Comments/Discussion

Please feel free to post your thoughts about the Atlanta Eagle raid.  All comments are welcome, including opposing points of view.

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{ 15 comments }

anonymous June 20, 2011 at 10:06 pm

These RED DOGS are Abusive and Law Bending and that is why they are no longer an official police unit. They are the same unit that raided the 24K bar I was working in, a month after the Eagle incident. This is a story that was very one sided and made our 24K bar look guilty for lack of permits, when no emphasis was put on the abusiveness of the Red Dogs and the lack of compassion for adult entertainment employees. Sure, we are not gay and cannot use that card, but we struggle day in and day out to make a decent living. Now, two years after the Red Dog invasion of the 24k establishment, business is not close to what it was prior to the invasion. I pay $350/year to work in the adult entertainment business and it is not as easy as it seems, especially after Shirley Franklin destroyed the night life in Atlanta, and now since the Red Dogs invoked their wrath upon the people. It is a shame that we at 24k were not a gay club, because we might also have had a chance for publicity and restitude for the horrors that we have went through. I hate to break it to the average Joe, but strippers do not make as much money as people seem to think. People are just now starting to realize, as many women enter the adult entertainment industry due to the recession, that women sometimes make less than $10 a shift, or $1.33/hr. I witness this each and every day. Yet, Atlanta still wants each and every employee to have a license that costs $350/yr. This is ludacris! It is impossible to work more than 4 shifts a week in an adult entertainment club with the loud music and alcohol. So, if a dancer works 4 shifts per week and makes $10 a shift. That is $160 a month, at this rate it will take 2 1/2 months just to pay for the license. Why would someone invest in a license, that will only bring back 4 times the amount in an entire year of hard work? This makes no sense, what so ever. Yet, dancers and employees continue to pay for the license, even if they only work for one week. If they only try out, they must first buy a license. Sounds like a scam to me, and this is why 24k was missing a few permits at Red Dog raid time! It is also why I am currently unemployed, while I was making a great living moments before the raid two years ago.

Mike January 30, 2011 at 11:34 pm

OH REALLY??? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm? “Shady”?? Any one who goes to these places are ADULTS choosing ADULT life styles and adult sexual choices. It does not matter if they are GAY, STRAIGHT BI-SEXUAL or what ever! Titty bar, straight bar, gay bar or strip club or what ever!! You have the right to live YOUR LIFE as you free willed choose….though when one demands and pushes there “morals” upon anothers free willed consciosness as a free willed indepentant human being that is with others of the same mutual concent—-those “moralist” are the real “sinners”. This is the greatest “sin” of humanity where one human being can think they can demand that another follow them against their free will– (slavery in any form!) subvert and submit and live there free willed life as the other one dictates!

Shaun January 28, 2011 at 10:11 am

I’m conservative; I don’t approve of the lifestyle of the Eagle’s patrons. However, I’m quite sure the patrons of the Eagle don’t want or need my approval. I’m fine with that. With my conservatism comes a love of freedom, and it goes against my values to force my morals on others.

I mention this only to illustrate the place where I’m coming from. My condemnation of “Red Dog” is rooted not in any sympathies to homosexuals, but rather in the much firmer and deeper soil of our nation’s basic tenants.

What the officers of Red Dog have done and are doing, with their public strip searches and other assaults on freedom we don’t know about, turns the stomach. They are the brown-shirted thugs of our new police state. I am sure that many are ex-military (like myself). It is a shame that, during their military service, they failed to embrace the values of freedom and liberty that they purported to defend.

As citizens transfer more of their rights from themselves to the government (at any level), Incidents like what happened at the eagle will become more and more frequent. What happened is not a reflection on the police or their training, but rather a bleak demonstration of the power they now wield over us. The city can pay out millions in a settlement, and officers can sit in “sensitivity training” all the hours you want them to, but until Americans wake up and take their freedoms back (including the freedom to fail), Eagle-like incidents will continue to happen; they will increase in both frequency and intensity.

