Those furious over the Atlanta Police Department’s weekend raid of leather bar The Eagle had it out with the City Council yesterday, going on and on about how 62 people who just wanted to get their drink on while looking at cuties walking around in underwear had their civil liberties trampled on. Horrors!
Somewhere between a dozen and twenty hit up the Council’s Public Safety Committee for a lovely evening of finger pointing.
It went like this:
Supporters of the bar and its patrons were pissed. Not only because of the raid, but because the cops WERE ABSOLUTE ASSHOLES. Here’s Laura Gentle: “The civil liberties of 62 patrons were broke. They [the APD] have failed to make the connection to what led to the raid to what those were arrested for. We need answers as a community.” Said another concerned citizen: “Why can’t they do it in a more civil manor? We’re the city too busy to hate. Why can’t they do it in a different way?”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But the cops were there too. And while cordial, they weren’t about to readily take the fall. APD Deputy Chief Carlos Banda was all (and we’re paraphrasing), Look, we had reports about illegal activity, we went in to investigate, witnessed the alleged behavior, and decided to raid the place, just like we did to a half dozen other (non-gay, mostly strip) clubs over the past few months.
And then there was The Eagle’s co-owner Richard Ramey. His story went like this: The police are lying! They didn’t find anything! Liars! Pants on fire!
An attorney for the patron was there: Constitutional rights. Violated!
Well. Then. The cops want six months to investigate. The locals want that timeline shortened.
Meanwhile, the two crime tips that initiated the APD’s involvement, reported by the Southern Voice, indicate a spurned customer or employee — or at least someone with intimate knowledge of the goings-on there — was the one hollering to the 5-0 about The Eagle.
According to the July 1 anonymous Crime Stoppers tip sent via the web, the complainant said the club was closing July 5 at 3 a.m. and would reopen at 3:15 a.m. for an after hours party to benefit the Southern Bears.
“They have hired nude dancers to dance on the bars; sex will be permitted as at most circuit parties, drugs will be sold freely. They plan on using the back entrance for admission that is located off the rear patio. They will be running a shuttle bus to and from the host hotel which is the Courtyard Marriott Northlake on Lavista Road in Tucker, GA,” the tipster states. Included in the tip is co-owner Robby Kelley’s alleged profile on Bear411.com.
The other tip, sent May 19 via email to Mayor Shirley Franklin as well as to TV news tip hotlines for WSB-TV, Fox Atlanta news and 11 Alive news, states:
“Mayor Franklin: The Atlanta Eagle, a bar that is situated next to one of your old campaign offices, continues to have sex parties on Thursday nights that spills out into the neighborhood. Witnesses (including myself) in the neighborhood have seen men in various stages of undress performing sexual acts on each other including oral and anal sex. Mayor Franklin, your assistance in this matter is desperately needed as people in this neighborhood are concerned about the neighborhood being turned into a brothel,” the complainant stated.
“Bags of what appears to be drug residue are found strewn around a one block radius of the bar and drunk bar patrons scream and create disturbances. The neighbors that I have spoken to are scared to report anything as the bar owner has been known to retaliate against neighbors by pointing speakers with sounds of men having sex and blasting it to the residential building next to the bar … the neighborhood is extremely fed up with this situation.”
Or maybe it’s this guy:
Steve Gower, who is gay and a member of the Midtown Ponce Security Association, is known for policing Midtown and posting videos of alleged transgender prostitutes on YouTube. He stated the MPSA has never had a problem with the Atlanta Eagle as long as he has been a member.
Or maybe it was god, who finally got a Gmail account.
schlukitz
So the bottom line is, the police raided the premises and found nothing.
Nevertheless, they are still maintaining that they “witnessed the alleged behavior”.
So how come the only charges they could muster up and arrest 8 people for was about license issues only in the absence of drugs and other things they were looking for?
Overkill!
B
Jesus, maybe if you quite fucking breaking the law the police won’t screw with you.
Fitz
@schlukitz: If they witnessed the alleged behavior, it would be enough for charges.. so I call BS on them. And the snitch? Well– something like that happened at one of our better bars, and we all knew who it was… an aging, overweight troll who was rejected from playing with the muscle guys. If you don’t have the ego to absorb rejection, don’t play in group settings.
Fitz
@B: If the law were applied equally, your argument would stand a chance.
Peter
Hey B,,,,,If no one was arrested; who was breaking the Law????
schlukitz
@B:
Jesus, maybe if you quite fucking breaking the law the police won’t screw with you.
That’s a little hard to do when you have been classified as as a sinner by the church, a second-class citizen by society and a lawbreaker, just for existing, by the State!
Apologize much for the gay community, do you?
schlukitz
@Fitz:
That’s what is so irritating about situations like this. All it takes is, as you said, one aging, overweight troll who has a bug up their ass at the LGBT community about one thing or another to cause all of this brou-ha-ha, upset and financial cost to so many people.
The prick who did it, ought to be horse-whipped in the village common.
Charles Merrill
Bottom line, this is a non event in the fight for LGBT civil rights. It’s about sexual BEHAVIOUR not LGBT IDENTITY.
There is a big difference. Some LGBT’s never have sex, but identify as LGBT.
Puck
It takes about 15 min to process a person for every two cops. Patrons could easily have been checked and released without being degraded. This ever happens to you say this this statement. “I will comply with reasonable requests to ensure the police and my safety, however you are responsible to ensure I have received due process under the law while fully respecting my rights as an individual to be free from verbal and physical threats. I also request that you give me your name, badge number and station.”
Close friend is a cop, takes 2 min for a pat down and 10min for verification of outstanding warrants. Toss in 3 min for small talk. 62 patrons could have been processed in just under 2 hours by 8 officers but they could have released those they had already checked. Anyone know how many there were, should have 2 by the main entrance, 1 at every side entrance, 2 wanderers and the rest could have been processing patrons
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
FACT:
Our LGBT identity IS about our sexual behavior! Hence, the term “Queer”. Get it?
Whether you choose to have sex or abstain from it, does not change the fact that you are queer, so why this disclaimer?
And raiding our bars IS about our fight for civil-rights. If it isn’t, then Stonewall was just a romp in the hay to make drag queens happy?
I just don’t get your hostile attitude toward gay people, Mr. Merill? What did they ever do to you, to make you act so pissy toward them?
Jerrold
SOOO many mistakes in quotes! I guess the editors decided it wasn’t worth correcting… ouch.
Paula Brooks
I have refused to cover this story on my site… but that is not to say I have not looked into it…
I am the gay mom of three year old twin girls… and I hold a full time job…
What I need is protections… for my twins… for that job
and I don’t see how dancing around in our underwear in a gay bar will get those…
but in looking at this story I have found the APD reaction to this case not all that dissimilar to its reaction to several cases involving several straight clubs in the ATL area accused of the same behaviors…
Charles Merrill
@schlukitz: I have read your responses promoting public sex in a public park where children are playing so no comment, other than you seem sexually addicted. Strange how a 73 year old gay geezer like you is not locked up. Some people think on a much higher level and have monogamous partners. It’s called marriage. I have been monogamous with my husband for 19 years and before that I was monogamous with my wonderful wife of 23 years now deceased. I identify as bi-sexual and affirm my capacity for attractions to more than one gender. But I don’t confuse sexual behaviour with identity. One thing I would never do now at age 75 (or any previous age) is hang around a sleazy leather bar or public park getting my freak off. I do not define myself as a sex degenerate or think freedom from nudity laws has anything to do with LGBT civil rights.
Fitz
I don’t equate messing around at a private establishment with fucking int he bushes of a public space. There probably were no 10 year olds playing frisbe at the Eagle. And I am not even opposed to older, fatter guys being there.. but WHATEVER you look like, if you go into a space like that, know that not everyone is going to want you, and not every night is going to be hot– if you can’t deal with it, then simply avoid it.
Orpheus_lost
@Paula Brooks: So long as you get yours, fuck the rest, huh? What a selfish bitch you are.
