Fresh Loaf

UPDATE: According to an Atlanta Progressive News correction, Eagle patrons were not arrested after all, though they were ordered to lie on the ground and were handcuffed.

Ten police cars pulled up to the Atlanta Eagle on Ponce de Leon Avenue at approximately 11:30 p.m. Thursday night and stormed the bar, arresting multiple bar staff and male dancers and patrons, according to a report by Atlanta Progressive News.

An APN reporter was present at the raid:

One police officer stated, as he and others left the parking lot, “This is gonna keep happening if we keep getting complaints from the community.” The officer did not specify what complaints he was referring to.

This writer arrived minutes after the raid had begun. A line of cop cars blocked the parking lot so that no one in the parking lot could leave. …

According to one patron, APD handcuffed all Eagle staff members and dancers, patrons in a leather shop, and anyone who was wearing only underwear; Thursday is advertised as underwear night.

(more…)

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Thousands of people, led by WSB Talk show Host Herman Cain, came to Atlanta’s Olympic Park to protest Obama’s health care plans Aug. 15. Waving American flags and holding signs calling Obama a dictator, health care advocates socialists and equating government health care with certain death for Americans, the Tea Party crowd continued its offensive against the Obama administration. Many members of the crowd bragged to this reporter about not having health insurance. One member of the panel even went so far as to argue that life expectancy was a poor judge of a country’s health care (US ranks 50th in the world). One hundred percent of the people interviewed were pro government spending billions of dollars on war but against government spending billions of dollars on health care.

See more images from the health care protest.

(Photo and text by Joeff Davis)

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Residents will return to the streets of Atlanta all this weekend to voice their support for Iranian democracy.

Locations for this weekend’s protests, which are supported by Amnesty International and the American Friends Service Committee:

Friday (today), June 26, 6:30 p.m.
Lenox Mall on Peachtree Street

Saturday, June 27, 6 p.m.
Roswell Rd. NE & Johnson Ferry Rd. NE, Sandy Springs

Sunday, June 28, 4 p.m.
CNN Center, Marietta Street at Centennial Park Drive

Last Saturday, nearly 200 residents gathered at the CNN Center in dowtown Atlanta to voice outrage over the violent crackdown on Iranians who contested the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. CL captured photos and video of the rally.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Earlier today, ABC News’ Jake Tapper reported U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, would join protesters at a Save Darfur Coalition rally in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Well, the civil rights leader and longtime statesman was there, alright. And he got arrested.

From the AJC‘s Bob Keefe in D.C.:

Georgia Rep. John Lewis and five other members of Congress were arrested for civil disobedience as part of a protest against the humanitarian policies of the Sudanese government in Darfur.

Lewis, a civil rights leader, and others were arrested after crossing a police line and refusing to leave the steps of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington during the protest. The Democrat from Atlanta was expected to be released from a Washington police precinct within a few hours, said Ann Brown, a spokeswoman for the Save Darfur coalition.

…

“We cannot stand by, watch and wait,” he said. “Almost 10 years ago, my hometown of Atlanta welcomed some of the Lost Boys, refugees of the civil war in the Sudan. These young men stole our hearts. … how many more have to pay this heavy price?

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Atlanta is one of more than 80 cities where protests are planned against California’s recently approved gay-marriage ban, Proposition 8.

Judging from traffic on Join the Impact, the website that gives the protests’ details, there’s major interest in the nationwide event:

Our community has come out in such large numbers to this site that we are actually crashing the server!! This is a fantastic problem to have when you think about it! Basically, this has become such a huge thing, that a server that is meant to handle 10K visitors/hour just can’t handle us!!

In the next 24 hours you will probably see the site switch to a cheesy placeholder… be patient, it’s just temporary.

Georgia outlawed gay marriage in 2004 (even though the act already was illegal) and is among 30 states to do so in recent years.

The Atlanta protest will be held at City Hall East, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave the State Capitol, 214 Capitol Ave., on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 1:30 p.m.

