Federal lawsuit filed against Atlanta police over raid at gay club [View All]

[Better Believe It]

Federal lawsuit filed against Atlanta police over raid at gay club
November 24, 2009

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Atlanta police over a September raid at a gay club, on behalf of 19 patrons who say they were forcibly searched and detained.

The suit, filed by the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, names Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington and 48 officers who were at the Atlanta Eagle bar the night of September 10.

"The Atlanta Police Department dispatched about 20 to 30 officers to the Atlanta Eagle, including its 'Red Dog' unit dressed in SWAT team gear," according to a statement from Lambda Legal. "But inside the bar, the APD found no public sex, no drugs or illegal weapons." No patrons were charged with any crime, the organization said.

During the raid, patrons were made to lie face down on the floor while background checks were run on everyone, the statement said. "Eagle bar patrons heard anti-gay slurs; were forced to lay in spilled beer and broken glass; and one was forced to lie on the floor even though he had injured his back in the Iraq War."

Some of the patrons were restrained with handcuffs, and officers used excessive force, including shoving some people to the floor and kicking others on the floor, the lawsuit says. Authorities searched everyone on the property, seizing their driver's licenses or other identification, the suit says.

"These actions were taken without particularized reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe that any individual patron, let alone every person at the establishment, was involved in criminal activity whatsoever," said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.


Geoffrey Calhoun was at the gay bar at the time of the raid and said some officers didn't identify themselves as police.

Read the full article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/24/georgia.gay.club.lawsuit/index.html