Definition of "surliness"

There has been an escalation of police harassment in the gay community: five brutal busts at the Crystal Hotel; the closing of sex clubs without notice; beatings of women outside Amelia's Bar in January and surliness and assaults against lesbians by off duty officers at Peg's Club later.

1979 August 4, Carl Wittman, “Streets of San Francisco”, in Gay Community News, page 12