Tweet! Tweet! Baton Bob Arrested in Midtown

It’s quite the celebratory day for Midtown’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community with the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday morning that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. 

The court also dismissed a case filed by supporters of California's Proposition 8, which banned same sax marriage in that state. The court ruled that the petitioners did not have proper standing to defend the law in court.

And while the rulings change nothing locally where same-sex couples do not have the right to marry in Georgia, local LGBT rights supporters plan to rally at the corner of 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue Wednesday at 5 p.m. to observe the rulings.

One supporter who might not be able to make the rally is Midtown’s beloved street performer, Baton Bob, who was dressed in white and blowing his familiar whistle early Wednesday afternoon outside Colony Square before being arrested on unknown charges.

Details of the arrest of the 61-year-old Bob, a.k.a. Bob Jamerson, are still coming in, but witnesses said he was in a verbal altercation with a security worker at Colony Square, located at the intersection of Peachtree and 14th streets in the heart of Midtown.

Atlanta Police Officer Kim Jones emailed Patch to confirm that Jamerson had been taken to Fulton County Jail as “an off-duty Atlanta Police officer working for Midtown Blue was called and made the arrest.”

Charges are pending according to the police. Check back with Patch for further details.

This is not the first time that Jamerson has become embroiled in a verbal altercation on the streets of Atlanta. Last June, he filed a police report saying he was threatened and called a gay slur off of Cheshire Bridge Road. Dressed in his familiar drum majorette costume and spreading his unique brand of entertainment at the time, Jamerson said a black male got in his face and began taunting him.

Jamerson, who anounced his celebratory return to Midtown to Midtown Patch in May 2012, told Atlanta Magazine: “I was into my thing and when I turned around, he was six inches from my face, yelling 'Damn faggot!' and threatening to kill me."