Police arrested the party's organizers, Sharaj Jogani and Saleem Siraj, for not having obtained requisite permission to serve liquor at the party, while the DJ -- DJ Babar -- was arrested for not having a legal license to play music.

Police had raided the party after neighbors complained about the loud music that was being played.

The majority of the party goers were described as being "homosexual," according to a police spokesperson.

“The team found that those at the party were behaving in an indecent manner as defined under the Bombay Police Act so they were detained and asked to pay a fine of 1,200 Rupees (about $25 U.S. dollars) each," said Pratap Dighavkar, deputy commissioner of the Oshiwara police.

The party organizers, Sharaj Jogani and Saleem Siraj, and DJ Babar were arrested, and later released on bail.

Bobby Darling told reporters, "I just went to the party as a celebrity guest on a professional level and charged for it. I was not aware it was a gay party. I did not see any form of indecent behavior ... I doubt the police would have taken such action had it not been a gay party.”

"Yes, we did arrest Bobby Darling. And we charged him for indecent behavior. He was let off in the morning after he paid a bail of 12,500 Rupees," said Assistant Inspector Sanjay More of the Oshiwara Police.

Police actions in Mumbai and its suburbs are facing increasing backlash over enforcing what some see as draconian statues that define some actions including modern forms of dancing or even simply holding hands as "indecent behaviour."

In July, police raided a popular local night club, arresting 71 young persons dancing for what police also referred to as indecent behavior. That action, where the 71 nightclub attendees were detained for 3 hours and then fined 38000 rupees each, caused them to take their protests online with a Stop Moral Policing page on Facebook.

The recent actions by the police agencies around Mumbai prompted one Indian media outlet, NDTV, to note, "If you like dancing or wearing party clothes, then Mumbai, often described as India's Manhattan, is not the place for you."

The firings come as a result of a three-month investigation by the city into the Sept. 10, 2009, raid at the Atlanta Eagle that found many officers lied, knowingly violated the constitutional rights of those at the bar, destroyed evidence, and tried to cover up what they had done.

More than 20 Atlanta Police officers descended on the Atlanta Eagle, including its now-disbanded “Red Dog Unit” dressed in SWAT team gear, allegedly responding to complaints of drugs and public sex. But inside the bar the APD found no drugs, no public sex, and no illegal weapons.

During the raid, patrons of the bar were forced to lie face down in spilled beer and broken glass, and heard police refer to them using anti-gay slurs.

Police arrested or detained 62 people, but never filed charges against any of the patrons. Only 8 employees were charged with permit violations, but those charges were soon dropped or dismissed.

Atlanta's LGBT community was furious, calling the raid "aggressive," "indiscriminate" and “harassment.”

A federal lawsuit was filed and in December 2010, the city paid more than $1 million to settle the suit filed on behalf of 19 patrons.

The actions come almost 10 days after the release of 343-page report detailing how 16 officers lied or destroyed evidence when asked about the raid at the Atlanta Eagle bar. The report said 10 of them lied, which usually leads to a termination because those officers can no longer testify.

“Honesty goes to the very heart of a police officer’s credibility,” Chief George Turner said. “The public must be able to trust its police officers and expects them to tell the truth at all times. Failure to be truthful has serious consequences at the Atlanta Police Department. I hope my actions today serve as a reminder to those men and women on the force that dishonesty simply will not be tolerated.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution

In addition to the six terminations, nine other officers were reprimanded or suspended over the raid, and three more officers await discipline hearings next week. Two other officers accused of lying had already been dismissed in connection with an unrelated internal investigation.

Major Debra Williams, who oversaw one of the units that raided the bar, was demoted to lieutenant and retired from the department on Wednesday.

On the night of Sept. 10, 2009, four-dozen police crashed the Underwear Night special event at the Atlanta Eagle, slamming patrons to the floor, using homophobic slurs, and arresting and detaining 62 people. Police targeted the gay bar on the pretext of illicit sex and drugs, allegations that were never proven.

