Creative Loafing's Thomas Wheatley attended yesterday's City Council meeting and as expected, supporters of The Eagle were present.
The meeting may have answered some questions but may have raised more.
If the sole source for the raid were two anonymous complaints and undercover work which alleged illegal public sexual activity (and nothing more), why did the APD commit such a large force (reports of three "paddy wagons" and 21 officers) ?
APD Deputy Chief Carlos Blando stated The Eagle was not singled out and pointed to six other bars and clubs which had received similar "raids. Which leads to the questions, did those raids involve a similar level of resources and was the amount of "evidence" of infraction similar to that which spurred the Eagle Raid? An additional question, exactly what was the evidence which caused these other "raids"?
At this point, the APD's policy of "raiding" businesses seems either random or based on the flimsiest premises. The only way to quell these assumptions is transparency.
Finally, the question which remains unanswered and may cause the most tension - why was Atlanta LGBT Liason Officer Danni Lynn Harris not notified and consulted prior to the raid? Whispers of "window dressing" are already emerging.
The APD, the City Council, Chief Pennington and Mayor Franklin are sitting on a burbling volcano of frustration. Blanket apologies and generic responses are no longer working. Actual answers are needed.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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3 comments:
I have so many hard questions that I wish people and particularly the mainstream press would start asking, but for now this is what really sticks in my craw:
Was the raid a mistake in retrospect, given that no drugs were found and nobody was charged with public sex acts? Are the code violations of dancing in their underwear what APD expected to find and arrest people for, or did they expect to find drugs and sex in the club? Are they stuck now trying to defend a raid premised on those mistaken assumptions?
Almost all of of the people copied on that anonymous Crime Tip email are my Facebook pals. Hee hee.
As per usual, only the Southern Voice and the Atlanta blogosphere seem to be asking these questions. AJC = FAIL.
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