Fitz
@Paula Brooks: That’s a strong argument for me not to care about your civil liberties. (that you don’t care about mine).
Paula Brooks
Pardon me for not sticking up for your right to think you can get away with things in a gay club that people in a straight club can’t get away with… that is not a right you want that is a special privilege you are demanding.
Fitz
@Paula Brooks: I have seen it plenty of times in straight clubs. The special privilege I seek is equal treatment. But hey, you know you can count on me to stand up for you when your boss doesn’t feel single moms should be promoted. I will be RIGHT there with you demanding that you be treated equally. Probably.
OhYeah
The Atlanta P.D. is half African American and very homophobic.
Orpheus_lost
@Paula Brooks: So you’re a prude and ignorant as well as selfish. Have you never heard of straight strip bars, or even lingerie nights? Yes, there really are establishments catering to heterosexual patrons of either sex that hire young people to get undressed or to walk around in their underwear. So these “special rights” you talk about end up being more about your right to be uninformed and self righteous rather than any legal request by the LGBT community. What a stupid bitch!
Paula Brooks
It does happen in straight clubs and in a raid by the APD in April 07 on a straight club the APD acted pretty jerky there too…
and the real point is that the APD can act pretty jerky gay or straight.
but having my own news site… i don’t rely on second hand reports much … so I have been contacting people involved in this incident… and yes you had two cops involved in this incident acting very badly at the eagle… and you also had two members of the eagles staff not acting much better…
I also get from witnesses there that night that the Eagles owners are probably very ucky the raid did not happen 45 min earlier.
Now you need to get your facts together before you start screaming discrimination because there are two sides to this story and both stories in this case stink…
PEter
@OhYeah: Please tell me where those stats come from. I want published, audited stats.
@Paula Brooks: And I agree with Paula. If it was only LGBT establishments being raided then we have a problem. BUt when they are doing the same to straight establishments (which let’s be honest and realistic) would not the get the same press that the LGBT community would do for its establishments, then the claims of targeting or the next Stonewall are not valid.
Orpheus_lost
@Paula Brooks: What a lame attempt to change the subject. You said that the LGBT community was looking for “special rights” here, and that it didn’t matter to you because it didn’t do anything for you or your brats. Now that you’re called on it you want to make some asinine claims about your “own news site” (just another blog filled with babble) allowing you some super secret access to witnesses – all in the last hour. Bullshit! This does nothing to change the facts, and the facts show that you are wrong, prudish, ignorant and selfish.
Paula Brooks
would the fact I work for a certain cable news network during the day change your view on this? and those press credentials can get me a lot of places in a very short time.
And I am not saying it is the LGBT community that is looking for special rights here… I am saying it is the owner of the Eagle, who seem to be playing the community a bit.. who may be.
Paula Brooks
@Orpheus_lost: and what the facts seems to be showing… is you really don’t know the facts
Orpheus_lost
@Paula Brooks: I don’t give a Damn who you claim to work for because its just a distraction from the fact that you are not lying about what you said.
“…that is not a right you want that is a special privilege you are demanding.”
Does that sound familiar? If not, look up to post #17 where you typed it, and it was not in the context of the owner so please don’t try to pull another lie out of your ass. You were also very clear in stating that since it didn’t do anything for your work or your kids it didn’t matter to you. You then tried to suggest that straight bars don’t have scantily clad women running around like gay bars sometimes do and therefore deserved to be busted. All of these things are factually wrong, offensive, prudish, ignorant and/or selfish.
Maybe an apology to those you’ve lied to and offended would be a better solution to this than making claims about being an ace reporter in disguise.
Orpheus_lost
@Paula Brooks: “and what the facts seems to be showing… is you really don’t know the facts”.
Ok, then please show me what facts I’ve been wrong about. I’ve pointed out many of your own bouts of ignorance, show me mine.
Fitz
Paula, I think it’s time for you to go start dinner.
Paula Brooks
@Orpheus_lost: am am looking at 17… it appears you read what you want to read… and I sure did not write “straight bars don’t have scantily clad women running around like gay bars sometimes do and therefore deserved to be busted” nor anything close.
nor i have not been insulting… like you seem to think is proper when someone doe not agree with your fantasies…
just like you reading into my comment what you wanted, you have made up your mind that this is a wrong to the gay community when it appears that only wrong, in a above cops who I agree should not have been abusive at the bar and acted very unprofessionally… is a wrong to the eagles owners… who were making a lot of money… that they are not making now…. just like the owner of the straight strip club raided by the APD in April 07.
We want main stream… then we as a community need to act main stream.
Paula Brooks
@Fitz: no it not time for dinner, but what I will do is go over and start on andy towle… because he is letting himself be played on this story too
ggreen
Sounds like the work of Porno Pete LaBarbera to me was he in Atlanta recently?
Fitz
@Paula Brooks: You want mainstream? How about “moms should be home with their babies”. See… mainstream isn’t what we want. Equality is.
Orpheus_lost
@Paula Brooks: I love it when someone says “blue” then tries to convince everyone they actually said “red” – even when the proof in in print. LOL!
And let’s just get to who insulted whom first, shall we? When you claimed that since you and your kids wouldn’t be personally affected so you didn’t care about this, you insulted everyone here who stands up against intolerance and ignorance for others. You’re no different than the homophobes who don’t support DOMA or DADT because that would just mean “a special privilege you are demanding.” You are every bit as offensive to the LGBT community as they are.
And how does this jive?
“Pardon me for not sticking up for your right to think you can get away with things in a gay club that people in a straight club can’t get away with…” (post #17)
with
“and I sure did not write “straight bars don’t have scantily clad women running around like gay bars sometimes do and therefore deserved to be busted” nor anything close.”
Since the only charges filed were against those wearing underwear, and since you have all that super secret access you should be aware of that little fact, you are absolutely saying that straight bars don’t have scantily clad young women in them. This, of course, is another ignorant comment or lie on your part.
And to end this, human rights should never hinge on how readily a minority can assimilate itself to the “mainstream”. The suggestion that this should be the case proves you to be every bit as homophobic as Rick Santorum or Glen Beck (who is probably who you work for – if you even told the truth about that).
Thanks for the fun I had in showing you to be a complete idiot, but now its time I did something useful like pretend to be a major league reporter on some anonymous blog…
Jackey
Your headline makes it appear that there was illegal activity at the bar. If there was, they deserved to be raided. And, if there were illegal activities going on, shame on these people trying to make it a gay bashing.
I’m gay. If I go out and break the law, can I say, “oh, it’s just because I’m gay?” I think not.
Paula Brooks
@Orpheus_lost: the only one appearing to be a complete idiot is you… and you are doing it by putting words in my mouth I am not saying…
Now I am gay… as gay as you… and I know there are wrongs out there… That is why I started looking at this story yesterday, because it made me mad… but i started finding out that most of it had not been checked out very well… and in looking at the story objectively… and your bar owner here… I find he was pushing the limits… just like the bar owner in the 07 APD raid at the straight bar…
in both cases is was this pushing the limits that got the jerky cops to show up at these places of business… acting like the jerks they are…
HiredGoons
@Paula Brooks: I think nuance is lost on Orpheus_lost.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
Interesting remarks, Paula, although there seems to be some contradiction in them.
If this is you (sure seems like it) http://lezgetreal.com/?p=386 then you “allegedly” work at a cable news network (on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, huh…?), and own/operate (with your partner) a vacation home rental business there, and travel the world looking for the perfect wave, all at the same time?
Which network is it that has a branch in the Outer Banks again?
And how do those awesome cable network credentials for NC get you anywhere in the ATL, and the ATL PD, esp when you live in NC?
Did you make a special trip down here to investigate this story just so you could specifically NOT report or discuss this on your site?
What “job protections” are you seeking for your 3 y/o twin daughters?
I ask because I’m partnered with someone who actually DOES work at a “major” cable news network, which happens to be IN Atlanta and NOT NC.