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Nearly 25 demonstrators gathered outside the Federal Reserve Bank Building at 10th and Peachtree today under the banner “Bail Out the People, Not the Banks” in protest of the controversial “economic recovery” package that was approved 74-25 by the U.S. Senate last night. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on the package. Supporters of the legislation, including Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, threaten economic collapse if the bill fails, claiming its passage is essential not just for people on Wall Street, but also for folks on Main Street.

But these demonstrators weren’t buying it. Chants of “Stop Corporate Greed Fund Human Needs”, “Money for Main Street not for Wall Street” and “Bail Out the People Not The Banks” were punctuated by honking horns from passing vehicles in support of the protesters.

“I oppose bailing out billionaires,” said demonstrator Ingmar Smith. “We have been trying to get basic health care funded for 20 years but as soon as Wall Street needs money its available in a week.”

Demonstrators outside the Federal Reserve Bank Thursday afternoon

(more…)

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There are a bunch of events planned today for Troy Davis, the longtime death row inmate scheduled for execution tonight — despite evidence that suggests he might not have killed Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.

Unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants a last-minute stay of execution, Davis will die by lethal injection sometime after 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, Ga.

Here’s the run-down of protests, organized by Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Amnesty International:

• 1:15 p.m. — GFADP organizers and volunteers will meet at Johnny Rocket’s near Underground Atlanta (50 Upper Alabama St.) to stage a nearby “die-in.” According to the group: “This means laying down in front of a particular site as someone holds a sign explaining why people are lying down.”
• 6:30 p.m. (in Jackson) — If there is no stay of execution, protesters will gather outside the site of the execution. Get directions here.
• 6:30 p.m. (in Atlanta) — Davis’ supporters will meet at the Georgia State Capitol downtown, near the corner of MLK Drive and Washington Street, either to protest Davis’ death or celebrate a stay of execution.
• Additional protests are planned in Americus, Athens, Augusta, Clarkesville, Dawson, Marietta and Savannah. Details here.

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Last weekend, my 6-month-old black Lab and I came across a row of zealous dog lovers on our usual Saturday morning trip to Piedmont Park’s off-leash dog park. Right outside of the dog park, about 15 demonstrators were chained to individual dog houses making a statement against owners who chain their dogs.

Tammy S. Grimes (above), founder and executive director for Dogs Deserve Better, put on the event and stood proudly outside of her dog house.

Kelly Hamilton (above), who came all the way from Kentucky to participate in the event, sat happily with my puppy while I took some photographs.

Photos by Tammy Vinson

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LIVESTOCK: A “picket pen” at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston

You may or may not like Mayor Shirley Franklin’s effort to slow down an ordinance that would allow the city to cordon protesters off during conventions, festivals and other events. But it remains unclear exactly who’s pushing the legislation.

Councilman Jim Maddox’s proposed ordinance would allow event organizers to obtain permits that require protesters to stay in corded-off “free speech zones.” Opponents say that amounts to a violation of the First Amendment’s free-speech guarantee.

“It empowers a private citizen to … put counterprotesters in a speech penalty box, in a corral, where they are not allowed to participate in a demonstration under threat of criminal prosecution,” the American Civil Liberties Union’s Gerry Weber said at a press conference last week.

Maddox didn’t respond to CL’s requests that he explain why the ordinance is needed. Weber said he’d heard the councilman was responding to two upcoming events. One is the June 22-24 Atlanta Pride Festival, which over the last few years has been set upon by religious hatemongers. The other is the U.S. Social Forum, which will attract more than 10,000 people from progressive groups (read: experienced protesters) to Atlanta June 27-July 1.

But Atlanta Pride Committee officials joined in Weber’s press conference to say they didn’t support Maddox’s ordinance. Hmm. Do powerful interests fear an onslaught of protests from the U.S. Social Forum? We’d be allowed to tell you … if we were in a free-speech zone.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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MILLION MARIJUANA MARCH IN FREEDOM PARK: We had an awesome caption for this, but we, like, forgot it.

Contrary to the stereotype, pot smokers don’t just get high and sit at home. On Saturday, some of them got high and sat on a hill in Freedom Park.

