NEW CLAYTON, GA — With the presidential hopeful feeding frenzy working its way from coast to coast, it’s sometimes easy to forget that smaller political races are not only still going on – but also affecting their immediate areas of operation. The owner of a Forest Park strip club has discovered that fact up close and personal, thanks to police roadblocks interfering with patron’s access to its parking lot.At the behest of Sheriff Victor Hill, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office has set up a road check along the rarely traveled Frontage Road that leads to the newly opened Pink Pony South. Although deputies insisted that the Friday and Saturday night stop-and-search blockades were nothing more than a randomly selected roach check set up to catch drunk drivers, Pink Pony South attorney Aubrey T. Villenes, Jr. thinks otherwise.
After all, the Pink Pony South had only been open for two days when the road blocks were set up – and other than the club, there are only a few industrial businesses in the remote area.
Villines is working with the owners of the Pink Pony South the craft a federal lawsuit against Sheriff Hill – whose office never responded to the club’s official complaints about the roadblock.
“You can’t just put up a roadblock to drive someone out of business,” Villenes protested to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is not merely coincidence that they put a road check in during the same week an adult entertainment place opened. This is an area they don’t even patrol. This is not happenstance.”
Villenes isn’t the only one unamused by the unexpected surveillance. Forest Park Mayor Corine Deyton isn’t too wild about them, either. According to her, neither she nor the City Manager, nor the Forest Park police department had any idea they roadblocks were being set up – and they don’t have any quarrel with the Pink Pony South. In fact, Deyton says that City Manager John Parker recently met with the management of the Pink Pony South to make sure everyone was on the same page about ordinances.
Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell told the Journal-Constitution that his office had received a complaint about the Frontage Road barricade and had asked the county attorney to look into the matter. “It may result in a lawsuit,” Bell admitted. “The lawsuits against him (Hill) are mounting and we’re still paying counsel fees for all of them.”
“I know he is the highest law enforcement in the whole county,” Deyton acknowledged, “but we have our own police department here to take care of any problems. I haven’t heard of any problems over there – but it’s an election year; what can I say?”
How about “vote the bums out?”
