S
R
Swerdlow provides
information on City
Nightclub raid
To the Editor:
I would like to thank you for Jack Riley’s
article (Between The Lines, Feb. 1990) about
the December 14th police raid on the City
Nightclub. I have not seen such a show of
concern and support since former President
Ronald Reagan expressed his concern to the
nation about the impact of AIDS on the gay
community. Then again, what can you expect
from an article whose lead line begins
“Despite what you may personally think of
The City Nightclub and its controversial
owner Laimy Swerdlow...” Is it possible that
what you think may be related to what you
know. Perhaps the following information will
help.
The City Nightclub is Portland’s only non
alcoholic gay nightclub and as such is
frequented by customers under as well as over
the legal age to become intoxicated. For some
reason this relationship to alcohol has caused
the gay community to be somewhat
schizophrenic in its treatment of gay youth.
One moment there seems to be genuine
concern and the next moment, their existence
is not even acknowledged. Like it or not,
there is a connection between what gay people
think about gay youth and what they think
about The City Nightclub.
And what about “its controversial owner
Lanny Swerdlow.” I am curious as to what
makes me so controversial. Is it that I work
with the youth of our community? Is it
because I have been openly gay and working
for a variety of gay causes for the past 20
years? Is it because I seek to educate people
about the dangers of religious belief and the
rationality of atheism? Is it because of the
cable TV show NightScene in which as host I
extoll the virtues of being gay and the gay
community? Is it because I am an
unapologetic liberal? Is it because I am a
member of the Board of Directors of the
Downtown Retail Council and sit on its Public
Safety Committee? Is it because I am left-
handed? For a magazine such as Just Out to
call me controversial is like Mark Hatfield
calling Gerry Studds a fag.
It would seem that a major police raid and
attempt to close down a gay business in
Portland would provoke Just Out’s interest a
little more than to just excerpt information
from an article in the January 18 issue of
Willamette Week. There are many facts that
the article didn't cover or have come to light
since it was published. I am very easy to
reach and it seems that a phone call could
have provided you with considerably more
information. However, Just Out, one of the
major sources of information for Portland's
gay community, didn’t feel it was worth the
effort Would the same laissez-faire attitude
be found if the raid had been directed towards
any of the alcoholic nightclubs or towards one
of the gay political organizations or perhaps
the offices of Just Out?
So what additional information might your
readers find interesting about the police raid?
First off, considerably more than 10
customers were searched. That was just the
number that my fountain worker observed and
reported to the Willamette Week reporter.
The raid was conducted without a search
warrant making the searches of my customers
and premises illegal. If the raid was just a
simple drug bust, then why did the police
bring two representatives from the Fire
Marshall’s office, five from the Bureau of
Buildings and two from the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission? The answer is simple
— this was not a drug raid, but a personal
vendetta carried out by the Portland Police
Bureau’s Drugs and Vice Division to utilize
the newly enacted forfeiture laws to close
down a business that served gay youth.
Consider these facts:
1. In response to one vice officer’s
allegation that the police were concerned
about the operation of The City Nightclub, I
sent several letters (the first one dated August
26, 1989) to Captain Gary Schraeder of the
Central Precint (he is also the Liaison to the
Gay Community for the Portland Police)
asking him to talk with his officers about their
concerns with my business and then for me to
meet with him so that I could resolve any
complaints. Not one of these letters was
answered.
2. The author of the article in Willamette
Week, Jim Redden, wrote that “According to
Chuck Bollinger, an officer with the Police
Bureau’s Drugs and Vice Division, the raid
was prompted by numerous complaints from
parents of young people who frequent the
club.” However KXL Radio in its attempts to
gather information about the raid could not
find any of these complaining parents. This
same vice officer also claimed that alcohol
was served at the club and that there was
sexual activity. Anyone familiar with The
City Nightclub knows that this is absurd, but
what can you expect from a vice officer that
uses words such as “bizarre” and “demonic”
to describe my club.