The owner of the Eagle, Richard Ramey, went immediately on the offense against the raid, telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Sept. 12, 2009, ”Our problem is with the way our customers were treated.”

Nick Koperski, a bar patron present at the time of the raid, was quoted as saying, ”I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade.”

The Atlanta Police Department refused to cooperate with an investigation by the Atlanta Citizens Council.

Charges brought against employees and patrons either failed to win convictions, collapsed for lack of evidence, or were otherwise dismissed, according to a report by EDGE.

Last March, eight employees of the bar were found not guilty of trumped up charges by the Atlanta Police Department in a ruling handed down in Municipal Court. Investigations into the raid found that the Atlanta Police Department did not have a warrant to raid the bar on the night in question. Mandatory revisions to police procedures will be carried out in response to the settlement.

The vindication of the Atlanta Eagle stands in sharp contrast to the outcome of the Fort Worth Police Department’s infamous raid on the Rainbow Lounge just months before the Atlanta debacle.

Like the Georgia raid, all charges against patrons arrested at the popular Fort Worth gay bar have been dropped without comment from the city.

Unlike the Atlanta outcome, however, the Fort Worth Police Department has never issued a sufficient apology (in our opinion) or formally admitted any wrongdoing in the illicit raid on the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, nor has the action of the FWPD ever been deemed wrong by an outside investigation.

This has been in spite of the public action disciplining officers of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) for their part in the raid, and a formal apology issued by the executive of the TABC.

What exempted the FWPD from disciplinary actions similar to the TABC?

Factors contributing to the non-resolution of the Fort Worth police raid may include a less-than-robust defense of bar patrons by the Rainbow Lounge ownership at the time of the bust, and the less aggressive approach Fort Worth gay leaders employed to bring the city and the police department to account.

While there have been laudable actions in response to the Rainbow Lounge raid, such as the establishment of a police liaison with the local LGBT community, and transgender protections added to municipal protection statutes, honesty about the motives and motivators behind the Fort Worth raid remain unspoken and unacknowledged.

While we are glad the city of Fort Worth dropped charges against patrons charged in the arrests the night of the raid, including public intoxication and groping, the harm done by the raid in Cowtown has not been acknowledged by the powers that be, and therefore the LGBTQ community, and the individual Texans directly wronged remain unjustified.

Justice for Atlanta, but how about for Fort Worth?

We guess the mayor of Fort Worth has more control over the courts, the press, and the gay establishment in North Texas than the mayor of Atlanta.

A good thing? You be the judge.

June 28, 2009 raid on the Rainbow Lounge

City prosecutors in Fort Worth have decided to press ahead with criminal charges against at least two patrons of a gay bar who were arrested during a controversial police raid last summer.

Chad Gibson, who received a serious head injury while in custody, and George Armstrong appeared for the first time in Fort Worth Municipal Court, according to KXAS-TV.

Gibson is charged with public intoxication and with assaulting a state agent by allegedly groping him. Armstrong is charged with public intoxication. The intoxication and assault charges are both misdemeanors.

Adam Seidel, the attorney for both men, said his clients were unwilling to accept a plea bargain and asked the case to be set for trial.

He declined to say specifically if prosecutors offered a deal, but said he was surprised they did not drop the charges entirely.

"The city's message has been, ‘Let's learn from this and move forward and get past it,’” Seidel said. “That doesn't seem to be consistent with prosecuting these two victims."

The June 28, 2009 raid on the Rainbow Lounge began when police officers and Alcohol Commission agents arrived for a routine check to ensure the bar wasn’t serving underage patrons and to stop potential drunk drivers.

Witnesses said officers forced their way through the crowd and grew physically and verbally aggressive. They claim the officers arrested people at random, never asked for identification and didn’t check blood-alcohol levels on site.

In August, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission fired the two agents, and their supervisor, who took part in the raid because they failed to get approval to conduct the inspection.

Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit against the city of Atlanta, the Chief of Police and forty-eight individual officers of the Atlanta Police Department, claiming the September raid at the Atlanta Eagle gay bar, was illegal.

