Police relations with Halsted Street bars may have been set back years based on the response Sunday of Acting Deputy Chief Byrne
after the parade, according to Art Johnston, co-owner of Sidetrack bar.
'Words can't even express how upset I am,' Johnston said Monday. 'I feel so demeaned ... under attack, on our best day, our day
of celebration.'
Johnston said police forced customers out of his bar and then announced the bar was closed and that everyone in line should go
home. Johnston said Roscoe's, Cocktail, and Gentry also experienced similar treatment. After the initial pressure, police stood
should-to-shoulder outside the bars, intimidating customers.
When Johnston asked Byrne to explain what was happening, he allegedly responded: 'You do what I am telling you to or I will
have the Fire Department here and you will be closed permanently.'
Jim Ludwig, owner of Roscoe's, also experienced police pressure. The bar owners quickly reached state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz
and Ald. Tom Tunney. 'They were both brilliant,' Johnston said. Byrne quickly changed his approach, 'acting chummy, on a first-
name basis,' Johnston said, adding that the chief then denied that they had announced the club was closed.
'The bars were like a Tuesday night crowd,' Johnston said, adding that the only straight bar on the strip, Town Hall, was packed
until people pointed this out to police—they then went to that club, too.
The city's crackdown on occupancy rates at clubs has been stronger since the tragedy at the E-2 nightclub, and Saturday night's
deadly porch crash may have led to a stronger police response. But Johnston believes Byrne was acting more in a rogue nature than
as part of any larger city plan.
'After Tom came, it got a little better, but it still forced us to keep the levels way below normal,' Johnston said. 'That was just their
call—they did not do a count.'
When Sidetrack opened 21 years ago, Johnston said police tried to intimidate him by saying they would close his 'faggot bar.'
This time, Johnston feels this was a similar anti-gay response by police—but 'faggot' was not used. 'The only thing similar would be if
they went to every Irish bar in the city on St. Patrick's Day and made them be one-third full.'
'The notion that we don't care about the welfare of our community, to think we're not concerned on Pride Sunday is ridiculous,'
Johnston said. 'It sets backs police and bar relations 15 years. I feel robbed—it was a day to celebrate,' Johnston said.
Chicago Police spokesman Pat Camden said no bars were closed. Since E-2, police have been more strongly enforcing
occupancy regulations. He said police did not ask anyone to leave (Johnston said he has witnesses), but rather police policy is to
stop letting people in and allow the bar to thin out. 'This is the same as what happens at the Irish Parade,' Camden said.
Camden did say one police officer did announce Sidetrack was closed, but that this error was quickly corrected.