And THAT network has extraordinarily forward thinking employee benefits that prohibit discrimination due to sexual orientation, and also allows for full medical insurance coverage for domestic partners.
So it must not be that ATL cable news network you work for “during the day”, because if it were, you wouldn’t be complaining about benefits and protections. You’d have them.
That network ALSO has conflict of interest rules in place for their employees that as I understand, would likely forbid you from operating a blog/news/whatever site promoting any social or political agenda for either side. I suspect “most” cable news networks have a similar policy.
Especially a site that is sponsered in part by TLAVideo, LOL……
Maybe you could clarify some of these mysteries?
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: son I moved to DC in Jan…. after my partner died of breast cancer http://lezgetreal.com/?p=602 I have 3000 post on that site and you will notice that tag is not there after Dec when she died…
so just stop it…
schlukitz
Way to go. When you can’t win an argument with intelligence or anything to back up your wild claims, launch a personal attack, highlight their moral turpitude and then go for the jugular.
So reminiscent of the tactics of the religious right and those who hate queers.
A classy act? NOT!
Here are a few single-base hits:
1) promoting public sex in a public park where children are playing.
2) sexually addicted.
3) Strange how a 73 year old gay geezer like you is not locked up.
4) Some people think on a much higher level.
And here comes the double-base hits (hurling personal insults while self-righteously patting one’s self on the back.)
5) Some people have monogamous partners. It’s called marriage.
6) I have been monogamous with my husband for 19 years.
7 and before that I was monogamous with my wonderful wife of 23 years now deceased.
8) I identify as bi-sexual and affirm my capacity for attractions to more than one gender.
9) I don’t confuse sexual behaviour with identity.
10) One thing I would never do now at age 75 (or any previous age) is hang around a sleazy leather bar or public park getting my freak off.
11) I do not define myself as a sex degenerate
12) I do not think freedom from nudity laws has anything to do with LGBT civil rights.
A veritable paragon of sagacity, virtuousness, moral excellence and pomposity, this man!
Does anyone have a gold star we can stick on his screen name?
Lawrence
And Paula, since you do have a “day job”, and work for a “cable news network”, it seems reasonable to assume that since it’s mid day, Wednesday, you are at…….. work?
Would that be reasonable?
If so, has your employer been paying you to make 8 argumentative posts on Queerty over approximately a 4 hour period?
If they are not, then I’m not surprised you are looking for more
“protections.”
Your employer probably assumes that you are working.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
My condolances on your loss.
Sincerely.
But I’m not your SON either, lady.MY mother passed in ’05.
So stop it YOURSELF.
You still failed to answer any other questions about what protections you are seeking for your job and your daughters that you are not receiving, and how your “cable network credentials” in “DC”, I guess it is now, gives you such extraordinary access to the APD, as well as actual witnesses present in the bar just prior to or during the raid.
Or how your “cable news network” employer allows you to have a news website the nature of yours, sponsered in part by an adult video company, while working for a news organization that more than likely wants to be presumed to be free of an agenda…unless you work for Fox, in which case I’m not surprised you want more protections.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: could be they do… it could also be I also be work first drive and have an agreement with my employer that I do not report stories on the blog I work on for the network … which just might be why this one is not on my site and I am here arguing with the likes of you.
but what any of that have to do with I am saying about this raid?
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: and it does not matter were you are calling from… my credentials work wonders… trust me on that
timncguy
this all seems to be a strange argument among the comments here.
Are some of you advocating that having sex in a bar, whether it is a gay or straight bar, should be legal? Because that is where Paula Brooks seems to be drawing her line for LGBT equality.
Or, are you arguing that it should remain illegal and just not be enforced unless it is enforced 100% against every other bar in town gay and straight? This would be like saying no one should ever be arrested for speeding unless the police are able to arrest everyone who has ever speeded.
As long as raids and arrests have occured at straight bars, then raids and arrests should be OK at gay bars.
My question doesn’t relate to this specific raid, because it appears from what I’ve read, no one was engaging in sexual activity when the police arrived.
And, in this instance, the raid appears to have been executed poorly with brutish behavior on the part of the police that wasn’t necessary based on what they found when they arrived.
I’m also guessing that having employees (not patrons) dancing in their underwear is legal as long as you have the business license for it. But, if the business didn’t have the appropriate licenses, then arrests for that would appear to be in order as long as similar arrests have been made before in straight bars.
I’m also guessing that it is legal for male patrons to dance in their underwear so long as their underwear completely cover their genitals. I don’t see how that would be any different than dancing in speedos on the beach in public in full view of anyone of any age.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
Which is it…”you REFUSE to cover this story on your site?” (Your words. Your 1st comment here)
Or, “you’re NOT ALLOWED to cover this story on your site?” (your most recent “could be.”)
As a representative/employee of a news network, you should not be reporting on ANY stories on your personal “blog/news site” that your network is also reporting on. Conflict of interest.
(I find it disingenuous that you would imply you received a waiver from the network for your own news site.)
(And I find it hard to believe that ANY cable news network has not reported on some of the stories you have written about in just the 1st 2 PAGES of search results of your site under your name.)
Lots of “could be this” and “could be that” in your background.
As far as the raid is concerned, my comments go toward your credibility on this story. You fail to substantiate how your “press credentials” give you the access you say you have in ATL, and how you came by info you state in previous posts in this comment section. Especially if you’re using those press credentials to get information on a story your network IS reporting on, but you “imply” you may not be allowed to report on YOUR site.(Using press credentials from the network that employs you to get info on a story you’re NOT working on for your NETWORK may not be illegal, but it’s certainly unethical.)
And you still haven’t clarified how an unnecessary and abusive raid on a 23 y/o gay male establishment on their regularly advertised weekly “underwear night” (it’s been going on for YEARS), which resulted in no vice related arrests of ANY sort, and only arrests for minor permit violations, has had a negative impact on whatever protections you feel you you are not getting for yourself and your daughters, from your job.
Maybe dancing in one’s underwear in a gay bar doesn’t further your desire for equal job protections and civil rights.
But at least they were INSIDE a gay bar, late at night, away from the general public.
I think perhaps you would be better served by going after “dykes on bikes” in every gay pride parade if you want respect.
(Don’t bother trying to hit me with the half dressed cicuit boys, bears, and drag queens at the parades either…I find them personally to be counterproductive to our cause as I would assume you would “dykes on bikes.”)
I’m betting you’d be all over this story with your outrage if the same type of police raid took place in a predominately women’s establishment.
And don’t feel about about arguing with the “likes of me.”
I suspect I’m a step up from the likes of many of the people YOU argue with regularly.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks: @Lawrence:
“and it does not matter were you are calling from… my credentials work wonders… trust me on that”
I’ll just bet it does.
Do you tell the people you flash those credentials at by “phone” that you are fraudulently using those credentials to get info on a story you are NOT reporting on for your network and NOT allowed (or simply refuse, whichever it is) to report on your blog?
Because the APD, and City Council, and Mayor’s office, and whatever alleged witnesses you claim say the Eagle is “lucky” the police didn’t arrive 45 min sooner ALL just GIVE interviews to anybody who calls up and asks for it.
“HI, I’m LAURA with ____ News Network. I’m not ALLOWED and do not WANT to report on this story, but can you answer my questions just as if I WAS and DID?”
Right, lady.
Paula Brooks
@timncguy: Exactly… the bar did not have the permits for this… even though it is starting to look like they full well knew they needed to get those permits before they do this sort of thing…
The some of the police were indeed thuggish in their behavior as well… but I am getting that the man in charge of the raid did correct that behavior and tell them to cool it… albeit far to late to really matter as the damage was done.
I am also picking up that our tipster… may have full well had an agenda and inside knowledge the bar did not have the correct permitting.
