As paramedics attended to Vinales, a cop told a fireman, “You don’t have to hurry, he’s dead, and if he’s not, he’s not going to live long,” “You don’t have to hurry, he’s dead, and if he’s not, he’s not going to live long.” He was not only critically wounded, but was also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He landed on a fence below, its 14-inch spikes piercing his leg and pelvis.
An immigrant from Argentina who was in the country illegally, he feared what would happen to him in the police station and tried to escape by jumping out a second story window. Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine (the same Seymour Pine in charge of the raids upon the Stonewall Inn) showed up with a fleet of police wagons, and arrested all 167 customers, staff, and owners and took them to the station house, which violated police policy. 1970 at about 5:00 am in the morning the NYPD raided the Snake Pit, an after-hours bar at 211 West 10th. In fact the raids continued, virtually uninterrupted with some continuing on into the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Many people don’t realize it but the raids on gay bars by the New York City Police Department didn’t end with the Stonewall riots in the summer of 1969.