"The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD," said Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office based in Atlanta. "If it is APD procedure for elderly men and wounded veterans to be thrown to the floor and harassed simply for being in a bar having a drink after work, then the APD should change its procedures."

"The Atlanta Police Department is not above the law. They do not get to search and detain people who are not suspected of any crime," said Dan Grossman, co–counsel in the case.

On September 10, the Atlanta Police Department dispatched about twenty to thirty officers to the Atlanta Eagle, including its "Red Dog Unit" dressed in SWAT team gear, but inside the bar the APD found no public sex, no drugs, or illegal weapons.

During the raid, patrons of the bar were forced to lie facedown on the floor while background checks were run on everyone.

Eagle bar patrons heard anti-gay slurs; were forced to lay in spilled beer and broken glass; and one was forced to lie on the floor even though he had injured his back in the Iraq War. Not a single patron was charged with any crime.

The lawsuit challenges the APD officers' actions, claiming violations of the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions and Georgia state law.

The case is Calhoun v. Pennington.

FORT WORTH — The disciplinary actions handed down to three Fort Worth police officers for their part in the June 28 raid on the Rainbow Lounge were “absolutely inadequate,” according to Jon Nelson, spokesman for the LGBT community group formed in the wake of the raid.

Two officers, including the sergeant in charge of the Fort Worth officers that night, were given one-day suspensions. A third officer was suspended for three days.

Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead announced the suspensions at a press conference Thursday morning, on Jennings Street outside the Rainbow Lounge.

Halstead also announced that two lengthy internal investigations conducted by his department had concluded that none of the Fort Worth officers used excessive force during the raid.

Nelson, who also spoke at the press conference, said the FWPD report “falls far short” in terms of disciplinary actions, and reiterated his organization’s earlier call for an independent investigation into the incident.

Halstead said during the press conference that he has given the entire report on his department’s investigations and their findings to the Department of Justice for review.

Nelson also said he was unhappy to learn that the investigation made no effort to explain why the raid happened.

Full story at the Dallas Voice.

About 20 protestors showed up for the Atlanta City Council's Public Safety Committee meeting, claiming the Sept. 10 raid at the Atlanta Eagle bar was uncalled for and heavy handed, reports WXIA-TV.

Witnesses say about 20 undercover and uniformed police officers made more than 60 customers lie on the floor while they searched them. All the customers were set free after a background check, but 8 bar employees were arrested on entertainment license violations because they had no dance permits.

Police say the raid was the result of some undercover officers seeing public sex acts performed at the club several months ago, but no such acts were seen Thursday night.

On Monday, the Atlanta Police Department released copies of nine complaints filed with its Office of Professional Standards by patrons and employees of the gay club, reports Southern Voice.

Police Chief Richard Pennington said in a news conference Monday that the raid was a result of an undercover operation that began after anonymous complaints about sexual activity were received in May.

Pennington publicly apologized on Monday, saying his department would look into any possible misconduct by any of his officers.

On Friday night, supporters gathered at the bar in a support of solidarity and held hands and raised their arms in the air to show their strength as community.

Attorney Alan Begner is representing the Eagle and expects some kind of legal action to take place, but he was not sure as of Saturday.

Earlier Friday, the Atlanta Police Department issued this statement:

The Atlanta Police Department conducts routine inspections of city businesses with valid alcohol permits. The City received several complaints with descriptive information about alleged criminal conduct at the Atlanta Eagle Club located at 306 Ponce De Leon.

In an effort to ensure compliance with the law, the Police Department investigated the complaints and during the investigation police observed criminal behavior taking place at the Club on September 10, 2009. While the Police were conducting a compliance check it lead to the arrests of eight employees. The Department views all complaints of criminal conduct as serious and will utilize resources to investigate and deter criminal activity in order to create a safe environment.

While there have been allegations of improper behavior by police officers conducting the investigation, there have not been any official complaints filed with the Atlanta Police Department.

