Police Want To Shut Down The Gameroom

Police in Dalton are cracking down on a local business they say is at the center of illegal drug activity.

It's called The Gameroom and police say it's been the target of an on-going undercover operation.

The Gameroom owner, Davis Griffin, said Wednesday he runs a legitimate business that provides a clean, safe place for people to hang out, play games and eat.

"It definitely ain't no nuisance, anybody can come in," Griffin said. "You're in here, does it look like a nuisance, you see any drugs being sold?"

We didn't find any activity that appears illegal when we made an un-announced visit to the Gameroom on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Dalton.

We did find people playing cards, hanging out listening to a juke box, and eating from a menu offering a variety of cooked food and snacks. There are also signs posted inside saying "No drinking, smoking, cursing, fights, drugs." Signs outside the business say "No loitering."

But Dalton Police say they've arrested and charged seven people recently with possession and sale of cocaine and marijuana: Sharron Boone, Videl London, Quinnisha Robinson, Mustafa Shropshire, Lamar Smith, John Walton Jr. and Kalvin Willis.

DPD Public Information Specialist Bruce Frazier said "we received some tips from citizens and a couple other sources that there was drug activity going on around the vicinity of The Gameroom."

So police sent undercover agents inside to see what was going on and later set up buys of illegal drugs, according to Frazier.

Those buys prompted warrants for nine people - the seven listed above and two others who have not yet been arrested.

"The drug activity might be outside, it probably is outside if they made 11 or 12 arrests or whatever, they didn't make them in here, and they hadn't arrested nobody in this place," Griffin said.

"None of the actual buys took place inside the establishment," Frazier said. "I'm told that people basically came from inside, and in several instances came from the inside of the building and the buys took place somewhere else."

Dalton Police investigators said this is not the first time they've dealt with Mr. Griffin. They said just two years ago they shut down another business he opened on Straight Street based on the same allegations that are coming up now.

In that case Dalton authorities declared the business a nuisance, shut it down and demolished the building.

Now authorities want to do the same thing - shut down The Gameroom by declaring it a nuisance.

"It's just basically unfair because I work hard here, my sister works hard here and we put up $34,000 to start this little 'ole business and I don't understand why they're trying to do it," Griffin said.

The Dalton city attorney's office has cited Griffin to Municipal Court September 18, trying to shut down his business again.

But Griffin maintains nothing illegal is going on in The Gameroom and he has no control over what people do in the neighborhood around his business.