New attack on sexual minorities in Phila

[BrianR]

By now, most of you who have met me or who know me by reputation know that I am actively
into the leather lifestyle and support any organization or group that does not hurt our public image
or which works for the greater good of the community.

Therefore, I am reposting this letter from a friend in Phila with her permission.
There are two more parts to this message which I will post here when I receive them.

***

hi gang

i am going to break down all the information i need to share into 3 emails:

what happened
what we are going to do about it
personal comments

WHAT HAPPENED

on friday night (4/5/02) at approx 30 minutes after midnight we got a visit
from L&I, Vice, the narcotics task force, ATF, a petty crimes unit? and other
law enforcement officers who refused to identify themselves (between 30 and
40 officials).....an all out guns drawn everyone stop spanking each other
raid.....at the time there were about 40 members in the club and only one
couple actually engaged in SM activities (happened to be our lawyer)...there
were no warrants, they did not ask to enter, they did not identify
themselves...they just drew guns and said "we are coming in".....they frisked
security who had no time to push the call button and alert us on the inside
of the building and were actually ordered not to touch their radios......they
were asked why they were here on several occasions during the raid and we
were told "we dont have to tell you that"....everyone was told to stay
put...the person Topping was told "step away from the woman".....she got
dressed....most people were either in the lounge or in the dungeon....the
people in the kitchen were sent to the lounge....the people upstairs were
kept there....there was a girl with a broken leg (lorie) in the bathroom who
was actually roughed up....michael who was upstairs identified himself as
part owner and responsible for everything....he was interrogated (this is an
accurate description) by L&I officials who were armed....he produced all the
legal paperwork....(he also asked where anna and the club lawyer were and
they told him we left which was a lie and i believe they were trying to get
him to become upset).... a vice officer at the scene who was totally offended
they were there and who spoke to a member who happens to be a federal law
enforcement agent called it PBS (political bullshit) and said it was from a
call from Rep Dwight Evans (local politician) who told them to go in and find
something to shut us down with...we have no idea if that is true or not.
...the vice officers also indicated they did not know they were coming to BTS
when they were picked up for this raid and couldnt understand why .....the L&
I official in charge told me they had no idea what we (the club) were doing
there and didnt know anything about us...i told him we have been dealing with
you since we opened and have the records to prove it....they were shocked
when we produced all our paperwork and notes detailing our conversations with
them over the last 18 months including names, certified letters, and the
paperwork from our most recent inspection which was 6 weeks ago....quote from
an L&I official - "we are a beauracracy, we dont know what we are
doing".........they said they are going to cite us for some electrical
violations but said it would take a few days for them to get back to us....in
the mean time they closed the club and evacuated everyone here except
staff....during the visit we had a few issues with one officer in particular
making inappropriate comments about the sexual orientation and gender status
of a few of the gay and transgendered members at the club.....we intend to
bring that up with Vice this week and already have the LGBT liason to the
police dept working on it.......there were also some issues with us selling
stuff on the 2nd floor...we have licenses to sell and all our tax info and
that was shown to them also....they did not confiscate anything....no one was
arrested....BDSM did not seem to be the issue and i was specifically told by
an L&I official that they didnt care what we were doing there...they just
wanted to make sure everyone was safe....duh...so do we!!

L&I is trying to say we did not do what we were supposed to in notifying them
and making sure we had a safe location....well we DID notify them before we
ever opened, we got info on our certificate of occupancy and were told it was
sufficient...we made appointments ....we got licenses...we sat here and
waited for them to show up......we were inspected....we fixed the violations,
which were all minor......we have acted in good faith....they on the other
hand failed to train their staff...failed to supervise...failed to give us
the right info....failed to show up for appts....failed to inspect
properly....and now have interupted our business and are causing us financial
harm..not only that but since when does L&I do an inspection with 30 law
enforcement officers with guns drawn?

Our records include the name of the L&I official i originally talked to who
gave us the go ahead on our Certificate of Occupancy and explained how we
were categorized, our inspection info from 2/02/02, receipt from a certified
letter sent to Dominic Verdi, the head of L&I in February in reference to the
club, copies of all our licenses to operate and do business in the state of
pennsylvania and the city of philadelphia...plus we have a record of an L&I
visit to the building in 1997 where no electrical problems are cited.....good
thing i am anal and keep records of everything.

