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Stonewall 2009: Police Raid Gay Bar in Atlanta on Account of Because.
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Atlanta, Gay, Gay Bashing, Gay Issues, Gay Rights, Police Brutality, Police Raid Gay Bar, Stonewall, Stonewall 2009, The Eagle,
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How could something like this happen in Martin Luther King's home town?
The following occurred about a mile away from my home in Atlanta, Georgia at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 10, 2009.
Mark Danack was watching the football game at his favorite bar, The Eagle, when he heard somebody yell, "HIT THE GROUND!" He thought a fight had broken out. The lights switched on and up to 30 cops were yelling, screaming and ordering everyone to the ground. The police had raided the bar.
For what?
"Shut the f**k up!" a cop yelled at one of the bar patrons who asked why they were being forced to lay face down on the grubby floors.
An acquaintance saw the police shove an 80 year-old man to the ground because he was moving too slowly.
Why?
"No questions! Do what you're told or we'll arrest you!" The officers threatened jail time to anybody asking why they were being held against their will.
The search and seizures began. Everything in everyone's pockets was taken away.
Why?
"None of your G-D business! Get back on the floor and shut the hell up!" Driver's licenses were taken and put through a laptop screening.
What are you looking for?
"I said SHUT THE F**K UP!" Three paddy wagons were waiting outside.
Nick Koperski was enraged. He knew he had done nothing wrong. Yet there he was, lying on the floor, face down, his pockets emptied. He had it better than some of the others, like Du-wan Ray, one of the bar's managers. Ray was handcuffed on the back deck.
Why are you doing this?
"I hate queers," a cop said. Other officers -- some plain-clothed, some uniformed -- walked around the bar demanding to know who was in the military, threatening to report them to their commanding officers.
"This is a lot more fun than raiding niggers with crack!" Du-Wayne Ray heard one white officer say this to another; other cops were high-fiving each other.
For almost two hours, Mark Danack, Nick Koperski, and sixty other gay men were forced to lay face down on the bar's filthy floors. The drivers license screening revealed nothing.
Sixty two men and the cops didn't find a suspended license, a criminal prior, nothing. Not even a parking ticket.
The search and seizure uncovered nothing. No drugs. Not even a joint.
Finally, the men were ordered to leave but without their cell phones, wallets and other personal belongings.
Not a single man was arrested.
Or given an apology.
Or given a reason for why they were held against their will.
Or how they could get their personal possessions back.
Welcome to Amerika.
Postscript:
Eight staff members were arrested and put in jail without bond. The charge: Dancing in their underwear without a permit. If it were not for the intervention of two Atlanta City Council candidates who contacted a judge who then set bail, the men would have spent the weekend in jail.
The lawyer retained to defend the bar made this public statement:
"The situation is such that they [police] were coming in for the least serious ordinance violation of all time -- dancing around in their underwear.Usually such violations will lead to simple citations to employees of an establishment. But the fact police searched all the customers is a direct violation of constitutional rights.
They had no right to search them, look in their pockets for drugs or detain them. At this stage it seems to me what occurred was a serious constitutional violation to everyone in the place."
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LAWSUIT
The shrill and angry rhetoric has infected those who are supposed to be in control. That on top of epidemic steroid abuse among police.
A bunch of macho homophobes and racists with guns. Seems like good cops don't have a chance if the Atlanta PD fails to take action on this band of dangerous idiots.
I hope the victims' lawyers can get at every penny the cops have. And that it makes national news. Swearing to uphold the Constitution isn't enough to make them do so, but fear for losing the Trans Am and the boat might effect a change.
I think this is very horrible, Atlanta cops need their ass kicked for this.. I hope the Human rights get ahold of this and have a field day with Atlanta Cops!!! I think the cops need to be sued for this outbreat and not even having a warrent for going into the establishment.
http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/2398 - this is another analysis of that event that I think is really worth reading.
It is unfortunate that a story exposing such abuse and lamenting how difficult it is to expose the truth in such cases offers ammunition to those who would discredit it by using an unrelated photo. ("The photo above used for illustration purposes only.")
Much better to use no photo at all than to use one that misleads or is designed to inflame.
This is insane! Reminds me of the raids you saw on QAF... only worse!
Hope the outrage from this keeps the police away from other Atlanta gay clubs.
AtlantaGayClubs.com
Guess the Mayor changed there Email address it no longer works. Would someone kindly post the mayors new email address on here so they can be contacted.
Anyone get a copy of the police report that gives, explains the reason for the excessive abuse of our Civil Rights. Why they were cursed at, overheard making obscene comments about the patrons of the bar. Any Security cameras in the bar ?
This is exactly why we need more support from our leaders and why I keep telling myself i need to run for office get involved and make a change!
"Sixty two men and the cops didn't find a suspended license, a criminal prior, nothing. Not even a parking ticket."
OK, so this is just about the highest concentration of strictly law-abiding citizens anywhere in the city, and the police CHOSE to target this place? I guess doing real policing is just too dangerous for the not-so-macho men of the APD. What's next for our "brave" in blue, police raids on kindergartens in the suburbs? C'mon, Atlanta's police hierarchy, your misallocation of our tax money and police man-hours is actually making us less safe.
Bad-decision-makers heads should roll !!!
I've been disseminating this through all channels possible. Why has no one heard about this? If this were a hip hop club it would all over the national news. I hope to see a MASSIVE civil rights suit in the near future, against each and every officer, the Police Department, and the CIty of Atlanta.
GOOD QUESTION:
"Why has no one heard about this?"
BAD CORRELATION:
"If this were a hip hop club it would all over the national news."
IRONIC CONVERGENCE:
"I hope to see a MASSIVE civil rights suit in the near future"
Oh man ... hope there's some serious repercussions here.
Hopefully, between Southern Poverty Law, ACLU, the DOJ some law suits, here will be some answerability and some successful law suits.
I'm curious, how could the police force people to drive home without their licenses?
Were they even given their keys back?
It's not like they had their cash or credit cards for cabs or busses.
How about employer id badges, were any of those also taken?
It would be so easy for this type of raid to happen at a political meeting if the local cops don't agree with the politics, or at a charity office if that charity helps people the cops don't like.
Oops!
It already has.
Naziism and oppression of freedoms is already here and always been.
Please support organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and ACLU.
Oh PULEEZE! you really think Obama's DOJ is going to get involved in this?
The cops are the thugs. Get used to it.
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