One patron was forced to lie on the floor even though he had injured his back in the Iraq War. Eagle bar patrons heard antigay slurs and were forced to lie in spilled beer and broken glass. During the raid, patrons of the bar were forced to lie facedown on the floor while background checks were run on everyone. Inside the bar the APD found no public sex, no drugs or illegal weapons. On Septemthe Atlanta Police Department dispatched more than 20 officers to the Atlanta Eagle, including its "Red Dog Unit" dressed in SWAT team gear. They do not get to search and detain people who are not suspected of any crime." "The Atlanta Police Department is not above the law.
"I've listened to dozens of stories from patrons who were mistreated by police at the Atlanta Eagle that night," said Grossman. "If it is APD procedure for elderly men and wounded veterans to be thrown to the floor and harassed simply for being in a bar having a drink after work, then the APD should change its procedures."ĭan Grossman, co-counsel in the case, has been working with victims of the raid since that night. "The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD," says Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office, which is based in Atlanta. District Court for the North District of Georgia against the city of Atlanta, its chief of police and 48 individual officers of the Atlanta Police Department (APD) on behalf of 19 individuals who were forcibly searched and detained, at the Atlanta Eagle gay bar last September. Lambda Legal and co-counsel filed a lawsuit on Novemin the U.S.