According to patrons present during the raid, no one was allowed to leave the building until after police had leisurely checked the IDs of patrons forced to lay prone on the floor. Police collected IDs and personal belongings. Challengers were told “Don't speak until spoken to” or “Shut up.”

The Eagle is located at 306 Ponce de Leon Ave. and remains open. The rally Sunday night will be followed by a short march to City Hall East, located at 675 Ponce de Leon.

Full story at Southern Voice.

Several customers at Atlanta Eagle say they were harassed without prompting, forced to the ground and frisked.

"Our problem is with the way our customers were treated," said one of the Eagle's owners, Richard Ramey.

Eight employees of the bar were arrested around 11:30 p.m., charged with providing adult entertainment without a city permit.

About ten police cars and about 15 cops raided the bar, allegedly looking for drugs.

Police were said to have ordered all patrons to get on the ground, including patrons who were just dancing or standing at the bar, and numerous patrons said people were handcuffed indiscriminately.

Bar patrons were furious at the aggressive and indiscriminate treatment and called the incident "harassment."

“I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade,” said Nick Koperski, 31, who had just gotten to the bar when the raid, involving more than a dozen police officers, some in plain clothes, commenced. Patrons at the Stonewall Inn staged a series of riots against New York police in 1969, saying they were routinely harassed because of their sexual orientation. The protests are credited with kick starting the modern gay rights movement.

In a statement released early Friday evening, the APD said the city "received several complaints with descriptive information about alleged criminal conduct at the Atlanta Eagle Club located at 306 Ponce De Leon."

Full story at the Atlanta Progressive News.

The Commission said agent Christopher Aller and agent trainee Jason Chapman, who participated in the June 28 raid at the Rainbow Lounge, were fired today, along with their supervisor, Sgt. Terry Parsons, who was not at the Fort Worth bar that night.

The firings come as a result of an internal investigation and release of a 32-page report released earlier in the month that found that Aller and Chapman failed to get approval for the inspection initiated by TABC agents, failed to report that a patron was injured while in the agency's custody, and failed to report that force was used in his arrest.

The raid resulted in the arrests of six people for public intoxication and sent one man, Chad Gibson, to the hospital with a severe head injury. The bar had only been open for about a week.

Six people were arrested in the raid, and one man, Chad Gibson, was sent to the hospital with a severe head injury.  The bar raid, conducted June 28, happened on the 40th anniversary of the police raid on New York's Stonewall Inn, an event often regarded as the launch of the modern gay rights movement.

Chief Jeff Halstead said officials are still investigating what happened during the June 28 raid on the gay bar by Fort Worth police officers and state agents that resulted in five arrests and left another patron, Chad Gibson, with a serious head injury.

Halstead cited a "flawed policy" that led to the incident, and said the new policy will ensure that such an event never happens again.

The incident began about 12:30 a.m., when police officers and Alcohol Commission agents arrived for a routine check to ensure the bar wasn't serving underage patrons and to stop potential drunk drivers.

At the Rainbow Lounge, which had just opened a week earlier, witnesses said officers forced their way through the crowd and grew physically and verbally aggressive. They claim the officers arrested people at random, never asked for identification and didn't check blood-alcohol levels on site.

"I am apologizing for the actions and the reflection that this gave our community because they perceived it as a bar raid, and all our interviews with our officers and the other agents, they never, ever intended this to look that way," Halstead told Fort Worth City Council members Tuesday morning during a progress report on his department’s investigation.

Halstead said the department will continue to conduct bar checks and make public-intoxication arrests, but said the department’s current policy is short and vague, giving "way too much freedom and flexibility."

The department is also trying to mend its relationship with the LGBT community , which staged protest marches following the raid at the Rainbow Lounge. Halstead said he is appointing an officer as a liaison to the gay community, and providing more diversity training to officers.

The June 28 raid occurred, ironically, on the 40th anniversary of the infamous raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 1969, sparking the Stonewall riots, largely considered as the birth of the modern gay rights movement.