There have been three nights of demonstrations in Atlanta to protest the police raid on the Atlanta Eagle. The Atlanta police department is now defending their brutality—shades of the Fort Worth gay bar raid here—by suggesting that their officers were in danger:

Officer Darlene Harris, APD’s liaison to the gay community, said police raided the bar because of alleged criminal sexual activity. She says the quick, heavy-handed approach is the same officers would use going into any similar situation.

“When you’re coming into a dark club, that’s not well lit, and you have an unknown number of people inside the club, it is an officer safety concern as well.”

It was underwear night at the Eagle—and, man, you know how dangerous gay guys in their tighty-whities can be. Criminal sexual activity! Dark club! If the police had just gone in there and turned up the light and turned off the music, why, anything could’ve happened! Those unarmed gay fellas in their underpants might’ve been raped all those cops!

Sigh.

The police in Atlanta claimed at first that they raided the Eagle after receiving an anonymous tip about drugs; during the raid they searched all the men at the Eagle for drugs and, after finding none, arrested the bar’s owner and seven employees because the bar didn’t have a permit for strippers that the bar may not have needed. Now the police are claiming that they were actually there investigating “criminal sexual activity.” How convenient. Once again a major city’s police department is invoking stereotypes about gay men—we’re all dangerous and out-of-control sexual predators! not even the police are safe!—to justify a homophobic raid on a gay bar. More at Towleroad.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan sees a pattern—and a cause.

30 replies on “Meanwhile in Atlanta”

  2. story about Atlanta gay raid from “The Blade” in WashingtonDC:

    Atlanta Police LGBT Liaison Officer Dani Lynn Harris said there was a complaint of illegal activities at the Eagle. After the complaint was made undercover officers were sent to the Eagle where they discovered enough information to secure a warrant for the raid.

    In an interview with Southern Voice on Friday morning, Harris said the APD officers followed the same procedures they would have used for raiding any other nightclub.

    In a third interview late Friday, Harris said that the raid originated from two anonymous complaints: one to the mayor’s tip line and the other to Crimestoppers. The complaints alleged that Thursday is “sex night” at the club and that gay men were having sex not only in the club but outside as well, she said.

    “The original complaint received is that on Thursday night at the club is sex night. … It’s saying the club is a sleezy place on Thursday all that goes on is solicting of sex,” Harris said.

    According to Harris, the complaints claimed that the club owners retaliated against neighbors by pointing speakers at residential apartment complexes nearby and playings sounds of gay men having sex.

  3. Well, I complained about drug deals at three bars in Atlanta this weekend to the mayor’s office Friday but she was already gone for the weekend. (I got an “out of office” reply)

  4. And the same article says this

    Ramey said he didn’t understand the need for the raid, saying they have a good relationship with the police and their neighbors. He said that while he doesn’t have a permit for paid dancers, the dancers the Eagle employs are covered under their nightclub permit because they are not nude. Also, nothing illegal was found in the raid, he said.

    “No drugs found in my bar or on any patron, and that says a lot about my bar and my patrons. I have wonderful customers,” Ramey said. “We don’t have drugs at Eagle, we don’t allow it. The only drug we have is the alcohol.”

    Ramey said there is no chance of the Eagle being closed down, and the club would open on schedule Friday night.

    “Our record is clean for the last 13 years, so there is no threat of us being closed down,” Ramey said. “We just signed a new five year lease. It’s a great lease, we aren’t going anywhere.”

    Steve Gower, a volunteer with the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance, said the neighborhood group does not have a problem with the Eagle.

    “I can assure you that the raid was not initiated by MPSA or its patrol, and we have never received any complaints, reports, or observations about criminal activity in any way associated with the Eagle,” Gower said. “Further, I have spent much time on the streets of Midtown, and look under every rock to identify problem spots. Eagle is not one of those problem spots, and we have always considered the Eagle to be a good neighbor.”

    Puts the story into perspective, aye?

  5. the linked article is wrong about “three nights of protests”-
    Friday’s planned protest was cancelled.
    (these same folks planned for and announced that THOUSANDS would show up at Piedmont Park for the national kiss-in but only got 50…)

  6. A review in GayCities.com from March 2009-
    “Atlanta Eagle, Atlanta’s best-known leather bar, is famous for its cavernous dark rooms and shadowy corners. (and NASTY floors!) The crowd at the Eagle tends to be hard-core, so pretty boys and dolled-up drag queens don’t really play here.”

  7. A prescient review in GayCities.com from January 2009-

    “Bears don’t meet here any more….. And they have Go Go Dancers there on Thursday Night’s so watch out knowing how the city of Atlanta is.”

  8. 2006 review in Yelp-

    I was always scared to go to The Eagle because I was afraid there would be some mustachioed guys in chaps doing the tango next to the jukebox or I’d get gangbanged in the backroom on the way to the pottie. …
    Thursday is okay– it’s supposed to be underwear night if you’re into that kind of thing.