as for Vice i know they have had undercover officers in the club in the past
and found no problems...this was told to me by Sean Carr (former head of
philly vice) in the summer....he also was quoted on the front page article in
the daily news in july i believe as saying BTS was legal....he even agreed to
come and do a community meeting here....he went to a training program in
virginia during the summer and when he got back was transferred to the police
training academy....Lt Greene took over and i talked to him as late as a
month ago....he indicated to me there were no problems with the club....i
also have continued my very good relationship with the 14th district police
dept....they came by that night as everyone was leaving and had no idea what
was going on.

after about an hours inspection of the club which included a thorough drug
sweep by the narcotics task force with guns drawn....everyone was asked to
leave....the only person whose ID was asked for or whose name was taken was
michaels since his name is on most of the paperwork with L&I......no one
asked for club records (which arent kept at the club anyway).......they didnt
want to confiscate our computers (which dont have any club info or passwords
on them anyway...they just run the music and keep inventory of
supplies)....they never really asked us any questions about what goes on at
the club except they wanted to know who runs the massage concession....i
explained that no one runs anything or gets paid for any services
here....they were pretty bored except for lots of porn magazines to read
(which they did) and many obzines were taken out with individual
officers....several officers made a point of telling jeff on their way out
they would like to come back (without L&I) and become members if they are
still welcome.

everyone was asked to leave the club except staff....we can have staff
meetings at the building and we can have volunteers here to work on it....we
just cant have parties till further notice (which i hope is wed)

as for the neighbors...many have come down to tell us they support us....we
have made their neighborhood safer and cleaner and they have no problem with
what we do.....they have offered to go to community meetings and make phone
calls and write letters for us....we also have several members including
myself who are looking to purchase houses up the street, rehab them, and live
here....if anything we are increasing the value of properties in this
neighborhood and the city should be kissing our butts cause there arent that
many people rushing to live here and invest in the community.....

yesterday a few staff members covered the outside of the building with gay
pride, leather pride, american, and dont tread on me liberty or death
flags....we also covered the door with ACLU and NCSF information....i guess
if we have to be out we might as well be all the way out.

a few other notes;

last week there was an article in the local paper (Germantown Courier) with a
front page picture of the club....i sent this report to NCSF last week;

on monday a local neighborhood paper ran an article on sex clubs moving into
the neighborhood...i dont have the article and havent seen it yet....members
who live in the neighborhood have read it to me and described it....the club
picture is on the front page...but no address, name, or info on the club is
in the article....mainly it talks about a house in a neighborhood down the
street from the club someone is using as a sex party house complete with
alcohol and dancers etc....the article is not well written and contains
erroneous info although its all very subtle.....several neighbors came down
today to the club including the block captain to tell us they were never
interviewed for the article, dont agree with the article, have no problem
with the club, would support the club if meetings are called, and to let them
know what we need.....i am not sure what to do...ignore the article?....get
letters sent in to the paper in support of us?....we are in good shape with
the city but as you know the one thing that can take you down is neighborhood
pressure put on politicians.

then later the following was sent to ncsf also;

well i spent the morning (thursday) in the office of state rep John
Myers....talking to his aide Larry Simmons...i contacted him at the advice of
the block captain who is on our side and likes us (and helps run a local
speakeasy down the street)....when i told Larry i was the owner of the club
on Amstrong St he invited me to come on down right then...very nice guy...i
was accompanied by my partner Michael (who had been in his office months
earlier talking about some business plans Michael had for the
neighborhood)....Larry told me a long convoluted story so follow me
here....the real issue isnt the sex clubs...its a halfway house for
recovering drug addicts and alcoholics that someone wants to put in the
neighborhood...the neighbors dont want it....the aide to rep Myers has been
arguing with them about it for months ...he feels this is where it belongs
because the people being sent there are FROM the neighborhood...recently he
was at McDonalds and someone handed him a nice 4 color postcard for a sex
club called The Dungeon.....a residential home about 4 blocks from my club
(on the same block coincidentally that i am trying to buy a house to rehab
and live in).....this club had a website and advertised sex with girls in
private rooms, alcohol for sale, etc.....pretty ballsy...this Larry Simmons
guy was on the phone asking the neighborhood group representative if he knew
about the sex club on his block and he said sure...no problem there...well
Larry was pretty pissed off....you have a problem with a halfway house but
not with an illegal sex club?.....at the same time he had a friend visiting
his office listening to this conversation and the friend asked him if he knew
about the SM club on Armstrong St....Larry was like what SM Club?......the
guy pulled out his BTS membership card and showed him and told him he was a
member and a regular and that it was a very nice club.....Larry was like
great now we have 2 sex clubs in the neighborhood, not knowing anything about
the legal status of BTS at that point....when the neighborhood newspaper guy
showed up to do a story on it he told them about the 2 clubs and what he knew
and made comments to the effect that they would be doing what they could to
close them down....the newspaper reporter guy actually came to the club last
thursday night (i wasnt there)...we were open but we dont let anyone in who
isnt a member or doesnt have a password indicating they have talked to me or
gone thru the rules page on the website.....so the door person refused them
entry.... the article had no info at all in it about BTS.....just our picture
on the front page....the Larry Simmons guy told us he doesnt know what to do
right now....he has no desire to go head to head with us....he has no legal
reason to shut us down....many neighbors have called him to support us....he
did ask us not to have anyone write letters to the editor of the paper....he
seems to hope it will all die down....he asked if he could come by next week
for a tour....