What i especially am getting here… is there are no good guys in this story… you have a bar owner skirting the permit laws and pocketing the money he saved by not buying them… ysome very bad behavior by some cops… and what now appears to be a disgruntled former employee trying to settle a score…
And finally what I am saying here now and tried to say before… all of this is going to come out, because if I found it… you can bet the AJC is on it too, and this incident is not a reason for the whole community to get up in arms… as there there are no heroes here only bad guys in this story, because this was not the Fort Worth raid or Stonewall… and we should not make it into that.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: I did not say it was not going on the network now did I?
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
No, you just said you were not allowed (perhaps) to report on any stories your network is covering on your site.
Are you implying now that you’ve gone from a vacation home rental business owner in NC to a featured reporter for your network in DC?
In just over 8 months?
Plus you’ve still ducked half my questions, apparently because you are skirting your network rules in some way.
(You may be skirting them by commenting here.)
And for the record, there was nothing like “only bad guys” in this story.
There were 62 innocent bar patrons forced to lie face down on the floor for well over an hour, verbally taunted, not allowed to leave or even speak, while they were searched, and when that revealed no drugs or illegal contraband, background checked to find something, ANYTHING, to arrest some queers for, which also revealed……….NOTHING illegal.
Those 62 patrons would strongly dispute your assertion that they were bad guys.
I stand by my remark.
Your website, Paula, is a gay/lesbian news/blog.
“A gay girls view of the world”, as it says on your home page.
If this had happened in a bar frequented predominately by gay WOMEN, you would be ALL OVER THIS with your outrage.
Paula Brooks
no body said anything about being a feature reporter… because the pretty faces you see on the air… they lets the production people do all of the work you know….
But this crew that carried out this raid was pretty much the same crew that raided Cheetah’s and they acted pretty badly there too… they treated there stripper there horribly …
These guys need to justify their jobs… and the raid on the Eagle… well if not there it would have been someplace… because as you know ATL is looking hard at the APD budget right now and a little suck up to the Mayor by addressing the compliant the office received… well I am sure in their minds would not hurt their cause.
The vice squad looked for permits and they saw there were none so the race was on.
the way the patrons at the Eagle were treated was wrong, just like the way they treated the strippers and patrons at Cheetahs was wrong… i never said it wasn’t and the officers that did it should be dealt with in some way so they don’t treat anyone like that anymore.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: Those 62 patrons… they should be nearly as upset with the owner of the Eagle as they are with the police… I don’t know about you… but when i go to a Lez Bar and pay a cover… I expect that the owner has taken care of business so I do get arrested just because I am there.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
I know, you’re an exec producer.
So you will admit then you spoke “poorly” when you said there were “only bad guys” in this story?
In addition, I don’t believe it is illegal, or remotely a legitimate cause for arrest, to be be on the premises of a business with a valid business and liquor license, that “might” be lacking in one specific permit for 1 theme night.
Nor should it be a legitimate cause for a search and background check on those patrons.
Or detainment for over an hour.
I “understand” that your beef is with the bar owners for not having a permit, IF that is even true, or required for mere “underwear dancing”.
Are permits required for wet T shirt nights at str8 bars? I don’t even know, but those are a lot more revealing than underwear dancing.
I’ve never heard of a police raid on a str8 bar during spring break where all the patrons lie face down for over an hour during searches and background checks.
So when you go to a lez bar, whether or not that bar has EVERY (but does have nearly all) permit and license in order, you as a PATRON merely on the premesis should not be concerned about arrest either.
If you are, and it sounds as though that’s a possibility (you did say you didn’t want to get arrested for being at a lez bar), then the issue is the POLICE, not the patrons.
Licensing and permits are not the responsibility of the patrons/customers.
If no drugs were seen at the time of the raid, and no sex was occurring, (undercover only had to do a walk thru to determine that) then the permit issue could have been handled w/o any interference with the customers who were there that did NOTHING WRONG.
The police went there specifically for reasons related to VICE.
Hence the Red Dog Squad’s participation.
There was no vice occurring, much to their dismay.
So they pull out the permit card as a backup to arrest the few they could. (And the permit issue COULD have been handled with a fine or notice to the owners to cease and desist until proper permits were obtained.)
IF they are even actually needed for “tighty whighty” dancing.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: but the vice squad did exactly the same thing at Cheetahs… put all of the customers on the floor till they checked everyone out… there they were going after what they said was underage dancers… but none of the customers there were under aged dancers… notwithstanding they still ended up on the floor.
And now Cheetahs is sueing the city saying none of their dancers were under 18 and were not drinking so what is the beef?
But the real issue is you have a vice squad with not much to do there in ATL and that is looking for any reason to show they should be there.
and yes for wet T shirt nights at str8 bars in ATL you do need a dancers permit.
Leo
Paula
Substantiate your claims with evidence.
Without it, “Paula Brooks” is a just 12 letters arranged in a semblance of order. For all anyone here can tell, you may not even be the author of the blog you cited.
As the kids say – pics or it didn’t happen. Substantiate your claims, all of ’em, if you want to be credible.
Personally, I’ve seen first hand how utterly deceitful and dishonest people with press passes and credentials can be. In my opinion, your claimed association with a news organization eradicates your credibility, even if it is not Fox.
Start by substantiating all, every last one, of your claims. Hearsay is worthless.
Lawrence
By the way Paula, since your in DC and not ATL, and have to rely on “sources”, you would likely not know about the recent increase in crime in the Midtown/Ponce area all the way to the west of the Ga.Tech campus.
It has soared as of late.
There have been volumes of increased complaints about crimes against people and property in that area over the past year.(from both the long time residents, mostly gay or non prejudiced, and the str8 people buying up the 450 grand condos WE made the neighborhood nice enough to live and invest in.)
The Eagle is located on Ponce, where it has stood for 23 years.
The police don’t need to “justify their jobs” by raiding a bar that may lack 1 or 2 minor specific permits, when all they have to do is go out and fight the crime that’s right there.
Because there’s someone getting robbed, mugged, beaten, raped, burlarized, their car broken into, or enduring a home invasion mere blocks away that need the APD a lot more than the city needs 21 officers, and 3 paddywagons to conduct an entire evening of harassment, paperwork, and wasted time and taxpayer $$.
The police here won’t even come to the site of a car break in or theft because they say they don’t have the “manpower”.
BS; if they lack the manpower for that, then they sure as hell don’t have it for 21 officersincluding 3 paddy wagons, a special vice assault unit, and however many squad cars were assigned in this “raid” that netted a couple of minor permit violations. Not to forget the time and $ they will have to spend NOW because our incompetent police chief Pennington has to do an investigation on the details and nature of the raid, and the 10 complaints (so far) filed against the dept by patrons as well as the bars attorneys.
THAT’S how the APD can justify no budget cuts.
By fighting the real crime all around the same area, not the victimless “crime” of not having quite all your permits in order.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: and no I am not an executive producer….in fact I don’t think we have any executive producers except for those working the Sunday shows… I am just an assistant, but thanks for the promotion.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: There I will agree with you… the APD vice squad has done a terrible job with the escort services ATL, and the patrol division pretty much handle the street walkers, but from what I get… working vice is a pretty good gig if you are an ATL cop.
Paula Brooks
@Leo: you are right Leo… we can be pretty down and dirty when it comes to getting a story… but it feeds the kids.
Lawrence
@Leo:
Interesting observation, Leo.
I found this little nugget here…
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/washington-dc/TIGPVHGQ593N90HRO in a comment section on Topix.
This was the comment…
————————————————–
Paula Brooks
Bowling Green, OH
Reply
|
#4
Sunday Aug 30
Sheldon wrote:
“Washington DC police sources are telling Lez Get Real”
Seriously?
Ah but you must keep in mind… that Lez Get Reals day job is with a cable news source… and has been known to abuse that particular press credential from time to time for a story for the blog
————————————————-
Now I’m not sure how many Paula Brooks are out there, AND are lesbian activists hiding behind a day job at a cable news network, but it appears at least one seems to think that a Paula Brooks with “Lez Get Real” is ethically challenged as a “newsperson.”
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
Or ethically challenged as an Ass’t producer (whatever), it seems, with no shame either way.
