The Eagle Raid

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of.  I was actually thinking about going to this rally, but other things came up.

Hundreds rally against raid of gay leather bar

Patrons and supporters of the gay leather bar the Atlanta Eagle are gathering today at 5 p.m. in the parking lot of the establishment to hold a rally to protest a controversial raid where eight employees were arrested by Atlanta Police on Sept. 10. The Eagle is located at 306 Ponce de Leon Ave. and remains open.

The rally will be followed by a short march to City Hall East, located at 675 Ponce de Leon Ave.

The APD released a terse statement why it raided the bar on Friday. On Friday night, supporters gathered at the bar in a support of solidarity and held hands and raised their arms in the air to show their strength as community. Attorney Alan Begner is representing the Eagle and expects some kind of legal action to take place, but he was not sure as of Saturday.

[...]

Ramey, who was not at the bar when the raid began arrived after being called, described how police brought three paddy wagons to the Eagle Thursday night and there were 62 patrons in the bar.

"There were 62 victims, not including the staff. And not one person had a weapon or drugs on them," he said. "When they couldn't find anything, an officer said, 'I guess we have to go through IDs' and he brought in a laptop. All of this was against their civil rights. There was no probable cause. Why did they have to have up to 30 police officers to control 62 homosexuals?"

All I know about The Eagle is that it's been around forever, and it's very gay. It certainly doesn't have a reputation for being dangerous. Despite this, the APD decided to send three paddy wagons and THIRTY POLICE OFFICERS on the raid. The planning resources must have been enormous. And now, they're going to have to spend a lot of money in legal fees, because they're just about to get hit with a flurry of lawsuits. I'm sorry for the patrons and employees who were humiliated during this homophobic raid and I'm also sorry for the Atlanta taxpayers who are going to pay for this mess.

Here's an idea. After they got the mysterious complaint, the APD could have sent one or two undercover police officers to the club to investigate. Then, the next day, they could have talked to the owner, and said, "Based on the results of our investigation we're going to have to cite you for breaking code number [insert code number of whatever frivolous nightclub rule that deals with go-go dancers] unless you do such-and-such to get into compliance."

Instead, they just went completely nuts.

One good result... all the Atlanta mayoral candidates have felt obligated to release statements against the raid. The gay community has enough clout that this sort of stuff can't be swept under the carpet anymore.