as far as my conversation with him....i felt i presented the whole SM thing
very well....i didnt have alot of time to prepare and would you believe i had
no NCSF brochures to give him (i will have AJ send me some right away).....i
told him we had been there for 18 months, had all the proper licenses, had
been inspected recently by the health dept and L&I and passed....that we had
over 2700 members (he almost died when he heard that)....that many of our
members lived in the neighborhood....that several more were hoping to move
into the neighborhood and who the realtor was we were working with (he called
her a few minutes after we left to check on this info)....i told him that
there is a 500 member african american internet SM group in the city that
meets in the club once a month (that also impressed him because there is a
perception that we are an all white people thing)....i told him i do not
support any SM club that breaks all the laws or has anything to do with
alcohol and i hoped he saw the difference between us and them.....i told him
about our front page article in the daily news in july and the quote from the
head of the vice squad saying he knew about BTS and in his opinion we were
totally legal......i framed us as a sexual minority, mentioning the old
kinsey studies of 5 to 10% of the population engages in SM and the newer
studies indicating that it might be even higher ....i mentioned many of our
members are gay and transgendered (which is true) and that i had a
responsibility to protect their safety also which is one of the reasons we
keep a low profile (he REALLY got that in more ways than one)......i think i
presented myself as intelligent and knowledgeable and articulate...and
confident and friendly....he really liked michael also (he and michael are
both retired army officers and disabled veterans).....i am hoping this is as
far as all this will go.

well so much for that effort.......

back to the story at hand;

i think this may all be related as both Dwight Evans and John Myers are local
state reps.

we have spent the weekend contacting people who can help us including
politicians and lawyers....we are getting ALOT of support....people are
flabbergasted this happened....it is so obviously a harrassment issue or else
they made a huge mistake thinking they were going someplace where there were
drugs and prostitutes running rampant....i mean they tried to figure out if
selling merlins sword was a federal offense (i told them they could buy it at
the mall but we sell it cheaper).....they asked what the coffin is
for....someone should have told them its where we hide the bodies of the
people we beat to death....they couldnt find an ounce of anything, not
alcohol or drugs ....i even had to ask one officer not to smoke in the
building...he was not happy....neither was i.

Seems like some narrow minded political leader aka terrorist decided he
doesnt agree with what we are doing and sent in suicide bombers to shut us
down......well
as the president said we are in a war to protect our freedoms and you are
either with us or you are against us.......

of course this is all about sex......if we were holding boxing matches that
would be ok....joe frazier is a philly icon even though he made a living
beating people to a pulp....we dont even hurt each other but because what we
do is considered perverted by a few narrowminded morons we are a target and
will be persecuted....when is Vice going to raid the catholic churches and
root out the pedophiles?...why havent they confiscated the records at the
dioscese offices and arrested the criminals who are sexually molesting our
children?.....not to mention the criminals who are protecting
them?........why are they harrassing consenting adults who have the right
guaranteed by the constitution to express themselves and assemble
peacefully....and IN PRIVATE!!!!!!......

they want a war...they got a war.....

BTS has over 2700 members now.....lawyers, doctors, judges, grandmothers,
plumbers, and housewives....educated tax paying citizens....there is alot of
power in that and its time to weild it....even if many people have to stay in
the closet there are more than enough who dont and can fight the battle for
everyones benefit.

goal #1 is to reopen asap....i am confident that is going to happen within
days without too much screaming....if that happens we wont have to sue the
city and we can go back to our quiet life....in the mean time we need phone
calls made and letters written....the next email outlines that effort.

to respond to this email either call me at the club at 215 438 1946 or email
me at jrsygir1@aol.com

Anna and Mike

PLEASE NOTE;
THIS EMAIL CAN BE REPOSTED...in fact you should repost it and send it to
anyone who might help us.....just make sure you repost the whole thing.