According to Wiki, "Both Milk's election and the events following his assassination demonstrated the liberalization of the population and political conflicts between the city government and a conservative police force." But any populist leader in the U.S. meets a similar fate, to wit: Paul Wellstone, John Lennon, JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X, to name a few.
One organizer's account, Maggie Jochild, formerly of Lesbians Against Police Violence (LAPV), clarifies some of the events leading up to the White Night Riot:
"LAPV stood in radical opposition to police harassment of minority communities. We saw Dan White's assassination [of Milk and Moscone] as a rage reprisal by a former cop against progressive forces (not just gay) and linked it to the larger picture of male and white domination. I think it's critical to remember that the riot which came from our agitation was the result of revolutionary lesbians speaking out against the ultimate forces of power in our society, not a bunch of "gays" upset about a verdict."
Another account, from straight white male, Chris Carlsson, corroborates that a "larger picture" was in motion: "The riot had progressed, as San Francisco riots do, from the initial angry crowd (in this case, of gays) to a gradual influx of angry young black and brown men who are spoiling for a chance to even the odds with the cops. The amazing sense of community that had existed during the riot evaporated within 24 hours. Many of us were confused by the contrast: the riot's euphoria temporarily intoxicated us with the sensation of true community. The aftermath returned us with a hard thud to a city full of barren crowds of disconnected people."
Carlsson was apparently unaware of the long resistance to police brutality, or was unable to connect the shared common cause between the LGBT community and people of color, all of whom suffer brutal repression.
One analyst believes the picture was much bigger than this, even: "A nexus was forming in SF. Actual progressives and liberals were consolidating gains with actual political power." He believes that because the assassinations took out the two most popular and most powerful forces for social liberalism, Dan White was probably guided by a wider concerted effort to crush San Francisco's populist stronghold.
Jochild explains how LAPV wanted to use what it suspected would be a light verdict to publicize the issues:
"We knew public outrage was going to demand appeasement, and we knew we were the best target. We had been visibly agitating against the police for several months, one time holding a demonstration in front of Police Headquarters on 6th....
"We relentlessly argued that Dan White's actions were the natural byproduct of his training as a cop. We said lesbians, gays, progressives, working people and people of color would always be targets of police repression.... We had called the rally at Castro Street that evening because we knew the jury's verdict about Dan White would be in, and, guessing that justice would not be fully served, we wanted to capitalize on people's anger for our own purposes. My roommate Sharon and I had made the signs announcing the rally and put them around the Mission and Castro Street."
Of the many available accounts of that night, it seems that people spontaneously flocked to the Castro area as the natural place to share grief and outrage with like-minded folk. It's also likely the Jochild and LAPV successfully contributed to encouraging the violent direction that night took; their outrage at the verdict was widely shared.
Conflicting reports leave a question about police action that night. Some say the police were told to stand down while people rioted for several hours, while others report widespread police brutality. Available video shows police holding back, and it also shows them engaged in violent conflict. Mainstream queers assert they tried to stop the violence, which was supposedly escalated by those outside the LGBT community. Another personal account clarifies that police action was immediate, as written by Kim Corsaro:
"The crowd from the Castro was met with a large crowd from the Polk, which in the late 1970s was a thriving gay neighborhood and still the central location for a lot of gay celebrations, like Halloween. The mood quickly turned ugly as the crowds merged, and a pitched battle between the cops and the crowd began. The battle would last for the next several hours. Gay rioters started several small fires inside City Hall, smashed the windows, and torched dozens of police cars."
Undisputed is that, later on in the evening, police stormed a local gay pub and bashed everyone inside and on the sidewalks outside the bar. Corsaro explains:
"The day after the riots, May 22, happened to be Milk's birthday. That night in 1979, Castro Street filled again, this time to celebrate the first birthday date since his assassination. I was one of the unlucky riot-goers who had been brutally beaten by a handful of cops in Civic Center the night before, so I recovered at home. The screams I had heard coming from the Castro the night before when the cops raided the Elephant Walk were replaced by the sounds of 'Happy Birthday, Harvey.'"
Just considering the numbers of those who required hospitalization, Wiki notes: "By morning, 61 police officers and 100 rioters and gay residents of the Castro had been hospitalized. Over a million dollars of damage had been done to City Hall, police cruisers, and the Elephant Walk Bar."
It will be interesting to see how the film, Milk, covers the riot and police behavior during and afterward. Will it show the political divisions within the queer community?
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