Long time readers will re-call the Sofie's Choice moment we had here on the k+b after the Atlanta Police raid on the bar that Neil and I met in. " Lie on the floor or take a bullet....." From the AJC : "The Atlanta Citizen Review board says 24 police officers falsely imprisoned patrons of a gay Midtown bar, but wants to know more about the role police supervisors played in last year's raid..
The board voted Thursday night at its regular monthly meeting to conduct a study of the roles of supervisors during the Sept. 10, 2009, raid of the Atlanta Eagle. The board's oversight committee said it would delay recommendations on punishing the officers until the study is complete. The CRB, a citizens oversight board created by the Atlanta City Council, is limited in the kinds of complaints it can investigate, and the actions of police supervisors is among them. But the board has a great deal of latitude in conducting studies, according to the city ordinance.Friday is the one-year anniversary of the raid, in which more than 20 APD officers detained and searched over 50 Atlanta Eagle customers, making some of them lie handcuffed and face-down on a floor that was littered with glass and spilled beer. Some patrons said they were not allowed to move for more than an hour while officers confiscated their driver's licenses and checked for criminal records. Customers also said they had to endure anti-gay slurs from some of the officers.
The CRB staff said Thursday it could not identify the officers who allegedly made those comments because the patrons were face-down on the floor and could not see who was speaking. The officers involved in the raid denied making or hearing slurs.
According to Atlanta police records, the raid was staged because of reports of drug activity at the club and after undercover vice officers said they had seen men having sex at the club while customers looked on. No illegal drugs were found during the searches of employees and customers, and no one was charged with having illicit sex.
Club owners filed a federal lawsuit against APD and it is still pending."
2 comments:
Our pal Jim Burress has been on this hard for WABE. Follow the story here: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain/article/0/13/1698809/Top.Stories/Citizen.Review.Board.Finds.Atlanta.Police.Violated.Procedure..Constitution
My question is, in the year prior to or since the raid, how many sports bars, hip hop bars, sleazy srip club bars, upscale dance bars, small band concert bars, etc in Atlanta have had a similar raid? There is plenty of illegal drug use and under table fondling at any of these places.
The city is simply trying to sweep another colosal civil liberties cluster f#@k under the rug. Cause ya know, those civil liberties don't really apply the same way to to those gay people.
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