Virginia

Today I learned of a fascinating (and shameful) case in Manassas Park. From Radley Balko's 2/3/07 post on The Agitator:

The Cliff's Notes version: David Ruttenberg hires a guy named Tom Kifer to head up security for his bar. Kifer is specifically charged with keeping drug activity out of Rack n' Roll. Ruttenberg later finds out that Kifer is working for the police, who have instructed him to set up drug deals in the bar, which they then plan use against Ruttenberg, who would later lose his license for -- wait for it -- failing to stop drug activity in his pool hall.

Note that in the audio clips, Kifer tells Ruttenberg he realizes Ruttenberg's getting screwed, but that the police are holding his probation over his head. There's a bit more to this story, too. Kifer went to jail in part because of a bad check he wrote to Ruttenberg. Ruttenberg didn't want to turn him in. But when he cashed the check and it bounced, he had no choice. When Kifer got out, he begged Ruttenberg for his job back. Ruttenberg gave it to him, mostly out of pity, and out of regret for in part being the reason Kifer went to prison in the first place.

The whole thing was a ruse, of course. Kifer was working for the local police. Not to catch Ruttenberg doing anything wrong, but to help the police establish a pattern of drug activity at Rack n' Roll -- activity that took place despite Ruttenberg's best efforts to stop it.

What do you do when you continue to report drug activity to the police, only to have them ignore it, in all likelihood because they instigated much of it? What do you do when you hire security to hunt down drug dealers, only to find out that the very same security personnel you hired are setting up drug deals on behalf of the police -- sometimes deals where the only parties are undercover cops and paid informants?

I can't believe Ruttenberg hasn't gone completely nuts by now. Imagine watching helplessly as you learn, slowly, that the people who hold power where you live have decided to take you down, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

The harassment of Ruttenburg is ongoing.

Now, the city of Manassas Park has sent him sent him a cease and desist letter, claiming he's publishing "false and defamatory" information about city officials and employees. He writes:

I’m actually somewhat surprised by this, as everything I’ve said is true is backed up by video, audio, transcripts of testimony under oath, sworn statements, and/or multiple sources. Everything I’ve said on this matter is not only true to the best of my knowledge, but the evidence that supports this perspective on Manassas Park’s current regime is truly massive. If the City of Manassas Park decided to pursue a defamation case against me and put themselves in the position of being subjected to the degree of discovery a case like this would likely permit, it would give me all of the evidence now held by the city which has so far been denied David Ruttenberg, and would allow him to conclusively prevail in his five million dollar lawsuit against the city and many of it’s officers. That would be a positive outcome for justice, which has been denied for far too long.

A lawsuit like this would also give tremendous visibility to this scandal. I’ve become a somewhat notable website for local politics, but my readership is nothing close to the daily circulation of the media outlets which cover the area and I harbor no illusions about my significance outside of the political junkies and the occasionally curious. Having a locality file a lawsuit against a political blogger would probably be a pretty significant story and splash the Rack & Roll Scandal into the public consciousness in a way that I could never do. That would be a positive outcome for the citizens of Manassas Park, who deserve better government which such publicity might help to cause.

He's exactly right. Which is why I think they're bluffing. Manassas Park is governed by fools, but they can't possibly be this foolish.

Hat tip: Hit and Run.

See also Black Velvet Bruce Li.