They were local participants in Saturday’s Million Marijuana March, which consisted of coordinated pot-legalization rallies around the globe. Atlanta’s rally was led by Paul Cornwell. Cornwell heads the Atlanta branch of the Coalition for the Abolition of Marijuana Prohibition, which is difficult to say even when you’re not high, so they just call it CAMP.

With the scent of sweet, sweet cheeba in the air, Cornwell’s rambling speech emphasized the injustice and hypocrisy of keeping marijuana illegal. It was interrupted repeatedly by passing cars honking (presumably) in support, and once by Cornwell’s own cell phone, which he stopped his speech to answer.

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Two organizers of Thursday’s book-related protest outside the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offices were surprised when top editor Julia Wallace invited them upstairs for a chat.

The demonstration, which drew as many as 60 local authors, literary critics and book-lovers, was staged to express displeasure with the newspaper’s elimination of the job of book editor, a position currently held by Teresa Weaver.

Shannon Byrne, a local publicist for Little, Brown, and John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, were given an hourlong private audience with Wallace and the newly elevated “managing editor for print,” Bert Roughton.

Byrne says Wallace began the meeting by telling her guests that the two-page Sunday book section is the least-read section in the paper and explained that the paper was going to be devoting more of its resources to local coverage. As she has in recent interviews and memos, Wallace, however, also said the AJC’s commitment to book coverage would not suffer.

Byrne, for one, sees a contradiction there.

“I’m glad they appeared willing to listen to us and I’d like to believe their reassurances,” she says. “But I don’t see how a book section gets better when you get rid of your book editor and you have fewer people doing more work.”

Certainly, there was no shortage of coverage of the book protest. The event was filmed by CNN, C-SPAN and Fox News, and was also covered by Publishers Weekly.

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If you’re afraid to hear something that’s different from what you believe, then going to a neighborhood festival with thousands of people attending probably isn’t the best way for you to spend a Saturday afternoon.

– Rusty at Radical Georgia Moderate, commenting on Mary Grabar’s guest column in the AJC today about the Inman Park Festival. Grabar calls the parade’s anti-Bush administration protesters hateful, disruptive and fat.

Politics has replaced religion for the left, so for them it has to permeate all aspects of their life.

– Doug Deal commenting on Peach Pundit about Grabar’s column.

Take a look at the picture. Doesn’t that look AMAZING! Well, maybe it would if you lived in a town whose main attraction was a museum to Coca-Cola.

– D.C.’s Wonkette blog mocks Saturday’s pro-impeachment demonstrations in Atlanta. Protesters spelled the word “impeach” with candles.

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A pro-impeachment rally is scheduled tomorrow in Freedom Park.

The plan is for attendees to lie on the ground and spell the word IMPEACH with their bodies. According to this template, it takes a minimum of 33 people to spell IMPEACH with their bodies. Sans serif, of course.

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Marietta anti-illegal-immigrant activist D.A. King has taken his spiel to the top.

According to the Washington Post, King coordinated a rally on Sunday that brought 400 people to protest illegal immigration on the eve of another congressional attempt to try to hammer out immigration reform. The event took place at a park directly across from the White House. King told the crowd, “Anyone with a different agenda against skin color or national origin, you are not welcome … and you will not be tolerated.”

King made headlines in 2005 when he paid homeless individuals $10 to hold anti-illegal-immigration posters and signs outside the Georgia Capitol. Since then, King has hooked up with Roger Hedgecock, a radio talk-show host from San Diego and frequent guest on Rush Limbaugh’s show, to organize national protests such as the one that occurred earlier this week.

To read more about King, check out former CL editor Doug Monroe’s story.

Photo by Doug Monroe

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RainbowPUSH Atlanta is sponsoring a public rally right now calling for the immediate firing of radio and TV “personality” Don Imus. Imus’ show airs in Atlanta on Talk Radio WALR-AM (1340). The station’s office is in Buckhead. However, the protest will take place outside RainbowPUSH’s office at 100 Auburn Ave. downtown.

Call me old-fashioned, but standing 40 feet from your desk and talking to your co-workers about the news isn’t really a protest. It’s a coffee break.

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