JERRY LEfTH directs
3. If you go into almost any nightclub in
the city, gay or straight, with 25 or more
uniformed and plainclothes police officers and
search the customers, you are going to find
people with drugs, and probably a lot more
than only four (which is the number they
found at The City out of a crowd of at least
90).
4. At a meeting of the Central Precint
Citizens Police Advisory Council on February
1, Captain Schraeder explained the reason he
never answered my letters. He stated that as
my letters requested he checked with his
officers to ascertain if they had any concerns
about The City Nightclub and NOT ONE
OFFICER HAD A SINGLE COMPLAINT.
As a consequence, he saw no point in
answering any of my letters.
5. At that same meeting Maria
Clavadetscher, a crime prevention specialist
with Neighbors West-Northwest (in whose
boundaries The City Nightclub is located),
reported that she had not received even one
complaint from anyone about The City
Nightclub and it is her job to monitor such
problems. This prompted Judy Kitchen,
another council member, to comment that for
years her neighborhood organization had been
trying to get the police to do something about
a variety of drug houses and problem
businesses in her area. They have never
gotten any response and here is a business that
neither citizens or uniformed police had any
complaints about and it is singled out for a
raid described by Willamette Week as “one of
the largest in city history.”
In conclusion, I think it is obvious that
what we are dealing with here are a few
paranoid, homophobic vice cops that
convinced the entire Portland Police Bureau,
Fire Marshall’s Commission, Bureau of
Buildings and the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission to believe their tall tales of
horror and Armageddon occurring within the
walls of The City Nightclub. This is the most
blatant case of gay persecution conducted by a
government agency that I can ever recall in
the history of Portland and, except for
Willamette Week, no one seems to think its
worth much notice. After all, it’s just a place
for young gay people and who cares about gay
youth? Well, I do and will continue to do so
“despite what you may think about The City
Nightclub and its controversial owner...”
Lanny Swerdlow
Portland
Editor's reply: A simple phone call to Just
Out could have alerted us to the raid —
telephone lines work both ways.
Cafe Mocha on Sandy Boulevard is also an
all-age, non-alcohol, gay and lesbian
nightclub, and it has been open for almost a
year.
Obituary
Renee Michelle Weise
A memorial service to commemorate the
life of Renee Michelle Weise was held Friday,
January 5,1990 at Echo Theater. Michelle
was killed in an accident on St. Helen’s Road
December 1st when she apparently fell asleep
behind the wheel of her car and ran into the
rear of a semi truck.
She was bom October 29, 1945, in Farra-
gut, to Ina Hermann Weise and John Earnest
Weise. After their divorce and her mother’s
remarriage, Michelle spent much of her
childhood living on the Warm Springs Reser
vation. She was a Vietnam War veteran, and
married twice. Three children survive her: a
daughter, name unknown, age about 25 years;
and two sons, Joshua, 16 and Aaron, 13.
Michelle was what one might call a
Universal Seeker. As a young child she was
strongly influenced by the Native American
spiritual practices, but was also raised
Christian and began early to discuss and argue
theology with her nonplussed Sunday school
teachers. In young adulthood, she converted to
Orthodox Judiasm, and later pursued
Buddhism and metaphysics. At the time of her
death, she was a member of Les Dames
Verdes, a Dianic Wiccan coven, though the
influences of her youth in Native American
community had begun to reemerge, and all
those close to her recognized the shamanic
path she had returned to walk.
After the accident, she regained
consciousness briefly and was taken by Life
Flight to OHSU, where she died.
No doubt she has already plunged
enthusiastically into the next phase of
learning, and is already challenging her
celestial teachers to the hilt. Behind her, she
leaves an enormous empty place in the lives
of those who worked with her, lived with her
and loved her. Like a giant Hr tree suddenly
struck down, she has left a lonely place
against the sky, a place no one will fill like
Michelle.
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