City of Atlanta to pay US$1 million to gay bar raided by police

8 Dec 2010

by News Editor

The Atlanta City Council unanimously voted to pay US$1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by patrons of a gay bar that was raided by police who claimed their civil rights were violated when dozens of officers subjected them to excessive force and homophobic abuse during the raid last year.

The Atlanta City Council voted on Monday 14-0 to pay a US$1 million settlement in response to a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Atlanta and 35 Atlanta police officers. The lawsuit was filed by two businesses and 26 patrons of the Atlanta Eagle, who claimed that police violated their federal and state constitutional rights by illegally detaining them in the September 2009 raid. They charged that officers did not present a search warrant for the raid, and that officers used anti-gay slurs during the operation.

According to Atlantaeagleraid.com, a website presented by the Atlanta Eagle and prepared by their attorney, the Atlanta Citizen Review Board in September this year "found 24 Atlanta police officers guilty of the false imprisonment of patrons during the warrantless raid of of the Atlanta Eagle bar on September 10-11, 2009.  The Board also held on-scene supervisors responsible for the use of profanity and anti-gay slurs by officers conducting the raid.  The ruling came during the Board’s monthly meeting on September 9, 2010, at which it considered complaints filed by patrons of the bar; the Board previously found officers guilty of misconduct with regard to complaints filed by bar employees."

The Southern Voice, a gay newspaper, detailed the complaints in a report last year: "One man said officers grabbed patrons who didn't immediately lie down by the neck and forced them to the ground. The man said he was kicked in the ribs while lying down. 'Then I heard laughing and giggling and saying this is more fun than raiding niggers with crack.'"

"Another patron said he saw officers forcing people to the ground by officers pushing their shoulders or the backs of their heads. He said he asked to move because there was broken glass on the floor where he was lying, and he was told to ‘shut the fuck up.’ The customer recounted hearing anti-gay slurs: I heard several slurs such as 'I hate homosexuals.' I also heard 'I don't like fags.'"

The owner of the Eagle, Richard Ramey, went immediately on the offensive against the raid, and was quoted in The Atlanta Journal Constitution on Sept. 12, 2009 as saying, "Our problem is with the way our customers were treated."

Nick Koperski, a bar patron present at the time of the raid, said in the same article: "I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade."

It also added that investigations into the raid found that the Atlanta Police Department did not have a warrant to raid the bar on the night in question. Mandatory revisions to police procedures will be carried out in response to the settlement.

The city will also oversee police department reforms as part of the settlement. A federal judge must now approve the settlement.