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(EMAILWIRE.COM, March 29, 2011 ) Atlanta, Georgia - Glaser Currie & Bullman is representing individuals who were allegedly strip-searched, physically assaulted, or both, on the streets of Atlanta by members of the Atlanta Police Department's notorious Red Dog Squad.
While initially hoping such incidents were isolated, numerous other credible victims of the heavy-handed tactics of these paramilitary-style unit have come forward (many of whom had filed complaints with the police department or the Atlanta Citizen Review Board) only to have the Atlanta Police Department ignore the evidence of a pattern a pattern and practice of violating the civil rights of citizens.
While the City has announced that the Red Dog Squad will be disbanded, no formal disciplinary action has been taken against the officers who reportedly have a pattern of abusing Atlanta citizens (other than to place a few of the officers on temporary administrative duty), despite the promise of swift and decisive action by Atlanta's Mayor, Kasim Reed, and Atlanta Police Chief George Turner.
Many of the officers of the Red Dog Squad have a history of complaints by citizens alleging improper strip-searches, assaults, improper criminal charges (which were later dismissed) to justify police conduct and other numerous allegations of misconduct dating back at least as far as 2007. Moreover, the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, a civilian oversight group tasked with reviewing complaints regarding law enforcement activities, has sustained numerous complaints against these officers, and yet Chief Turner has rejected each and every call for discipline for their egregious conduct.
The Atlanta Police Department has had a recent history of extraordinary civil rights violations, from the murder of Kathryn Johnston during a botched police raid resulting in federal obstruction of justice charges (for planting false evidence and lying to investigators to cover their crimes) and the payment of $4.9 million by the City of Atlanta, to the similarly infamous Atlanta Eagle Bar raid in which numerous Atlanta officers (including some of the same officers who strip-searched our clients on the side of the road) unlawfully detained, searched and improperly ran criminal background checks on 60 patrons and numerous employees - detaining them from 45 minutes to up to 2 1/2 hours - without a warrant or probable cause, while making sexual slurs and otherwise abusing the patrons. As a result of our co-counsel Dan Grossman's efforts, the Eagle raid resulted in a settlement by the City of Atlanta of more than $1 million. Nevertheless, despite settlement of the case, the apparent destruction of evidence, findings by a federal judge of violations of citizens' civil rights and other outrageous behavior, Atlanta's Police Chief has yet to discipline any of the officers who participated in the Eagle raid.
There is a pattern of tolerance and even approval of this illegal and reprehensible conduct on the part of some members of the Atlanta Police Department and particularly officers of the Red Dog Unit. This behavior should not and cannot be tolerated. We hope that through our representation of our clients and bringing these matters to light, citizens will be better informed about their constitutional rights, police will receive better training and supervision regarding citizens' rights, and we will finally see the City of Atlanta and its police department's administration hold themselves and their officers to the legal and ethical standards of professional law enforcement which the citizens of Atlanta deserve.
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Attorney Mark Bullman is a member of the national attorney network on LawyerCentral.com.
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