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Did Atlanta police violate patrons rights during gay bar raid?

ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington won't comment on allegations that officers illegally detained and searched the 60-plus patrons at the Atlanta Eagle.

Monday, he did clarify APD policy:

"Each person would've had to have been frisked for the police officer's safety. Now whether or not they searched the person, I don't know that and we won't know that until we conduct an investigation. Now if they ran the person's name through, we do that in normal procedures to make sure the person's not wanted."

"You don't have the right to detain the person beyond the frisk, beyond making sure that the officers are going to be safe."

WABE legal analyst Page Pate says a systemic policy of running an ID check on everyone in an establishment, even if there is illegal activity there, is unconstitutional.

"You cannot simply keep them there. You cannot keep them there, and you cannot ask them for their identification and run background checks without their consent."

Pate says APD policy, as stated by Chief Pennington, violates patrons' First and Fourth Amendment Constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment guarantees citizens the right against unlawful search and seizure. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of assembly. He says the Eagle's customers were treated as suspects for no other reason than being present when the raid went down.

"Any post-certified police officer knows you cannot go into an establishment and start arresting and detaining people without probable cause that those people have broken some sort of law."

No patrons were charged, although eight Atlanta Eagle employees are charged with operating without a proper business license.

Chief Pennington has asked anyone present during the raid to come forward and give their accounts.

He's promised a full investigation.


  • linky (www.publicbroadcasting.net)
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