, that’s where the coins came from. And there was attempt to set the building on fire while the police were barricaded inside, and it was set alight and apart, at a point. The... Pine, the officer, said it was more frightening than anything he had experienced in combat as a war war two vet.

Simone Collins:Wow. When the gays and the mobsters are mad at you.

Malcolm Collins:And you’ve gotta understand the restraint that the police are showing in this instance. These people are trying to beat them to death. No. They were severely injured. These people Oh, and

Simone Collins:they get it. Were... Did they shoot? Did they

Malcolm Collins:No. So the officer... Apparently, there was, like, an internal discussion, and they’re like, we really need to shoot our way out of this. Like, we’re gonna die here. And the officer was like, if we start shooting, this is gonna turn into a massacre. We have to hold out. So even from the perspective of the gay communities, they’re trying to shut down a bar that’s victimizing the gay community. The gay bunch of hoodlums who are looking for their prostitute that day are trying to break down the wall of of this particular building. Right? And they put their own lives on the line to protect the people trying to kill them, to not do what any sane officer... What I would have done in that instance, which is shoot my way out, which... I mean, holy... Really h