Posted on 06/29/2011 3:26:15 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
At least 10 police officers lied and then many of them deleted data on their cellphones in an attempt to hide their actions the night of a raid on a Midtown Atlanta gay bar, according to the findings of an independent review.
The report from former U.S. Attorney Joe Whitley and a team of attorneys from the law firm Greenberg Traurig also found top police officials gave misleading information to the public when they answered reporters' questions about the controversial raid at the Atlanta Eagle bar on Sept. 10, 2009.
A statement from the mayor's office, released late Tuesday evening along with a 343-page report, said the independent review corroborated claims made in a federal lawsuit that has since been settled for more than $1 million. The mayor's office also released simultaneously a 39-page report of the internal police investigation of the raid.
"The reports conclude that most of the officers involved in the operation did not conform to the APD’s standard operating procedures," city attorney Cathy Hampton said in a statement Tuesday night.
"Mayor Kasim Reed and Chief George Turner have made the resolution of this matter a top priority and will review both reports," Hampton said. "Chief Turner will determine appropriate disciplinary action in short order."
There also are plans for an expert to conduct extensive training for every APD officer within the next 90 days.
The controversy began when APD vice officers and members of the now-defunct RED DOG unit raided the bar. APD said the raid was conducted based on reports that men were engaging in sex at the bar while others watched. Patrons and employees said they were illegally detained and some were forced to lie on the barroom floor for as long as an hour while officers checked for criminal histories and peppered them with slurs about their homosexuality.
The report confirmed that some officers directed offensive language and slurs at some of the patrons during the raid.
Eight people were arrested that night but the charges were either dropped or dismissed.
According to the Greenberg Traurig report, 10 members of the vice unit and the RED DOG team, including three supervisors, violated APD's policy regarding truthfulness. Most law enforcement agencies consider lying a firing offense, partly because that officer's credibility can be challenged in court.
The report also found 24 officers illegally searched patrons, illegally detained them and illegally took their belongings, including cellphones and wallets.
The reviewers did not find any fault with eight of the 32 sergeants, investigators and officers who participated in the raid.
The internal APD investigation sustained complaints violating police policies against 23 officers, including a major. Their offenses ranged from lack of supervision to lying, to showing bias, to using unnecessary force.
It was not immediately known if any of these APD officers would be disciplined.
The Dec. 8 settlement of the federal lawsuit filed after the raid, which cost taxpayers more than $1 million, required APD to complete within 180 days all internal investigations, including a review of the raid at the Atlanta Eagle. The initial deadline for a report of the internal review of the 2009 raid was June 6. But the city secured a three-week extension, which pushed the deadline to Monday. The mayor's office released the two reports in tandem after 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, the mayor's spokeswoman said Whitley and Greenberg Traurig were putting final touches on the separate investigation of APD and the City Law Department's handling of the lawsuit. The Greenberg Traurig report did not have a court-ordered deadline, however. That review was requested by the mayor.
I have no doubt that they have overstepped the bounds of their authority. It seems to be a growing, and disturbing trend, amongst the boys in blue.
But was the gay bar thing “the straw”?
?
Well, being anti-gay myself (if that is defined as absolutely believing that homosexuality is a wrong behavior and should be discouraged in any reasonable way possible), all I see here is a bunch of hate-filled deflection of blame from those engaged in evil behavior to the law enforcement officers doing exactly what I would hope they would do...get rid of this bad activity from every community.
Am I to assume you are sympathetic to the homosexuals?
Be careful on that slippery slope.
So you're ok with the cops lying under oath, fabricating evidence, using excessive force and generally violating peoples civil rights?
My friend, if so then you seriously need to leave this country, you are no longer worthy of its graces... pathetic, you are. I hear Angola is nice this time of year, maybe you'd be more open to an Islamic country, they feel the same way you do about alot of things. http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/homosexual.htm
I am okay with law enforcement trying to do what must be done to return this land to its owners...the citizens who do not want the homosexual agenda. And you are equally invited to leave for the recently antinomian Europe wherein your anarchist tendencies may find their full expression.
You clearly are on the wrong website, my FRiend.
There is no slippery slope here. When a group organized around a behavior (an immoral behavior at that) attempts to hijack the morals of a country and compel the rest of the citizens to bow down and honor their behavior, we have every responsibility to stand up and say...enough. Stop it. If the cops help us push back, I commend the effort. And, no, I am not afraid of them. Stay this side of such activity and you face almost no danger of having a bad encounter.
After all, you do this every day with some behaviors and not with others. Pray tell, whence did you acquire this right and not fall down a “slippery slope”?
Sergeant Brock knowingly violated the patrons’ Fourth Amendment rights when he instructed that all patrons to be frisked for weapons. … Although Sergeant Brock recognizes that APD does not have the right to pat down every person at a crime scene unless they were involved with the crime, Sergeant Brock instructed Vice officers to frisk each and every patron for weapons.”
You can solve this problem just by declaring sodomite bars to be airports. Then you don’t need no steenkin’ probable cause.
That's how it should be, but, now, they can't even let you light up a smoke. The concept of private property is disappearing -- just read a bunch of the comments on this thread.
Magical Mischief Tour...REDDOG has been unfairly and more importantly, INCORRECTLY brought into the Kathryn Johnson debacle. I know this because I responded to the scene after they had shot her and advised that three of the detectives had also been shot. Kathryn Johnson tragic death was solely on the shoulders of two lying SCUMBAG, narcotics detectives, that are now in prison. With 10 and 12 year sentences.
The whole Eagle Bar raid, lies solely on the shoulders of the command staff of the Atlanta Police Dept. However, when they screw up, which is fairly routine, they always find some lower ranking officers to take the fall. This is normally done when they make certain requirements(SEE QUOTAS) of the officers, but are unwilling to put anything in writing. Then, the officers, more worried about what their off-days and assignments are, follow these normally unethical and often times, illlegal directives, without blinking an eye. Then, when the officers are called to the carpet, they’re thrown under the bus by the command. Happens every day, all day in that city. If Atlanta’s taxpayers really knew what they were paying for, they’d be horrified.
I’m sure the porno-scanners required upon entry would be a big hit. They can be output to all the bar’s big screens and the patrons can see who’s ‘pack’n heat’ and who ain’t.
that's a very long way to spell "lied"...
“You can smoke butts but you can’t smoke butts.”
This could actually be true, but because it's about some protected group, nobody bothered to check into the truth or falsity of the claim -- it was automatically dismissed as "prejudice."
Which is why we need to fight against cops that violate the rights of citizens.
You stepped right into that one.
>>> Am I to assume you are sympathetic to the homosexuals?
“A statement from the mayor’s office, released late Tuesday evening along with a 343-page report, said the independent review corroborated claims made in a federal lawsuit that has since been settled for more than $1 million.”
Am I to assume you are sympathetic to unnecessarily costing the tax payers of their city over a million dollars?
>>> what I would hope they would do...get rid of this bad activity from every community.
Some people think smoking, selling goldfish, fried foods, sweetened colas, and cooking with salt are bad activities. They may even be right. You really want the door open for the police roughing up pet store owners and restaurant chefs though?
>>> If Atlanta’s taxpayers really knew what they were paying for, they’d be horrified.
I believe you. I’ve seen a lot of things behind the curtain here as well.
Some Evelyn Woods programs will be in your stocking this Christmas. Use them.
May want to check all your quotes before citing them. And, yes, I am willing to risk that we never have to worry about police breaking down the door for goldfish, if we can get them to break down the doors for gay bars.
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