I guess if it feeds the kids, it’s OK to go around spreading unsubstantiated BS.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: so your point? I use my credentials for personal business from time to time, I don’t get paid that much… that does not take away from the validity of what they discover…
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: not unsubstantiated… even though you wish it were. If fact unless you were there I’d have to say I have more on the fact of this case then you do… and if you were there I’d love to get you on the phone with a producer.
Paula Brooks
@Paula Brooks: put or shut up buddy you can call through the site
Lawrence
But that fact DOES take away the credibility of what YOU CLAIM they discover.
Your press credentials are not for PERSONAL business.
They are for legitimate members of the press to use for legitimate assignments they’ve been given or are working on within the FRAMEWORK of the JOB those credentials were ISSUED for.
So what are you saying now, honey?
That you don’t get paid as much as you feel you should, so you can use at your own discretion credentials issued by your employer to “supplement” your income?
What, do you SELL these “tips and sources and stories” to other people who CAN publish/report them?
You mentioned $$ first, not me.
So you justify you’re lack of professional ethics by saying you don’t get paid much.
Well, if you really think that’s OK, thanks for sharing, and there goes your credibility altogether.
I think you heard this crap 2nd or 3rd hand from a friend of a friend of a friend. “Maybe”.
Say whatever you like now, because every word that comes out of your mouth just means nothing now that you’ve given us some context on where you’re coming from.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
Paula, you just replied to yourself and it sounds like you’re getting angry.
Put up what or shut up who?
About what?
Call….? Through a site….? Huh….?
LOL.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: The one who seem to be going out of the way to prove all of what I know is not true … and so far you have shown some really poor due diligence in that effort…
These folks here at Queerity have press credentials… as do I and all of our staff writers through LGR… and I also have my network credentials and the boss doesn’t mind me using them from time to time.. but that gives me something of an advantage to be sure, as it gives me access to very good info about what is going on… and a lot of ways to get to that info… now if you chose to stick your head in the sand and not listen to that info I can’t help that…
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: hit the call me icon at the bottom any article on LGR… it will connect you, free of charge… some one will get back with you shortly
WillBFair
Guys, Paula Brooks puts plural nouns with singular verbs and vise versa, and has other grammatical fun. And she wants us to think she’s in journalism? Please.
Likewise, Charles Merril usually spouts far left rants against every freind we have, Obama, the Clintons, Barney, Elton, liberal Christianity, you name it. Now he turns out to be some kind of prude?
I think they both could be paid trolls sent here to confuse the issues, waste everyone’s time arguing over bulls–t, and drive wedges between us and our friends.
Fitz
@WillBFair: That is a good possibility. The point of this article, I think, is that no charges have been brought, and that the filth assaulted a group of gay men.
Paula Brooks
the issue is pretty confused… I will agree… but it is not me who got it confused…
can you get paid for being a troll?
Leo
Paula
I pointed out that to be credible, you need to substantiate all of your claims. You agreed, apparently, but have not done so.
So far, your response indicates that you cannot substantiate your claims. It should be easy, for example, to post a link to the appropriate section of the appropriate civil code that indicates the Eagle needed a special license for a underwear party.
But there is something even easier for you to start with: you claim to be the author of lezgetreal.com.
Prove it.
Post on that blog your sources about the raid on the Atlanta Eagle. Doing so will demonstrate that you either are the author of that blog, or closely associated with that person. A post in a comment, aside, tweat, or on any other blog, will be pointless.
Refusing to do so, will indicate that you are not the author of that blog, and indicate that all of the personal information you’ve provided, is false. The rest will fall as well.
WillBFair
I agree. That’s the main issue. Another is the uneven prosecution of our communities. They never go after lovers’ lanes and strip clubs and such. Now they seem to be putting the screws on our clubs nationally. The Seattle Eagle was a fun scene for 20 years. All of a sudden, there are christmas lights all over and signs warning that the cops are there in mufti. It isn’t fair, as usual, and it ticks me off.
Paula Brooks
Atlanta code……
Sec. 14-351. Required.
Any individual working in a lingerie modeling studio as an independent contractor or as an employee shall first obtain a permit from the chief of police prior to beginning such work. Persons permitted under this article to exhibit or model lingerie or similar undergarments, as defined under “adult entertainment” in section 16-29.001(3)(e), may only provide such entertainment in an establishment licensed pursuant to this article.
(Code 1977, § 14-6617(a); Ord. No. 2000-7, § 2, 2-15-00)
Paula Brooks
Atlanta code….
Sec. 14-321. Required.
It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a lingerie modeling studio as defined in section 14-301 without having first complied with the provisions of this article, including the obtaining of a license for the operation of a lingerie modeling studio.
(Code 1977, § 14-6611)
Charles Merrill
@WillBFair:
True I am a highly paid troll ($10,000.00) for every post. (less on Pams House Blend) to confuse the issues. Love my mansion in Palm Springs bought with the salary I receive being an undercover agent against the sexually addicted in our community. As an author of the Dallas Principles, I never heard any of my 27 esteemed colleagues stand up for sex in parks and freedom from nudity laws. We are more concerned about getting LGBT civil rights pertaining to DOMA, ENDA, and DADT. The sleaze factor of leather daddies owning bars never entered our mind when it came to being LGBT inclusive. My other enemy besides you owned a leather bar in NYC for 49 years. His view of open sex in public is not a part of why Stonewall patrons fought for rights. BTW, not one patron put up a fight in Atlanta. It’s about poor management of a strip bar in Atlanta. Being gay didn’t matter as many straight clubs have also been busted. Trying to get the gay community to think this is another Stonewall is untrue.
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
yadayadayadayadayadayada.
I call BS again.
You are ethically challenged; that’s a fact only proven by your remark that you use your assigned press credentials for “personal reasons” because you “don’t make much $$.”
Does the “boss” who “doesn’t mind” you abusing your cable news credentials know you’re on Queerty bitching about your low pay and (apparantly) lack of benefits?
I strongly doubt it.
Are you working on your website now, or for your boss? Or bitching over on Towleroad like you said you would be?
Because you’ve been on this site making comments virtually non stop since just before 11AM today. About 9 hours now.
You must be great at multi-tasking. And to think you’re only an ASS’T producer!
Because if you’re doing several other things besides slinging out this crap for 9 straight hours, then you must be awesome!
An Ass’t producer by day! A gay activist with a busy (ish…I see more linked stories and ads than anything else)lesbian blog that you’ve posted on 3000 times since the 1st of the year, and raising 2 3 y/o twins at the same time, plus going to lez bars when you get a chance, “hoping” you won’t be arrested for “simply being there,” plus all the research you’ve done through all your “1st hand” contacts in the ATL (both gay and ACTUALLY present AT the EAGLE just before or during the raid, and DEEP within the APD itself!) on this story you may or may not be airing on the news network that employs you but that you REFUSE to cover on your site.
WOW!
Your credibility is nil now, lady.
Say anything you like.
There is no reason whatsover to believe anything you say.
Even if some of it turns out
Paula Brooks
Officer J. Polite Public Information Officer(404) 546.7949
WillBFair
Now she’s got you arguing over lingerie statutes. Priceless.
I’m out of here.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: I have no life and have not been to a lez bar in 12 years… but I do carry my blackberry every place I go… and yeah my boss put up with me… because I am pretty good at what I do.
WillBFair
Charles, I like how you describe others’ harmless play as sex addiction. Personally, I fought against unsafe and promiscuous sex before we knew the transmission method. I spent the early 80s fighting bitterly with the community over their f–k everything that moves strategy.
But congratulations on the long term relationship. I’m sure it makes you a moral authority with some people, just not with me.
schlukitz
@WillBFair:
The sleaze factor of leather daddies owning bars…
Note Mr. Merrill’s obsession with the word “sleeze”. Not one post has this man made that did not include that term. His vilification of the leather community goes well beyond just being a prude. Given his Pit-Bull tenacity for denigrating “leather daddies”, “leather bars”, etc., one would get the distinct impression that he has an ax to grind on this topic.
