David and Neil Ruttenberg are the owners of the Rack n’ Roll Pool Hall in Manassas Park, Virginia. It’s the bar that was raided by an insanely large group of SWAT team members and regular police officers in June 2004 under the guise of an alcohol inspection. You can read the details and watch scary surveillance video of the raid here.

The case has grown more sordid since I put up that post — details to come. For now, the Ruttenbergs are looking for some legal assistance in a Section 1983 suit against the city of Manassas Park, as well as against the police and city officials responsible for the raid and subsequent police harassment of Mr. Ruttenberg and his bar.

I know 1983 suits are long shots, but I have a hunch that this one’s a bit different. If my hunch is accurate, this case will be settled long before it gets to trial.

Drop me a line if you’re interested, and I’ll put you in touch with them.

More on this to come.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 7:56 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.