Hundreds rallied in the Atlanta Eagle parking lot Sunday afternoon to express outrage over the Thursday night raid during which eight bar employees were arrested and over sixty patrons were forced to lie prone on the floor for extended periods photo: Project Q Atlanta

Days of protests over a Thursday Atlanta police raid on a gay bar continued Tuesday afternoon, this time reaching city hall.

About 20 protestors showed up for the Atlanta City Council's Public Safety Committee meeting, claiming the raid was uncalled for and heavy handed, Atlanta’s 11 Alive TV reports.

The June 10 raid has received harsh criticism including and calls from several political candidates to investigate the alleged police misconduct. It also prompted a rally on Sunday that attracted hundreds of people, Project Q Atlanta reports.

“I want to have confidence in the police department again because what they do for us in fighting crime is just unbelievable,” Patti Ellis told 11 Alive News.

Ellis, who has a gay son, was one of those protesting at Tuesday's public safety meeting. “But that was not fighting crime,” she said, “that was going in there and harassing people who are gay.”

Another protestor, Floyd Taylor, compared the raid to mass arrests in a public park just because one person breaks the law.

Last week, a patron of the bar told told Atlanta Journal Constitution, “I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade.”

Nick Koperski, 31,  said he had just gotten to the Atlanta Eagle Thursday night when the raid, involving more than a dozen police officers, some in plain clothes, commenced.

The raid began just after 11 pm when cops entered the the Midtown gay leather bar, and told everyone to lie facedown on the floor. 62 patrons were forced stay prone on the floor of the bar, some for more than an hour, witnesses said.

Protests over Atlanta gay bar raid reach city hall [contd.]

For the next couple of hours, police went through the patrons’ pockets, apparently looking for narcotics, said Alan Begner, Atlanta Eagle’s lawyer. The officers also took everyone’s identification and ran background checks on them, Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

One by one, the customers were allowed to leave, Begner said according to the paper. He noted that no drugs or illegal contraband were found during the searches.

Garrett McLendon, 43, is one of the Eagle customers who filed a complaint against the APD Monday morning. He told the Journal Constitution that patrons were not frisked during the raid, but were illegally searched.

McLendon said he found himself laying in glass from a beer bottle that had fallen on the floor. When he asked if he could move, an officer shouted an expletive at him, McLendon said, accThe raid began just after 11 pm when cops entered the the Midtown gay leather bar, and told everyone to lie facedown on the floor. 62 patrons were forced stay prone on the floor of the bar, some for more than an hour, witnesses said.ording to the Journal Constitution.

He said officers grabbed the prone customers by the back of their pants and turned them over and rifled through their pockets. “Still, as I look back at it, it’s hard to believe,” he said.

None of the 62 patrons inside the bar at the time of the raid were arrested. Patrons allege officers used profanity, told them to “shut the fuck up” and made anti-gay and racial slurs, Project Q Atlanta reports. 

“What happened to the customers was an assault,” Begner said. “They were not free to go. There was no suspicion any of them had committed a crime. This is unbelievable.”

Arraignment was postponed for eight employees arrested during a raid who had their initial court hearing Monday morning. WABE's Jim Burress reports. The employees entered not guilty pleas at the hearing.

They are charged with operating without a proper license and with providing adult entertainment without a permit, but because the incident report was not yet available at the time of the hearing, arraignment was postponed until September 29th.

“I believe (the bar) was raided because it was a gay bar,” said co-owner Robert Kelley according to CBS Atlanta.

Kelley, who was arrested during the raid, and the seven other men charged are demanding an apology from police. Kelley said police never told him why about 30 officers swooped into the bar for the raid.

“The only thing they'd tell us is we need to sit down and shut the (expletive) up, and if we asked any questions, they’d bash us with a bar stool,” Kelley said.

Immediately after the court appearance, several employees and patrons present during the raid filed formal complaints with Atlanta Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards, CBS Atlanta reports.

“Either they did this on purpose, or they didn't know they couldn't do this to customers. Either way, I do not agree we should that let any officers violate the rights of non-criminal customers for any reason. They don't get a free pass,” Begner told WABE radio.