In fact, his compulsive need to continually lambaste the leather community would give one cause to wonder if he might have had something to do with the raid? An anonymous phone call, tip, whatever?
Apparently, Mr. Merrill is as obsessed with “sleeze” as the religious right and the DoJ’s linking of homosexual relationships with incestuousness and pedophilia.
My other enemy besides you owned a leather bar in NYC for 49 years
Another one of Mr. Merrill’s vague aspersions that leaves us wondering who he might be referring to, what leather bar he owned and what this person has done to him to qualify for the honor of being his “enemy”? So typical sounding of crusaders to call anyone who does not agree with them an “enemy”, with all of the connotations that word carries.
Listening to him go on like this does make one wonder what skeletons lie in his closets? As we witness on an almost a daily basis anymore, these bigoted, hateful finger-wagers who crow about their high moral ground, usually have a closet full of their own “sleeze” when the door finally pops open.
schlukitz
Correction: Sleeze should be sleaze.
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
“For some people, after they are fifty years-old, arguing takes the place of sex.” – Gore Vidal
Lawrence
@Paula Brooks:
Hey, well done Paula!
I can find that same officer’s name and number by going to the home page of the City of Atlanta, and clicking on departments, and selecting police.
So anyone (even you, obviously) can pick a name off the page and claim they’re a “source.”
It doesn’t mean they are one.
Especially when the claim is made by you.
I just spoke to the OWNER of the EAGLE by phone (he was there), and his primary concern was/is for the patrons that night.
He was issued 1 single “citation” for all the horrific things NOT found to be going on at the EAGLE that night…..the city alleges (apparently since they could find absolutely NOTHING else to charge anyone with) he needs an “Adult Entertainment License” to have guys dance 1 night a week in their underwear, which they do NOT remove.
He does not want an adult entertainment license because he does not operate a strip club or a massage parlor, (which “should be” what that stupid lingerie modeling statute is for that you graciously provided), but a BAR. A bar that does not have dancers all the time, but only 1 night a week.
The code you cited required permits was for “individuals working in a Lingerie Modeling Studio.”
The individuals arrested were dancing in a bar.
They do not strip, and they do not “model lingerie or underwear.”
They DANCE. While wearing underwear.
If Atlanta is going to try to use that ordinance against a bar that has dancers only one night a week (and advertised it, and has been doing so for years), who do not remove their underwear, that probably will fail.
You think the bar was trying to pull a fast one, located in the heavily policed, crime filled area that it is, and even advertising the fact that Thursday night was underwear night?
More than likely not.
Perhaps their was a recent change in the definition of the ordinance (you don’t cite the actual ordinance that defines an “adult business’ or “adult entertainment,” so we don’t know what constitutes either of those in the eyes of the ATL PD), and if so, then it is entirely possible that the owner unknowingly violated it. It seems disingenuous to think he would FLAUNT it, since he probably wants to stay in business, and being a fairly small business/bar that has been allowed to do these theme nights for years w/o incident.
You also imply that the bar has been shut down, and is not making $, so he’s getting what he deserves.
The bar has been open EVERY regular night since the raid, except Sunday, when they are always closed.
They are open right now. They were open last night. The were open Fri nite, the nite after the raid.
Just more crap you have wrong.
And you stated this in 62.
“@Paula Brooks: put or shut up buddy you can call through the site”
I’d say that was you being confusing.
It is your stupid comment, poorly phrased and lacking punctuation as it is.
As to your question “can you get paid for being a troll?”
Ask your boss for a raise since you’re so good at what you do he puts up with you even though he doesn’t pay you very much.
I doubt that he will comply when you ask for more $ for being a troll.
That will be your answer.
schlukitz
@WillBFair:
Never trust a man who doesn’t have a vice – Mark Twain
OhYeah
Peter : You can start by just looking it up on wikipedia, which puts the Atlanta PD at 57 percent Black. Initial reports show most of the cops involved in this Eagle situation were Black too. As far as their homophobia, you’ll just have to take my word for it (though usually it’s only Black gays who bear the brunt of their hostility).
Storm Christopher
Mr. Merrill – I honor you for your work on the Dallas Principles. However, to judge from your words here, you’re forgetting that second principle, which is, “We will leave no part of our community behind.” The leather community, which you unfairly denigrate, is part of our broader community.
As for your “other enemy,” the one who owned a leather bar in NYC for forty-nine years,” perhaps your memory isn’t what it once was. The New York Eagle is the oldest leather bar in New York, and it was opened on 11th Avenue in 1970 by Jack Modica. He retired in 2000 when the block was converted into condos. Assuming that it was Jack you were referring to, that’s only 30 years even in gay-time. After Jack retired, the NYC Eagle opened in a new location (its present one on 28th Street) with new owners in 2000.
There are plenty of us in the leather community who are politically active and do good work for the broader gay community on any number of fronts. Your apparent prejudice, whatever its cause, may blindfold you to that.
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: My replies are poorly structured because I am using a black berry… with very small buttons and a very small screen.
Now where is what I suspect from having checked my sites stats and seeing your IP address is coming from Duluth GA…. you are a customer…. an employee of the bar or an friend of the owner because you really want this incident to be something it is not… and you what the community stirred up over something, that while unfortunate it happened to a gay establishment, has also happened to straight establishments in the ATL area.
This is not Stonewall and you know it, there was no big cop conspiracy to “get the gays”. What this was a business owner skirting the rules and who now appears to be stirring up crap to cloud the issue.
again no one said the bar was shut down… all I said is the bar owner made some good money on whitey tighty night and he is not doing that anymore… again you create words that were not said… and try to cloud things up by saying “oh but look you are doing this and this”.
Just like you want to do with this whole Eagle bar incident….
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: I do think it is good that instead of trying to some how prove this whole thing was real, by trying to discredit the reporter you are finally going out to get the real scoop on your own…
but so far you have only gotten one side of the story… now you need to complete your due diligence by getting the other parts… I suggest you call Cheetahs now and see how the customers there were treated in that raid and once you do that I have a list of other raids at straight clubs and they will tell you stories that will sound very similar to the one at the Eagle …
Paula Brooks
@Lawrence: You are a piece of work…. you were up till nearly three in the morning checking me out…
I can only hope you put that much effort into finding out what really went on at the Eagle… and that would be your man at the Eagle tried to skirt the rules… got caught… inconvenienced and embarrassed his customers in the process and is now trying to turn his greed into Stonewall so they keep doing business with him.
Charles Merrill
@Storm Christopher: I wasn’t referring to the leather community, I was referring to the blogger on this thread “Schlukitz”. He said he owned a leather store for 44 years in NYC. I was mistaken and wrote bar. He is against safe sex as many leather people seem to be. I am not for leaving behind anyone, but to parade in D.C. dresssed in harness and ass less chaps makes lawmakers and the President question, “What are these guys fighting for, freedom from nudity laws”? Most of us are fighting for full civil rights and nudity and promiscuous sex is not part of that, any more that it was a part of the civil rights movement of the 60’s.
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
He is against safe sex as many leather people seem to be.
You, Sir, are an outright liar and a fraud. I NEVER said that I am against safe sex. You are putting words into my mouth, something you seem to take great delight and liberty in doing with everyone’s comments on this thread. You seem to have a penchant for misquoting people. It doesn’t add to your credibility or your integrity.
Nor, has anyone paraded around in D.C., dressed in harness and ass-less chaps. The March hasn’t even been held yet, for crying-out-loud, and here you are already accusing people of doing things that haven’t even happened.
You project situations and sins onto the leather community to support your own bigotry, prejudice and discrimination, just like the religious right project situations and sins onto the greater LGBT community. One has to wonder what other segments of the LGBT community you also do not approve of or discriminate against? Such blatant discrimination for some of our own members, coming from someone within the LGBT community who himself, is discriminated against by society in general, is mind-boggling.
