The Huffington Post, a respected online news website, has called it Stonewall 2009 in a headline. Syndicated gay advice columnist Dan Savage blasted the raid in a blog entry titled ‘Once Upon A Time In America...’ on The Stranger: "...the police could raid a gay bar with impunity - and rough up and abuse the patrons they found inside - and the police knew the fags they were brutalizing couldn't protest because their parents and co-workers might find out they were gay. Someone needs to let the police in Atlanta know that those days are long gone."

Eight employees including a co-owner were arrested for operating a business without a license and for dancing without a permit on Sep 10 after police raided the Atlanta Eagle, a leather bar in Atlanta, the state capital of Georgia in the US. The owners of the bar say their establishment was unfairly targeted.

"This is all about the way my patrons were being treated," said Atlanta Eagle co-owner Richard Ramey told the mainstream newspaper, Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "They were completely humiliated. It was unjustified for them to be treated that way."

The Southern Voice, a gay newspaper, reported that the Atlanta Police Department had released copies of nine complaints filed by the bar’s patrons and employees about being treated roughly by about 20 uniformed and undercover police officers. They said that the police had forced them to lay face down on the grimy floor for as long as two hours as they frisked everyone and checked their identification in a computer system.

Reports say police did not find any illegal substances, and the men were ordered to leave without their mobile phones, wallets and other personal belongings.

The Voice detailed the complaints: "One man said officers grabbed patrons who didn't immediately lie down by the neck and forced them to the ground. The man said he was kicked in the ribs while lying down. 'Then I heard laughing and giggling and saying this is more fun than raiding niggers with crack.'"

"Another patron said he saw officers forcing people to the ground by officers pushing their shoulders or the backs of their heads. He said he asked to move because there was broken glass on the floor where he was lying, and he was told to ‘shut the fuck up.’ The customer recounted hearing anti-gay slurs: I heard several slurs such as 'I hate homosexuals.' I also heard 'I don't like fags.'"

The police department has defended thair actions saying undercover vice officers had been to the club and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched after having received complaints in May about drugs being sold on Atlanta Eagle premises and that patrons engaged in open sex acts.

At a press conference, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said he takes seriously allegations of police misconduct. He also expressed regret that Danni Lynn Harris, the department’s liason with the gay and lesbian community, “had been left out of the raid.”

"We’re going to include her next time so this won’t happen again," Pennington said.

"If she had been [involved], a lot of this would not have happened."

A user Kevin sharply noted in a comment on Towleroad.com, a gay news blog: "The problem is not whether or not the so-called LGBT liaison was there or not. She cannot be present every single time a cop encounters a gay person. She should not need to be present on the so-called raid to make sure the cops keep in line. This is extremely disturbing."

Several protests calling for a formal investigation had been held since the raid and another has been planned for Sept 19 from noon at the bar which was established 23 years ago.