  10. Any time you see civil rights up for a debate in the public forum, like post-9/11 roundups of Arabs and Muslims and Prop 8, you see a rise in hate crimes against minorities. I mentioned this in TV interviews back in February at the Queer Ally Coalition’s Queers Unite: Take Back the Night march and rally, so it’s nice to see the more mainstream media now taking notice. That’s exactly what we’re seeing with the bigots behind Referendum 71. When our side doesn’t stand up and fight back, the bigots build their confidence and grow larger and eventually we end up with a situation like the Million Teabagger March on 9/12. Vote to approve Referendum 71 and join the Seattle LGBT Equality March on October 11 at Volunteer Park at 2 pm. It’s our time this time.

  11. I have a hard time reading Sully without thinking about how much of an apologist he is for Conservatives with any other subject other than gay rights.

  15. @5
    Southern Voice reports there was a rally Friday:

    “Almost 24 hours after Atlanta police launched a controversial raid on the Atlanta Eagle, supporters of the popular gay leather bar gathered at the club to show their support and call attention to what they feel is police harrasment.

    “Billed as a “show of solidarity,” the informal gathering began with a short news conference after which attendees mingled in the club. The crowd of about 40 then went outside the bar and had noisy sex on the sidewalk in front of the club, holding hands and raising their arms to show strength and support.

    “Patrons said the club’s customers routinely have sex outside because the floors of the Eagle are so nasty.”

  16. Here’s the deal on the search warrant

    I’ve verified with sources who spoke to me on condition of anonymity that the APD’s plainclothes investigation of the Eagle had been ongoing since May. There was no warrant because officers can quite legally execute a raid based on the eyewitness accounts of undercover cops. This makes it seem very likely that something was indeed going on that shouldn’t have been, but it may have been simply the exotic dancing without a permit, a fairly innocuous charge that is frequently levelled at straight clubs, too.

  17. @ 17 FTW

    Dan you seriously have your panties in a wad over this. Interesting that you still refuse to admit you might have over reached with these outlandish allegations.

    The fact is, they acted professionally by the book. They did nothing improper, and nothing will KUM of this. This subsequent post does nothing more for the details of the story, rather, it simply continues perpetuating that your hypothesis is completely full of holes.

    @ 4 Rob to reply (again) to your same post…

    No it doesn’t really put anything in perspective. I don’t hold those same accounts to the same level of credibility that I do the police department. The issue was not about drugs.

    One only needs look at the independent reviews from @ 6,7, and 8, to get an accurate idea about the nature of said club, by some of the very people who have wanted to frequent it.

    @ 9 your supposition is completely ludicrous. It is not apple to apples whatsoever. Any Mormon place of worship is not likely to be dark, dirty, and having a reputation for being a likely place where weapons, anti social (aggressive) activity, drugs, disease and scum are found. A bar is commonly known to contain one or more. 😉 (If it is a good bar)

    and finally @14… the police didn’t change their story 4 times. Rather, the story changed because the shoddy reporting on said story continually shifts with the wind to spin the best news for ratings. The police have been very consistent in all of their statements.

    Nice try.

  18. Drugs, illegal sex, unpermitted strippers, whatever. I would prefer the APD spend their time and resources (my resources) finding the people who broke into my house.

  21. Rob, thank you for pointing out the reality that Reality Check conveniently ignores.

    Nice try, Reality Check. Get your own damn facts straight before you go criticizing others for having their panties in a wad.

  22. Just know that the police aren’t going to make public all the details of their under cover investigation. No news site will have full comprehensive details, as the police are not required to publish all of their information. Furthermore, it is quite likely that this wasn’t some random knee jerk decision, but likely the culmination of a series of tips, undercover personal observation, and other evidence gathered over a period of weeks….

    You all would just rather raise hell and cast doubt, as it fits the storyline to your personal agenda…

    Words to chew on…

  23. “How cum the floors in this fine classy establishment are so nasty and sticky? “

    You may spill your seed at every dive you encounter, but sticky floors are caused by cheap, nasty beer.

  26. how could the police address a legitimate criminal issue in a gay bar without activist gays screaming fowl? it’s fucked up, and i feel bad for any officer who has to make such a call. they are the real victims.

  27. Did you see the article about evolution Dan posted today?

    “It is clear that lifelong same-sex orientation is unlikely to evolve”

  29. @27 FTW

    I changed my mind. He put it as succintly as possible…

    though @29 did make me laugh out loud… as that too is starting to look more and more true.

    Consider how you are looking here Dan.

  30. “Just know that the police aren’t going to make public all the details of their under cover investigation. No news site will have full comprehensive details, as the police are not required to publish all of their information…You all would just rather raise hell and cast doubt, as it fits the storyline to your personal agenda.”

    Pot, meet kettle. Reality Check, check your reality, although I can see why it keeps ruining your life. You have your own personal agenda, so what gives you the right to criticize others? You admit that not all the facts are being reported here, and yet you pick and choose the facts that fit your own belief that the cops were fully justified in their actions and that they all acted professionally. And you insist that you are right. You don’t have all the facts either. Quit talking as though you do.

    And before you go telling others to consider how they look, look at yourself.

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