I find your constant pejoritive references to “ass-less chaps” quote amusing. You seem to be as obsessed with them, as you are with “sleaze”. It brings to mind, Reverene Haggard who vilified homosexuals from his bully pulpit every Sunday morning until someone opened his closet for him and let it all hang out.
Perhaps you are like Shakespeare’s character lady who doth protest too much?
Fitz
@Charles Merrill: I think you are generalizing a bit too much. For this place, I am probably prudish. The public displays offend me. And I worry about a poorly discussed level of DV, psychological torture, and the whole question of informed consent…. which we can’t discuss because once you do you get accused of being an anti-sex homophobe. THAT being said… at least in SF, I don’t know of another group that does more to promote safer sex practice than the local leathermen.
B
Peter “Hey B,,,,,If no one was arrested; who was breaking the Law????”
That’s what I’d like to know too (another person is also commenting using “B” as a name). Of course a few people were
arrested – employees and not about sex or drugs, but some
licensing thing, even though licensing is generally the responsibility of a bar’s owners, not its employees.
Charles Merrill
I am glad to hear that Fitz. I was at the Dore Alley 2006 gathering and didn’t see one condom being used, but plenty of people in leather having sex. Glad the climate has changed.
Yes, I have a leather jacket and boots as I owned a Harley and wore it for protection from asphalt and gravel. I am not into leather fetish, and did not wear a leather jacket in my meeting with President Obama. Leather is a sexual fetish to some people and it’s not about gay civil rights as heterosexuals also practice the same fetish. It’s a behaviour, not an identity.
If you are interested, I have a photo wearing leather. http://www.merrillcharles.com/ click on “longevity”.
Fitz
@Charles Merrill: I am no expert on Dore. I was there once, and saw a kid– I would say 20-25, being striped while being screamed at, then hog tied & bound in ropes around, including his abdomen until he couldn’t move his chest, then placed into a face mask that allowed his perp to control his breathing. He soon went into a full seizure. His perp slowly untied him, and quietly walked away into the crowd, leaving the kid naked but for a jock strap, and flopping like a fish out of water on the sidewalk. I have never forgiven myself for standing by dumbly,like some fucking Nazi apologist, and I have never been back to Dore or Folsom, for that matter. So, I am not intimate enough to know if they are using condoms when they play around, but the legit (is that the right word?) leather organizations fund free condoms and support groups around here. And the legit Leather crowd would not allow what I saw…
frmratlboi
I admit, I couldn’t stomach the whole of these responses. In the first 10 or 20 it seemed quite clear that the catty tit-for-tat kind of attitude that seemed so prevalent in my experience of Atlanta gay “culture” could easily lead to… what… tit-for-tat on a grand scale, culminating in 8 arrests and 62 pissed off men. Wait, it’s not done yet, I’m sure– especially if this is any indicator. I’ve never been happier to not be in Atlanta, though I happen to have great fondness for the ATL Eagle and many people I know from there. Best of luck, all, but PLEASE someone be the bigger person sooner rather than later 😉
Leo
Paula
You were asked to provide specific proof that you are who you say you are, by posting about the events at the Eagle to the blog you claim to author.
I just checked, there is nothing posted there about this story. Instead, you chose to provide information that anyone with access to a search engine could provide.
Clearly, you are not who you claim to be. Therefore, it is likely that your claims, with contradict those presented by a variety of other sources, including major newspapers, are fraudulent.
Are you the snitch, one of the cops, a disgruntled Cheetah’s dancer?
Storm Christopher
@Charles Merrill: He is against safe sex as many leather people seem to be.
Again, you seem to denigrate the leather community. Perhaps you meant to say “some people.” IML founder and owner Chuck Renslow has banned all vendors or promoters of bareback promotion or material from his event. Folsom has done the same. Many leather people still speak out against barebacking. Leather does not equal barebacking. Nor are an Abercrombie & Fitch teeshirt and a pair of Dockers indicators of “safe sex only.”
And if you think the leather community are the only gay people out there barebacking, you’d best open your eyes.
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
He said he owned a leather store for 44 years in NYC. I was mistaken and wrote bar.
Wrong again!!!
Mr. Merrill, you seem to be mistaken about a great many things, don’t you?
I never made that statement. You did. It’s apparent that you have an odious penchant for lying and distorting the facts to support your spurious attacks against leathermen and me in particular.
If you will read my post no. 58 from the thread entitled “Was Atlanta’s Leather Bar “Drug” raid Just Another Stonewall?, you will note that what I actually said was…
and running a leather shop in NYC for the past 44 years.
From Dictionary.com:
running – managing or directing: the running of a business.
Managing, directing or running a business is distinctly different from owning a business, Mr. Merrill. Do check with your Funk and Wagnalls when in doubt instead of groping at meanings to further your reprehensible self-admitted agenda against your “enemy” as well as your need to denigrate the leather community at large.
Charles Merrill
@schlukitz: I don’t answer your posts because you go from 0 to queen in 2 seconds hurling your leather high heels at me. I am tired of elder abuse from you.
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
@schlukitz: I don’t answer your posts because you go from 0 to queen in 2 seconds
But you did, Blanche, you did!
I am tired of elder abuse from you.
Hmmm…an ageist too! And, if you are so tired of it, then why don’t you just ignore me and stop fueling the fire?
Oh, btw…I wouldn’t dream of competing with your leather high heels, dearie.
I’m more the Wesco Motorcycle boot-type. ;o(
schlukitz
It’s a behaviour, not an identity.
Well now, isn’t that interesting? That’s precisely what the religious right has been telling the LGBT community. And since it is a “behavior”, it can be changed, or so they would have us believe.
I suspect that our hero believes that all leather daddies and practitioners of, oh, dare I say it “leather fetish-sex” will go straight to hell if they do not change their sinful ways?
It is probably only a matter of time before he posts a site for conversion-therapy so that these “sleazy” fetishists can leave their perversions behind them and lead a respectable, “normal”, homosexual lifestyles…just like Mr. Merrill.
After all, Mr. Merrill did meet with the President…sans his leather jacket and who are we to ruin his untarnished reputation by association.
I mean, leathersex could be “catching”, you know, especially since these people have a “leather agenda” just like some people have a “gay agenda”.
Charles Merrill
I identify as a bi-sexual. Leather sexual fetish is not a motivation to achieve LGBT civil rights. Your being gay should be the motivation for equality not getting your kink on.
Charles Merrill
@schlukitz: OK then go to D.C. decked out in leather or rubber and see how far you get with congressmen trying to convince them you want rights based on your sexual fetish. No, you have to ride on the lobbying apron strings of the LGBT civil rights movement like HRC and NGLTF that don’t approve of your appearance in a business and political setting.
simon
Who cares who the snitch was!! The simple fact is that many leather bars give tacit approval to sexual intercourse and drug use on their premises. You can’t expect the law to turn a blind eye in such circumstances.
Charles Merrill
@simon: I agree. They should be called “unsafe sex clubs” rather than bars.
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
There you go again…making blowhard assumptions and projecting your beliefs onto others, whether they be true or not. This obliquitous manner of making your point, whatever it may be, is reprehensible, to say the least.
You are trying to make a case that I am a leather fetishist who has no other clothing in my wardrobe, besides leather or rubber and that I also have no discretion or taste as to what is appropriate to wear according to the occasion.
And you are working very hard to create the impression that were I to meet with the President of our country, I would be doing so while, how do you like to put it, “wearing my assless-chaps”.
What you are indulging youself in has a nasty name. Suggesting what others might act, say, do, or in this case dress, is called character assassination. It is a deliberate attempt on your behalf to denigrate and besmirch the reputation and social standing of another person.
These sort of antics are not the mark of a gentleman, to be sure. To be totally accurate, they are more like the antics of a buffoon.
Then you go on to say that They should be called “unsafe sex clubs” rather than bars.
This too, follows the same pattern of character assassination, except in this case, you are looking to destroy the reputation of a business that has been operating legally, in a number of cities across the USA and abiding by the existing laws of all the states they are located in.