Following the morning hearing for the eight bar employees, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said at a Monday afternoon press conference that he takes seriously allegations of police misconduct. He also expressed regret that Danni Lynn Harris, the department’s liaison with the gay and lesbian community, had not been notified of the raid, the Journal Constitution reports.

“She should have been invited,” Pennington said. If she had been there, the chief said, any inappropriate behavior by the officers could have been curtailed.

“This is very unfortunate this incident occurred,” Pennington said, according to the Journal Constitution. “I’m sorry for what happened.”

Pennington said each complaint will be thoroughly investigated. If an officer is found to have acted inappropriately, “we will take appropriate action.”

But the chief insisted that the raid was warranted based on complaints filed against the bar and because of an investigation by undercover officers.

Pennington said the department received its first complaints in May and sent officers there undercover before the Sept. 10 raid, Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

He said that undercover vice officers had been to the club on two occasions prior to the raid and observed illegal activity there. He added that one of the tips that prompted the investigation was submitted to Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office, Atlanta’s Sunday Paper reports.

Two such tips against the Eagle were included in a packet provided to reporters during Penington’s press conference, according to Sunday Paper. One, which may have been from a patron, informed Crime Stoppers Atlanta of a planned “Bear Fest” at the Atlanta Eagle where sex would be permitted. Another, submitted to the mayor’s office, reported sex acts within the club and bags with “what appears to be drug residue” littering the neighborhood near the bar.

Richard Ramey, an Eagle co-owner, strongly disputes allegations from police that sex took place inside the bar, according to Project Q Atlanta.

“If an Atlanta police officer was in my bar and saw any illegal activity, they should have made arrests,” Ramey said, according to Project Q. “If they saw it, why didn’t they make an arrest? All they are wanting to do is take the attention away from them and what their officers did.”

The reports released by Pennington Monday afternoon (Incident # 091420033-00) include the following observations.

• On May 21, after observing men wearing only G-strings dancing on the bar, one officer then “heard someone say the show was starting in the back room. I then went to the back room where I observed one male performing anal sex on another male and he was performing oral sex on a third male. While this was happening several other males stood around and watched, several of them had their penises out and were masturbating.”
• According to the reports, another officer claimed that on the same night, May 21, he was approached by a patron who told him “on Thursday nights in the rear of the location a large group of patrons gather to participate/watch lewd sex acts between other patrons during club hours and in an area which is open to the general patron inside the club.”

Nobody was arrested for sexual activity on the night of the Sept. 10 raid. In the reports released by Pennington, an officer claimed that he saw what might have been two men having sex, but  “could not get a good visual due to the extreme low light in the room.”

Ramey, the bar’s co-owner, told Project Q Atlanta that he questions the accuracy of police statements that undercover officers witnessed sexual acts taking place those visits. He said the lack of evidence, combined with police saying no sex was seen on Thursday, demonstrates that their response during the raid was heavy-handed.

“They have no pictures, they have no video. Probably the same officers that were in there on Sept. 10 screaming and hollering at people were probably the same ones saying they saw sex. They are not going to produce anything. They are making it sound like there are live sex acts going on and that is absolutely 100 percent bull,” Ramey says, according to Project Q.

“They didn’t have to come in in with such force and treat customers and employee the way they did. They did not have to make racial slurs and they didn’t have to detain 62 people on the floor for up to an hour,” he adds.

Atlanta mayoral candidates, including state Sen. Kasim Reed and city council president Lisa Borders, have called for an investigation of the incident, the Journal Constitution reports. City councilwoman Mary Norwood questioned whether this was the best use of police resources. Jesse Spikes, an attorney, said harassing people and treating them unfairly is not something the APD should be doing.

Source: Employees Arrested During Raid at Atlanta Gay Bar File Formal Complaints Against APD | WABE
Eagle owner disputes police claims of sex | Project Q Atlanta
Chief: Vice cops saw sex at gay bar | Atlanta Journal Constitution
Gay Community Still Outraged Over Police Raid | CBS Atlanta
ATLANTA POLICE EXPLAIN IN DETAIL WHY THEY RAIDED THE EAGLE BAR | Sunday Paper
Protests Over Gay Bar Raid Reach City Hall | WXIA-TV

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