UPDATE on the Eagle raid: I no longer THINK this was discriminatory, I know it was. This comment literally send shivers down my spine:
Du-Wayne Ray, store manager of Rawhide Leather, which operates below the Eagle, said that he and one of his employees heard one white uniformed officer say to another, “This is a lot more fun than raiding n***ers with crack.”
Ray said he was handcuffed for an hour-and-a-half to two hours on the back deck of The Eagle, and said, “A lot of anti-gay comments were made.”
This is an outrage. Atlanta police should be extremely forthcoming with formal apologies to anyone and everyone involved; additionally, a formal apology to the gay community should be submitted. This level of discrimination is shocking and unbelievable; especially when it comes from the very people that are supposed to keep us safe. Bigotry in any form cannot be tolerated, and this again, is just shocking to know that it came from Atlanta police officers.
I honestly can’t believe that this happened, here in Atlanta, last night. I thought we were living in a more progressive city, but it just goes to show, you aren’t safe from discrimination anywhere.
And nothing illegal was found…. not one single thing. Don’t you reserve raids for times when you KNOW something is going on and you want to catch them in the act or all at once? Sooooo if there was no evidence of drugs(since there were none) and no illegal activity was found whatsoever, wtf was the point of the raid? idiots.
@Joey: that is when it becomes an issue of civil rights violation. We have reported a KNOWN drug house in our neighborhood to the police more than 20 times, and they have never raided it. Again, the more you look at this, the more it screams anti-gay discrimination. It’s sickening to think that it happened here.
I’m starting to believe that nobody is safe from the police anywhere in the United States.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54162036#
@Eater: that video is horrifying.
Re: Crackhouse
You should contact your local community prosecutor. Yes, they have DA’s posted in zones throughout the city. Do you know what zone you live in?
I realize it’s naive to ask (among other things) whether the police ever pay attention to the news. Coming so soon after the raid of the Rainbow Bar in Fort Worth you’d think the police would tread a little more carefully. After all, that unnecessary raid resulted in a huge community outcry, an intense investigation, and the firing of some of the officers involved. (As I recall, one conveniently retired before he could face any charges.)
As much as these situations upset me, I can’t help thinking of an English friend of mine who told me about the time the police in his community had sensitivity training, which involved sending individual police officers around to meet with gay couples. My friend and his partner were among the couples, and the officer who met with them was surprisingly, er, enthusiastic. What my friend assumed would be a short, polite meeting turned into a long evening that included taking the officer to his first gay bar.
That’s the sort of story I’d like to hear more often, but, sadly, I doubt it happens very often.
“We have reported a KNOWN drug house in our neighborhood to the police more than 20 times, and they have never raided it”
1. How do you know it’s a drug house?
2. Why not report this to the AJC or local tv?
Well, this is the same police department that shamelessly offed a 90 something year old woman.