The MJM Covers Ruttenberg’s Appeal
By Greg L | 23 June 2007 | Rack & Roll Scandal | 3 Comments
Today’s edition of the Manassas Journal-Messenger includes a rather lawyerly article describing David Ruttenberg’s appeal and a recent ACLU brief that was filed in support of his position. If you have a legal education, the article will probably be very informative about the specific claims and case law being argued. If you don’t happen to be a legal professional, the article might leave you scratching your head, wondering why the Manassas Journal-Messenger feels it needs to include six separate citations of precedent which non-lawywers aren’t ever going to look up.
If you disregard all the legalese, there’s a pretty consistent theme here. The 2005 raid on Rack n’ Roll doesn’t make any sense if the police really wanted to do what they claimed they were doing. You don’t need over 50 (as reported in the article) officers to storm a place in order to do an ABC investigation. If you’re doing an ABC inspection, you don’t need to raid areas that are not part of the licensed premises. What isn’t said in this brief, but really is the only conclusion I can arrive at, was that the police went on a huge fishing expedition trying to find a justification for the raid after the raid had been conducted. It’s somewhat like a case where the police might be sure something is going on in your house but have no evidence, and then dream up some thin reason to raid you in the middle of the night only to find a few outdated prescriptions in your medicine cabinet which they use later on as the entire justification for their actions.
That raid, and the travesty that was the ABC hearing which followed it, are an outrage. At some point these valid constitutional issues will be addressed, and it hopefully will put a chill on the kind of predatory behavior that Manassas Park engages in against businesses and individuals who don’t receive official favor. I’m a big fan of effective law enforcement, and I want localities to be diligent in preserving public order and the rule of law. When that law enforcement power is put to use in order to suppress political troublemakers or other disfavored, but completely law-abiding individuals, we have to start demanding accountability, however. This case is one of the more blatant and abusive excesses I’ve heard of.
Perhaps with an article like this will reach a different audience than the usual reader, and this lawyerly description will help other media outlets to understand that this isn’t just some crank lawsuit, but concerns some vitally important issues not only for Manassas Park, but for other jurisdictions as well. It might not be an engrossing read for many of us, but it might be for some others to whom this exacting detail may be rather important. The intended audience for this article might not be the regular reader of the newspaper, but those few who just might grasp what’s going on here, and have the ability to vault this case from the realm of local oddities to a much broader discussion of the use and abuse of power by localities at a national level.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed.
3 Comments
Views: 869
Loading ...
Greg has anyone out there looked into a civil RICO Suit?
It’s a very strange law that allows civilians like Mr. Ruttenburg to file federal RICO charges.
Unfortunately it specifies that the goal of the conspirators has to be financial gain so cannot be used against normal corrupt officials but as Mr. Ruttenburg’s situation started as a land grab to bring in a gambling site it may apply.
Food For Thought,
MaaddMaaxx
Hmm…Good point. I agree.
alright, look…rack and roll was always a cool place to go right down the street from my house to get a cold beer and shoot some pool. the beaners over crowding the place kinda irritated me some times because they were wanna be gang members or some shit. i like dave the owner, always have. it is pretty rotten what the fine city of manasshole park police are trying to accomplish all for the sake of a god damned casino in mp. they want to make some sort of capitolist money making scheme from the over crowding of spanish legals and illigals. no, im not a racist at all, ive got lots of spanish friends. there are respectable spanish people and then there are the ones that give there people a bad name. like the “south side locos” and “ms13″ and what ever other bullshit wanna be gangsters arround. i dated a spanish girl for like 2 years, so im not singling you decent spanish people out. point: the bitch of it all? they wont ever get there casino, because its people like me, who started life in the early 80’s in manasshole park and my grandma who has lived there since 65 i think. point is, keep fighting dave, even if you dont win, you are demenstraiting your american freedom rights to never back down and fight. god knows i, and many of my close friends have faught for those freedoms. (ex marine corps). if you get shut down by a corrupt greedy money hungary local govt(that is composed of overwieght fat men that secretly rely on the stock market to pay off those new caddalacs and coke addictions), its all fine and well. if you never get straitend out with ABC o well. you gave it your best shot. you have my respect for standing tall.
american - “to live life in the pursuit of happiness and freedom”
stay strong bro