A student of history realizes that police are not the constant fixture of civilization they claim to be; there is no thin blue line between chaos and order. It is the citizenry that keep order. Somewhere along the way, the citizen transferred his responsibilities to the police. It was a small transfer at first; a constable would be elected, and he’d deputize the citizen during times of need. But then the speed of the transfer increased. The constable was made permanent, and the constable hired permanent help. The citizen watched. He was pleased. More and more of the citizen’s money was transferred, along with his responsibilities, to the police. Now the citizen has transferred nearly all his responsibilities to the police, and now, the in name of law and order, the police take the rights of the citizen away.

We are reaping what we sow. We demand that the police protect us. We demand this to the point where we can no longer protect ourselves. Who then will protect us from the police? Who watches the watchman?

Take back your responsibilities, citizen. Do this, and your rights will follow.

Tom December 13, 2010 at 12:28 pm

No illegal activity was taking place, no arrests were made, rights were violated.

Bottom line, don’t make up stories to justify your bigotry.

KENNETH LAWRENCE December 13, 2010 at 10:19 am

WHY DO POLICE HAVE TO STAGE THESE PARA MILITARY RAIDS? WOULD IT NOT JUST BE EASIER TO JUST GO IN WITH A FEW UNIFORMED OFFICERS AND ARREST WHO EVER WAS IN VIOLATION OF THE LAW. THE ANSWER IS THAT POLICE JUST LOVE THIS STYLE OF POLICING. KICKING THE DOOR IN, DRESSED LIKE NINJAS, ORDERING EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR IS A REAL POWER TRIP FOR THEM. AND ATLANTA DOES NOT HAVE A MONOPOLY ON THIS TYPE OF ATTITUDE. THIS ONLY RE-ENFORCES THE “US AGAINST THEM” ATTITUDE MANY CITIZENS HAVE TOWARD THE POLICE. SO THE POLICE MUST ASK THEMSELVES DO THE WANT TO “SERVE AND PROTECT” OR “CONTROL AND SUBDUE” THE PEOPLE WHO HIRED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Sam December 8, 2010 at 11:41 pm

Yea, and while this police battlion was harassing the guys dancing in underwear, how many real crimes were underway in HotLanta????? How many murders, rapes, robberies, and so on. If someone is offended by a guy dancing in his calvins then he is welcome to look away or leave the place!! I’ve been to the Eagle many times and have NEVER seen sex in the parking lots!!!
This whole episode is what I would expect in Georgia, that bastion of conservative stupidity!!!!!!!!!!! Go Palin 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sam

Pj May 9, 2010 at 7:42 pm

agree. I see this all the time…lip service from politicos during the campain then no support whatsoever. I am so sick of that. VOTE WITH YOUR $!!!!!!

Pj May 9, 2010 at 7:39 pm

Totally agree…we are a huge voting block and have more expendable income than any other classification. The time is now to put your $ where they will count!

Concerned May 8, 2010 at 10:17 pm

The ACRB will be presenting one of it’s first cases to the board involving an APD Sergeant and the lead investigator of the raid. The discussion of the case will take place at the ACRB’s June meeting that takes place on the second Thursday of the month in the City Council committee room. All involved should attend to show support! The meeting starts at 6:30.

Concerned May 8, 2010 at 10:13 pm

This is not factually correct, officers who testify before the board are protected by garrity. The ordinace requires officers to cooperate with the Board, that being said all of the officers and the “interim” Chief are effectively breaking the law. Having an intimate knowledge of the board process and the APD, I can safely say it is the most disfunctional and operationaly challenged department I have ever seen in my 20 years of law enforcement.

AtlantaEagleRaid.com March 13, 2010 at 5:03 am

A few replies.

1) Clayton is certainly correct that police officers have the same constitutional rights as everyone else, and any police officer who wishes to “take the Fifth” and refuse to testify before the Citizen Review Board has every right to do so.

