Atlanta police raided a gathering of gay leather enthusiasts in the city of Atlanta, GA for the second time in a year; Precautions were made by the facilitators to avoid attracting notice by the police.  In 2006 the same party was shut down by Atlanta Police.

Onyx Southeast, a black gay leather group, hosted the gathering called “Blackout” and said they may file a complaint against the Atlanta Police Department officers who “threateningly” broke-up the private party without providing reason. Nobody was detained and there is no report from the Oct. 7^th, 2006 occurrence.

An undercover officer attempted to enter “Blackout” at the Spring 4th Center at 726 Spring St., but was dismissed by the doorman because it was a private party and nobody could pay for entry, according to Ejay Session, president of Onyx Southeast.

Ejay then gave this statement to the Southern Voice, one of Atlanta’s Gay Magazine’s; “No sooner than the security guard left [the front area], that’s when the police came in,” Session said. “The police came in and were being very disrespectful to what was going on. Nobody got arrested because it was just the way they went about it.” nobody was doing anything —

The 6 officers that entered the party forcibly, allegedly made crafty comments about there being “a lot of cakes and pies in here,” and them “never having seen motorcycle riders look like that,” said Session, who added that his brother allegedly heard officers calling more police to the scene.

“He heard them on their radio, calling other officers, saying, ‘Oh, you gotta see this,’” Session said. “It wasn’t like they were calling for back-up, but instead, ‘Come and see this freak show.’”

Police searched Spring 4th supposedly looking for the venue’s capacity certificate, although with only about 20 people present, the Onyx crowd was “well under the occupancy,” Session said. But before Spring 4th owners arrived at the club with the capacity certificate, Onyx organizers decided to close their event.
“We ended up shutting down the party,” Session said.

There is no official paperwork on the incident, said APD (Atlanta Police Department) spokesperson Officer E. Schwartz.

“I don’t know the circumstances because there’s no report on it,” said Schwartz, who added that police could have been responding to “noise complaints.”

Officer Darlene Harris, Gay liaison for APD, could not be reached for comment by press time.

APD raided a different gay leather social at Spring 4th in October 2006, shutting down the party and arresting three organizers for collecting money for a cover charge and for drinks.

After being questioned about the 2006 raid Session said this, “Which is why I stressed it will be a dry party, just water — even get a chance to buy juice,” Session said of the “Blackout” event, which also didn’t have a cover charge.

“They were looking to see if we had money on the premises, or if we had been charging at the door,” Session said. “The only people who were there were invited guests.”

“You could just hear comments flying,” Session said of the officers. “I find it a shame that there’s not a space were you can be yourself and practice your craft.”