Atlanta Lesbian Bar Owner Arrested After Complaints Made About Noise at Her Bar
She was arrested after she wouldn’t provide officers her ID after they arrived over noise complaints in the area.
The co-owner of a lesbian bar in Atlanta, Ga, is speaking out after she was arrested over the weekend.
Jen Chase-Daniels, who co-owns My Sister’s Room, called the ordeal a “extremely stressful situation” after police arrested her following their arrival over a noise complaint, according to 11 Alive, a local news outlet.
In an initial post to Instagram, the bar said the arrest happened over “our crowd clapping too loud at a Drag Burlesque show!!”
On Monday, Chase-Daniels took to the platform to open up more about what happened and the ongoing situation about noise ordinances in the area.
“For some context, the City no longer uses decibel readings for this particular ordinance. About a week and a half ago, I facilitated a meeting on Crescent Avenue with the Captain, the Lieutenant, and the bars and restaurants along the street. We physically marked the 100-foot area so everyone understood exactly where that boundary was and what was required of us after midnight,” she posted. “We knew where our 100-foot marker was, and we had been following those requirements very carefully especially on Fridays and Saturdays. The video we are sharing was taken 100 feet from MSR, approximately 20 minutes before I was arrested on Saturday night. You can’t even hear the club next door, Seven.”
She says things escalated after she was asked to show ID.
“The officer already knew who I was, and I questioned why I needed to provide identification when we had not done anything wrong,” she wrote in the post. “I was willing to show the video footage demonstrating that the noise was not coming from MSR. Instead, I was arrested.”
11 Alive reports that a police incident report states that there had been “several community complains… in reference to predominantly loud music, vehicles and patrons after hours” with venues in the area of Atlanta.
However, when he got to the location he couldn’t make out where the noise was coming from.
“During that time, I did take into consideration several vehicles were observed passing through the area while playing loud music, so as for precautionary measures I did notate the rhythm of the sounds I did hear as I approached Seven Midtown (1100 Crescent Ave NE) & MSR (1104 Crescent Ave NE),” Officer Jayden Joseph wrote in the report, according to the outlet. “I would like to note for the record I did not hear or witness any loud music coming from either establishment.”
He said he did “observe” some patrons from My Sister’s Room “projecting their voices loudly” and that some were “causing a disturbance within the neighborhood.”
According to the report obtained by 11 Alive, Chase-Daniels did not cooperate with officers when asked about the ID. One officer, “informed her to provide her identification to complete the investigation or she would be subject to a lawful arrest for obstruction.”
Chase-Daniels said she was first taken to a hospital because of a heart monitor.
“I repeatedly asked for my family to be notified, but was told no one could be informed,” Chase-Daniels posted. “My family and friends tried to locate me and were told at both Grady and the jail that I was not there. After I was released from the hospital, I was then transferred to the jail.”
Chase-Daniels’ wife and the other co-owner of My Sister’s Room, Jami Lassiter, wrote on Facebook that she was in Tennessee with her mother when Chase-Daniels was arrested. She said the police wouldn’t tell her where Chase-Daniels was.
“Twelve hours in handcuffs. Nearly 10 hours where no one could tell us where she was… for crowd applause,” Lassiter wrote. “We’ll let our attorney handle the legal side, but no family should ever have to go through that.”