Again, you make these baseless arguments without any proof to support your bigotry and discrimination. Since you have made the charge that that leather bars should be designated as “unsafe sex clubs”, the burden is on you to provide proof.
Oh, and I might just mention to you, that when you go attacking a business in the manner you have been doing for quite sometime now, you are leaving yourself open to a possible lawsuit for slanderous and libelous comments.
It is glaringly apparent from the myriad of derogatory posts you have made on this thread, that you have a personal hard-on for the leather community and anything related to it. Your thinly veiled outrage is really nothing more than bigotry, hatred and discrimination, which reveals you as being no different than members of the religious right, who like you, are also driven to attack the LGBT community, make denigrating remarks against it and do as you have been doing.
They too apply discriminatory labels against us, just like the label you just suggested should be placed on leather bars, the purpose of which, is to bring about their closing by the police, simply because they do not meet with your approval.
Frankly, Mr. Merrill, gay men like you frighten me even more than the religious right and the moral majority. Straight people can be forgiven, to some extent, because they really have no idea what being gay is like, just as the Lutheran Pastors who really have no idea what being gay is like for the gay members of their congregation who also suffer from persecution and discrimination from their own churches.
What is you excuse, Mr. Merrill?
Charles Merrill
I have a strong legal case against the owners of the Eagle and you, so bring it on. Get in line behind the IRS who is also after my ass.
http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2009/07/gay-millionaire-loses-tax-court-appeal.html
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
I have a strong legal case against the owners of the Eagle and you, so bring it on.
And what “strong legal case” case do you have against me?
Disagreeing with your unrelenting attack against the leather community and leather bars?
Charles Merrill
@schlukitz: New York Times vs Sullivan. Read the case. Almost impossible to prove slander.
cdc
From the Eagle Neighbors… with much love.
http://www.sovo.com/blog/blog.cfm?blog_id=27276
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
I shall ask the question again.
And what “strong legal case” case do you have against me?
I just love the way you refuse to answer direct questions, derail the topic and tell me to read something that has absolutely nothing to with the question I posed to you. I still do not know what this “strong legal case” you have against me is?
On the Tops Are More Than Just the Insertive Partner. They’re Also Total Dominators thread, your post no. 19, you said:
Two APD undercover officers said sex was going on in the backroom of the Eagle and one was groped at the bar. I believe them.
You chose to believe the APD who mistreated the patrons of the Eagle, both physically and verbally, and made false and improvable allegations against them, despite the fact that you have not provided one shred of evidence to substantiate your “belief”.
I would suggest to you, that it is your leatherrubberfetishfobia that is driving your need to make the Atlanta Eagle wrong and the APD right. Instead of sending me on an off-topic read about The New York Times vs. Sullivan, which has nothing to do with this thread, I would suggest that you read the above link, which is on topic, and tak special note of the fact that there were no drugs being dealt and no one having sex in the bar on the evening of the raid.
Also take note of the letter from 9 residents of the apartment next door in which they made mincemeat of all the alleged activities being directed at neighbors who lived next door.
In view of the foregoing, don’t you think the decent to do would be to issue a sincere apology to the Leather Community and the Atlanta Exile for the false accusations you have made against them?
Charles Merrill
@schlukitz:
New York Times vs Sullivan is a landmark case decided by The Supreme Court. It established the legal meaning of malice in the defamation case” as follows :
“The actual malice standard requires that the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. Because of the extremely high burden of proof on the plaintiff, and the difficulty in proving essentially what is inside a person’s head, such cases—when they involve public figures—rarely prevail.”
Therefore neither you nor the Eagle bar can prove my words were out of malice. If you or the Eagle think you have a case bring it on. I would be amused by it.
Chitown Kev
Ok, I have read over this and other posts/threads about this case and I have thought about it…
IMO, because this is a leather bar, the APD decided to go after it. Like the queens and drag queens at the Stomewall Inn (and there was illeagal activity at the Stonewall Inn too!) it seems as if some of us are trying so hard to distance ourselves from the leather daddies in our community. Because of their visibility, it’s the queens and the drag queens and the leather daddies in our community that they still go after first.
As distasteful as it may be to “bourgie gays” we need to support the leather daddies because after that, these bigots will come for you.
Charles Merrill
@Chitown Kev: The following link includes reviews of the Atlanta Eagle from past customers before the raid happened. One guy feared he would get gangbanged in the backroom. I wasn’t there so I really don’t know for sure. Being loyal to other gays is no reason to jump to conclusions one way or the other. Evidence on the side of the APD is strong. Anyway, a judge usually takes the side of law enforcement officers. I know there is a heated mayors race in Atlanta, so it could go either way.
http://www.bing.com/local/details.aspx?lid=YN206x6400212&qt=yp&what=Eagle+bar&where=Atlanta,+GA&s_cid=ansPhBkYp02&tab=reviews&mkt=en-us&q=atlanta%20Eagle%20bar
Chitown Kev
@Charles Merrill:
Charles, there was much more to that “fear of getting gangbanged” review than you let on…
“I was always scared to go to The Eagle because I was afraid there would be some mustachioed guys in chaps doing the tango next to the jukebox or I’d get gangbanged in the backroom on the way to the pottie. But the truth is, it’s a really friendly gay bar that just happens to cater to the zaftig hairy bear-y variety. Doesn’t mean that other types can’t go, and really there’s a wide swath of guys who do– punks, leather daddies, miltary fetishists, muscle bears and the men (and women on occasion) who love them. It also holds the distinction of being one of the few Eagle gay bars around the country that has a dancefloor, so bring your dancing shoes, Connie. This is not a stand and model kind of bar (trust me, there are enough of those in the city as it is), but a place where a guy’s guy can go out and let his mullet down for the evening. The best night seems to be Saturday. Fridays are okay– kind of like Saturday but much less crowded. Thursday is okay– it’s supposed to be underwear night if you’re into that kind of thing.”
Charles Merrill
@Chitown Kev: I know, I caught that later. Some of the reviews are really funny. The one that had the electrodes attached to his balls. Hilarious.
schlukitz
@Charles Merrill:
You, Sir, are a piece of work. You’re the type that will crawl out on a limb…and then saw the damned thing off with you sitting on it, just to make yourself right.
No matter how sane or logical an argument that is offered to you, you persist in shooting everyone down and making them wrong. I guess your family connections and the fact that you are a millionaire, according to the data on your website, you feel that you have “Executive Privilege” and superiority over us commoners who frequent “sleazy” and “Unsafe sex clubs”.
Then you go to spout another lie.
If you or the Eagle think you have a case bring it on. I would be amused by it.
That is not what I said. You are putting words in my mouth. I never mentioned a word about bringing a case against you. This is what I said. Please read it slowly and carefully.
Oh, and I might just mention to you, that when you go attacking a business in the manner you have been doing for quite sometime now, you are leaving yourself open to a possible lawsuit for slanderous and libelous comments.
If you are going to quote people, at least have the decency to quote them correctly. Obviously, money has failed to buy you what no amount of money can buy.
Integrity.
Chitown Kev
@Charles Merrill:
Yeah, they were.
Most the reviews did say that there was a vague sorta fear about entering the place that was totally unfounded. The charm of the place seems to be that it is not like the “stereotypical” gay bar, actually.
schlukitz
@Chitown Kev:
Charles, there was much more to that “fear of getting gangbanged” review than you let on…
Mr. Merrill tends to be a big disingenuous when it comes to quoting people accurately. Actually, a lot disingenuous!
As you will note, he added verbiage to my comment to make it look as if I had threatened to sue him. That’s outright lying!
In your case, he only copied and pasted enough of the review to support his claim that the Atlanta Eagle is an “Unsafe sex club”. That’s falsification!
It is exceedingly hard to take a man’s opinion or arguments seriously when he is willing to deliberately distort the facts, lie, misquote people and charge them with crimes they have not be arrested for or proven guilty of in a court of law.