The Huffington Post, a respected online news website, has called it Stonewall 2009 in a headline. Syndicated gay advice columnist Dan Savage blasted the raid in a blog entry titled ‘Once Upon A Time In America...’ on The Stranger: "...the police could raid a gay bar with impunity - and rough up and abuse the patrons they found inside - and the police knew the fags they were brutalizing couldn't protest because their parents and co-workers might find out they were gay. Someone needs to let the police in Atlanta know that those days are long gone."
A rally is being planned for Sept 19 from noon at the Atlanta Eagle bar which was established 23 years ago.
Eight employees including a co-owner were arrested for operating a business without a license and for dancing without a permit on Sep 10 after police raided the Atlanta Eagle, a leather bar in Atlanta, the state capital of Georgia in the US. The owners of the bar say their establishment was unfairly targeted.
"This is all about the way my patrons were being treated," said Atlanta Eagle co-owner Richard Ramey told the mainstream newspaper, Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "They were completely humiliated. It was unjustified for them to be treated that way."
The Southern Voice, a gay newspaper, reported that the Atlanta Police Department had released copies of nine complaints filed by the bar’s patrons and employees about being treated roughly by about 20 uniformed and undercover police officers. They said that the police had forced them to lay face down on the grimy floor for as long as two hours as they frisked everyone and checked their identification in a computer system.
Reports say police did not find any illegal substances, and the men were ordered to leave without their mobile phones, wallets and other personal belongings.
The Voice detailed the complaints: "One man said officers grabbed patrons who didn't immediately lie down by the neck and forced them to the ground. The man said he was kicked in the ribs while lying down. 'Then I heard laughing and giggling and saying this is more fun than raiding niggers with crack.'"
"Another patron said he saw officers forcing people to the ground by officers pushing their shoulders or the backs of their heads. He said he asked to move because there was broken glass on the floor where he was lying, and he was told to ‘shut the fuck up.’ The customer recounted hearing anti-gay slurs: I heard several slurs such as 'I hate homosexuals.' I also heard 'I don't like fags.'"
The police department has defended thair actions saying undercover vice officers had been to the club and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched after having received complaints in May about drugs being sold on Atlanta Eagle premises and that patrons engaged in open sex acts.
At a press conference, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said he takes seriously allegations of police misconduct. He also expressed regret that Danni Lynn Harris, the department’s liason with the gay and lesbian community, “had been left out of the raid.”
"We’re going to include her next time so this won’t happen again," Pennington said.
"If she had been [involved], a lot of this would not have happened."
A user Kevin sharply noted in a comment on Towleroad.com, a gay news blog: "The problem is not whether or not the so-called LGBT liaison was there or not. She cannot be present every single time a cop encounters a gay person. She should not need to be present on the so-called raid to make sure the cops keep in line. This is extremely disturbing."
Several protests calling for a formal investigation had been held since the raid and another has been planned for Sept 19 from noon at the bar which was established 23 years ago.
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Reader's Comments
well, yes, of course. You're right and who would disagree with such a statement ?
Sadly - and you do realize that, I'm sure - what you wrote is akin to saying : there should be no police force.
Homophobia is part and parcel of the macho identity, along with gynophobia (contempt of women) and hatred/contempt of anything seen as "weak". These attitudes are hammered into almost every man's brain and heart on this sore planet, from a VERY early age and by virtually every person and institution around him. Strangely the process goes on in very different societies, rich and poor, ancient or recent, religious or not, dictatorial or democratic, communist or capitalist. Something to reflect upon.
There are, mercifully, other influences, but if we look around us, we can only acknowledge that they are definitely not the mainstream force. Their relative counter-impact is what will make the difference between a "man" and a "macho". Just looking around us we can see how many of the latter and so few of the former (including in the gay "community"), and, well, it's kind of depressing.
Most boys are ENCOURAGED to be brutal, arrogant, aggressive, homophobic and gynophobic, selfish and self serving, etc... all of that wrapped under the guise of "masculinity", a good example of which is Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "You'll Be A Man, My Son", seen by so many as inspirational, highly moral and virtuous while it could (and should) also be epitomized as the typical load of macho crap which turns male humans into macho idiots (albeit with a literary flourish in this case).
Training in the army and the police is INCREDIBLY homophobic. The army and the police recruit MOSTLY men who have no respect whatsoever for women, gays and "other losers". Changing that would mean changing society so deeply and so utterly that, honestly, it's nothing but a dream.
However let's dream on, my friend, because some dreams CAN indeed change the world. As long as the dreamer realizes the forces at stake and the fact that his dream is but a dream, at least in the beginning. Gandhi was fully aware of that and so was Martin Luther King who said "I have a dream" and not "I have a wish" or "I have a plan".
The most bizarre charge is the detention of an Atlanta Eagle employee. He lives above the bar, wasn’t working the night of the raid, but the police pounded on his door anyway.
“He opened the door to two cops who asked if anyone was having sex there. They asked why there was a bed and he said it was because he lives there. He was made to come downstairs and was arrested with the other employees. He recalled hearing comments like ‘You people are despicable.’”
So having a bed in an apartment is now despicable. Glad that was straightened out.
The owners of the Atlanta Eagle are not going into the good night quietly. Here is their Facebook page and there is a rally this week-end. If you are in Atlanta throw them your support.
To have a leg to stand on legally, you have to be transparent and innocent. I am not justifying police brutality which it was but you are giving the cops excuses to abuse. If I was an innocent patron who was brutalised by the cops then I will on the phone to my lawyer and my local political representative. And yes, I would organise and participate in rallys against police brutality as well.
I hear alot of terrible homophic incidents but they never happen to me. Do you know why? That is because I don't put up with shit. I am out and I am visible to all people who come in contact with me. I don't hide behind masks and so that does not give anyone any reason to blackmail me. Oh, and I work out as well. So I am prepared to fight any homophobe mentally and physically.
The US are "so advanced" in what ways ? the way of democracy ? of social equality ? of respect and solidarity with the poor, the unlucky and the different ? of culture ? education ? moral standards ? spirituality ? and while we're at it, do you know any other country which may be considered a champion (or even a reasonably good apprentice) in any of these fields ?
Or is it technology you were referring to ? Finance ? Marketing ? Show business ? that kind of thing ?
I have friends who joined the group civil cause and got enough money to put a deposit on a house in Melbourne (Australia).
It is one thing to shut a bar/club for No Liquor Licence. But the patrons aren't at fault for that, and even if they didn't have a licence to trade thats what the court system is about.
We are talking about Atlanta, GEORGIA, right?
Ray Charles' version of 'Georgia on My Mind' being their state anthem?
Well, it's a redneck state. Though, I must admit, forcing people to lie on the grimy floor for two hours is no example of the famed 'Southern Hospitality'.
While the actions of the police were outrageous, it is the inaction by their superiors in dealing with those who are prejudiced within their own ranks that will prove that the state's authority to dispense civil justice is merely promoting inequality in a federation of 50 states that boasts justice and equality for all its citizens.
Thus proving that Orwellian theory that some are more equal than others.
The Royal Malaysian Police has never yet asked Malaysian citizens involved in a club raid to lie down with their faces on the grimy floor for two hours or more. Let's just get that out of the way.
#22 seems to explain the validity of the raid justified by the missing licenses, but how does one validate the treatment of individuals during the raid.
This is not a Stonewall. If the establishment was without the proper licensing, why take it out on the customers instead of the owners of said establishment?
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