Several individuals who asked questions to the officers were told to "shut the fuck up" and threatened with physical violence. The patron claimed that the police were acting in an "incredibly derogatory and insulting" manner towards the bar patrons. According to a bar patron present during the raid, everyone in the building was told to get on the ground with their faces down, and everyone was searched at least once, with many people searched twice. Background checks were also performed by the police.
According to several patrons, all staff members, dancers, and anyone wearing underwear were handcuffed, and almost everyone in the building was searched for drugs and asked to show identification. At the same time, a line of police cars (including three police vans ) blocked the exit from the parking lot. A later lawsuit claimed that, in total, 48 officers were present at the Eagle the night of the raid. According to the lead investigator present at the bar during the event, the unit had been called in as backup for safety reasons following the start of the raid. While sources initially varied with regards to how many officers were involved, a later report by a citizen review board stated that 24 officers were involved in the initial raid, composed of members of the Atlanta Police Department's Vice Squad and the Red Dog Unit, a SWAT-like unit used in areas with high drug use. At the time, there were 62 patrons at the bar. On Thursday September 10, 2009, at approximately 11:30 p.m., police officers, including several plain-clothes police officers, entered the bar and began making arrests. Also in 2020, however, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms initiated the process for designating the Atlanta Eagle building a historic landmark, which would make it the first protected LGBTQ landmark in the Deep South. That same year, it was reported that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eagle would close and relocate the following year. In 2020, the Georgia Trust placed the Eagle and Kodak buildings on its annual list of Places in Peril, stating that the buildings had fallen into disrepair and were at risk of demolition due to increased development in the area. The bar was notable for catering to the leather subculture, and according to the website Them, it was the only leather bar for 1,200 miles (1,900 km) between Washington, D.C. The building housing the bar (located adjacent to the Kodak Building on Ponce de Leon Avenue) is a contributing property to the Midtown Historic District. According to a 2020 report by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the bar had become "a place of prominence in the LGBTQ community, significant as a site for public social interaction". The Atlanta Eagle is a gay bar that was established in Atlanta in the mid-1980s. The Kodak Building and the Atlanta Eagle on Ponce de Leon Avenue, 2021 The raid is one of several police raids on LGBT venues and has drawn comparisons to the 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn which caused the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in LGBT history. In 2015, the city was subject to further legal action after the police were found to have reverted some of the court-ordered changes they had been required to make following the trials.
Additionally, Atlanta chief of police Richard Pennington, already under pressure, resigned shortly after the raid. Several involved officers were either reprimanded or fired and the Red Dog Unit was disbanded and replaced with another unit. In the resulting court cases, which lasted until 2012, the city of Atlanta paid out over $1 million in settlements to the victims and instituted changes to police policies designed to prevent a similar situation from happening. Several lawsuits were later filed on behalf of patrons, alleging that their Constitutional rights had been violated by the police. Seven of these employees were either found not guilty or had charges dropped against them, while one was not present at the trials and had a bench warrant issued against him.ĭuring the raid, bar patrons and employees were subject to anti-gay slurs, derogatory language, and both threats of and actual physical violence. None of the 62 bar patrons that night were arrested, although eight employees were. Several dozen officers were involved in the raid, including members of the Atlanta Police Department's vice squad and the "Red Dog Unit", a SWAT-like unit typically used in high drug use areas. The raid occurred on September 10, 2009, due to anonymous tips alleging that illegal drug use and sex was occurring at the bar. The Atlanta Eagle police raid was a police raid targeting the Atlanta Eagle, a gay bar in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.