More from Manassas Park

I’ve written before about the plight of the David Ruttenberg and his bar. There’s been some new developments, and the police look worse than ever. Radley Balko’s 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.”

What is one supposed to do in this situation? You know there is drug activity going on in your bar, so you hire bouncers specifically charged to deal with that drug activity. You install sophisticated security devices to help with the problem. You even go so far as to invite police into the bar, because as a good citizen, you want to cooperate with the law. The police repay that cooperation by setting you up and coopting your security in order to help them implicate you in a drug deal. Where do you have left to turn?

This whole story stinks to high heaven, and it looks like it’s about to blow wide open. Make sure to check out Radley Balko’s site and Black Velvet Bruce Li for further updates.