Then, yesterday evening, I spoke with the owner and manager of a bar in Manassas Park, Virginia. In 2004, their business was raided by 90 -- yes ninety -- police in paramilitary gear. The police raided under the guise of -- are you ready for this? -- an Alcohol Beverage Control inspection. The advantage of raiding under an ABC warrant is that its a regualtory inspection not a criminal investigation, which means that the police didn't need to get a warrant before going in. The owners have video of the raid captured by their security cameras. I'll be posting it here once they condense it and send it to me.
For the last three hours, I sat with the two men while they went over detail after excruciating detail of the Manassas Park police departments endless efforts to entrap them, bait them, and run them out of business. The manager has no criminal record. Neither does the owner, his father, who's a business owner and a practicing lawyer for 40 years. The manager's brother is the income president of the Fairfax Bar Association.
Before 2004, the bar had a spotless ABC record. Not a single violation.
That's just the beginning... what follows is a stranger-than-fiction story about local police and city counsel corruption complete with cocaine, strippers, child pornography, gambling, and shady redevelopment schemes.
See also:
Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America. (There's a link to download the PDF towards the bottom of the page).
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