2) Whether or not the Eagle is “family oriented” is not the point; the Constitution applies everywhere, and an American who is not personally suspected of any crime cannot legally be searched, seized, detained, or arrested no matter where he or she is located. (Remember, this case is about patrons who were not suspected or charged with any crime, but who were detained and searched simply because they were present at the Eagle; whether the police can legally search or detain someone is determined by whether that particular individual is suspected of a crime, and not by whether he is in a place that is family-friendly or not.)

3) Clayton is correct that many police officers, in Atlanta and elsewhere, care deeply about following the law and doing the right thing, which is something we should all keep in mind. Cops have a difficult and dangerous job and many of them do it honestly, legally, and with integrity. The best possible result at the end of this case will be a police department cleaned of bad officers and bad policies, and a community that is grateful and supportive of the many good cops who risk their lives to keep us safe. The plaintiffs in this case are not “anti-cop” and their supporters should not be either.

Clayton March 12, 2010 at 10:19 pm

Mike,

In your post you stated, “If you can’t testify before the citizen board today what would you have to say tomorrow that puts you in any better light. A blue curtain of shame.” If it were that easy officers would make that statement with no problem. However, they are not required by the operating procedures to make a statement… they only have to show up to their appointment. Officers are REQUIRED to make a statement to Internal Affairs and the Civilian Review Board has access to everyone of those statements as they are given to I.A. Don’t be fooled. The Board is in the know and have all the information, but it’s just not public record until the investigation is over within the department.

Don’t forget, police officers are citizens too. Hell, most pay their own salary by paying Atlanta taxes. Just because they wear a uniform does that mean they don’t have their Constitutional rights…. espically when a civil lawsuit is involved. When making a statement to the Board they are making it as a citizen, not a cop. They do have the right to remain silent.

Not all cops are in the right, but there are alot more of us that are trying to do the right thing then those that are getting media attention for bad decisions. As a gay officer in the Atlanta Police Dept. I invite everyone in the city to go on a ride along and maybe get a chance to see things from the other side too. It may affirm, or dispell how you fell towards officers.

And really… is the Eagle going to be made out to be such a gay family oriented place to have a clean fun time? Folks, at the very least be a little real.

Mike Emm February 17, 2010 at 10:15 pm

I was a bit surprised to hear that police officers could not make a statement on their actions due to a pending lawsuit as if their testamony could be manipulated or changed to some other form of the truth.

For years I assumed officers were Officers of the Court and not only had requirements to uphold the law but to testify truthfully with the foreknowledge of his oath to the people and the court.

There is no questions their actions and their future statements will be damning but they did not go into the actions they did without the foreknowledge of the illegality of their acts. If you play the game you get burned. Like a cabin attending making an arbitrary statement about fat people on a plane they got together that night to hassle the fags and it worked a little different than they expected it to.

If you can’t testify before the citizen board today what would you have to say tomorrow that puts you in any better light. A blue curtain of shame.

Deadhead February 7, 2010 at 9:21 am

I wasn’t present at the raid but was reading comments on a music website about the “REDDOG” squad and did a search and this event and the murder of an elderly woman were the first to pop up.

http://www.archive.org/details/gd1989-03-28.sbd.walker-scotton.miller.81529.sbeok.flac16

The about link is for the music website I mentioned. A user commented that:

“great recording of a great show. this was my 3rd Dead show, and my best up to that point. Afterward, was partying in a lot and got nabbed by the scariest 2 cops I,ve ever seen (red dog squad) . They told me they were gonna beat the shit out me, but I was rescued by their supervisor. WHEW!”

Apparently they’ve been doing this quite awhile because the above mentioned show and era was ’89

Look out for the REDDOGS in Atlanta apparently

Wesley Knox December 26, 2009 at 9:06 am

This just makes me sick to my stomach..i guarantee there is more illegal and immoral activity goin on the titty bars they probably go to when off duty.

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