The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced today that it is terminating the two agents who participated in the Rainbow Lounge raid, as well as the supervisor above them. We don’t have the official press release yet, but here is the Associated Press story.

            Having gone through the 32-page TABC report on their agents’ actions at the Rainbow Lounge, not much to report. The three agents did violate TABC policy, the report says, but these were for wearing the wrong uniforms, not getting supervisor approval, and not filing the right reports. And Chad Gibson fell on his own on the concrete outside, and did not get his injuries while being hogtied inside the club.

            But here are two observations, one funny and the other more serious.

            1) When the TABC and the FWPD were snooping around the club a few days earlier (when they found a drunk guy passed out in his car with his pants down), the TABC agents did a little spying. Here is how the report describes it:

            “[TABC Agent Christopher] Aller recalled exiting the unit and walking through the parking lot, eventually making his way to a fence in the back. Aller said he and [FWPD] Officer Back looked through the fence openings into a patio area and observed six or eight customers. He saw two males dressed only in thong-like underwear or bikini bottoms sitting on some picnic tables. As he continued to view the area, he noticed the male subject who had earlier identified himself as the owner entered the patio area and quickly made his way to one of the individuals in the underwear and whispered in his ear. Aller said the male subject got up and ran inside.”

            “Aller believed the subject’s actions were odd and could indicate the possibility of drug activity or lewd conduct.”

            I guess intelligence is not on of the requirements of being a TABC agent. Gee, this was a gay bar that had men dancing in their underwear as part of the entertainment. Maybe the bar owner was whispering to the underwear-wearing guy to get up off his ass and start dancing. I ain’t paying you to be sitting on some picnic table.

            2) The TABC report said the inspection/raid started at 1:30 am. Tom Anable, the club’s accountant who was there that night, took notes on the entire affair, and he put the start at about 12:45 am. Other bar patrons have backed up Anable’s timeline. That may not seem like a big difference, but you have to question the accuracy of any report like this if they cannot even get an accurate assessment of when they moved into the club.