Kopbusters -- reality show that busts cops for conducting illegal drug raids
Former drug office Barry Cooper has launched an online reality TV show that sets up corrupt cops who conduct illegal drug raids.
KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.On the Agitator blog, Radley Balko says:The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster’s attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster’s secret mobile office nearby.
To clarify just a bit, according to Cooper, there was nothing illegal going on the bait house, just two evergreen trees and some grow lamps. There was no probable cause. So a couple of questions come up. First, how did the cops get turned on to the house in the first place? Cooper suspects they were using thermal imaging equipment to detect the grow lamps, a practice the Supreme Court has said is illegal. The second question is, what probable cause did the police put on the affidavit to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant? If there was nothing illegal going on in the house, it’s difficult to conceive of a scenario where either the police or one of their informants didn’t lie to get a warrant.Kopbusters reality showCooper chose to bait the Odessa police department because he believes police there instructed an informant to plant marijuana on a woman named Yolanda Madden. She’s currently serving an eight-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute. According to Cooper, the informant actually admitted in federal court that he planted the marijuana. Madden was convicted anyway.
the latest
latest episodes
"To Protect And Serve."
Sounds kinda hollow, don't it?
How the cops get turned onto this place?
THe Kopbusters informed on themselves. That's how.
Not that I believe cops should be executing warents because of hearsay...but they called it in themselves.
Having said that, I wish the cops in my town were a little more willing to listen to hearsay, legal or not. I had a house across the street from me with a thousand plants in it...tore up 3 stories of a hour and the basement to put everything in. Could smell the operation from blocks away at times.
Should marijuana be illegal? I'd rather it not, but I don't like the criminal element in my neighborhood and it just ain't zoned for this crap...so I have NO problem with the cops coming in and cleaning house. If it were legalized, those same people would be doing something else in my neighborhood...stripping off the siding off the homes, breaking into homes, running methlabs in basements, whatever...so I'm glad to see them do it.
Ain't nothing like the vagrants and crackheads and otherwise thatseem to find a neighborhood after these people move in...
Mr. Cooper for president!!! This is sooooo awesome it is right off the awesome-o-meter!!!
@Clif
While I wouldn't doubt that to be possible, do you have any actual proof that shows they informed on themselves to bait the trap?
@clif
So, despite the fact that Kopbusters' whole raison d'etre is to reveal illegal police actions, and even though they have their own lawyer intimately involved in what they're doing, you're saying that they broke the law (filed a false police report) which would render their entire effort null and void.
Riiiiight.
I take back what I said. It does appear they did rat themselves out to get the police to roll on this.
So Clif, would you prefer that the pot growers stop growing pot and instead go to work in your neighborhood "stripping off the siding off the homes, breaking into homes, running methlabs in basements?"
Me, I'd rather have them grow pot.
@Akbar
There was a story the other day where they said this is what they did, but then later recanted.
I have no doubt that admitting this would hurt their standing with the people that report this stuff...they wouldn't get as much publicity...but it wouldn't change a thing legally because they STILL need to have corroborating evidence before then can execute a warrant.
@GRIMC or maybe their whole "raison d'etre" is to be massive attention whores. I am not one to defend the police. But, me personally, I'm going to play "wait and see" and let the facts come out before jumping on the "Fuck the Police" bandwagon this time.
at number 2... so your saying the same people that are growing hydro in your area would be stealing your siding if they didnt have the knowhow to grow killer bud? anyone who can pull off such an opperation is not a petty theif, and I smell your BS from here, if the operation you describe was as blatenly obvious as you say, they should be shut down.
Cop-baiting is dangerous, but fun if you can pull it off. More importantly, is Mr. Cooper seeing anyone right now?
Apparently the title "Punk'd COPS" was taken. This doesn't seem newsworthy, just another guy with a vendetta and a webcam. Kudos for exposing corruption in that police force, but do it in the courts, not the interwebs.
Looks like the show's website is down. Boingboing'd? Or have they been forcibly silenced?
I am afraid of my government.
awesome
This sounds like the awesome +1 fullofwin bastard child of the "Smile You're Under Arrest" reality show posted previously on the 'Boing. I could get behind this one.
My worry is the unqualified comment that the matter is under investigation to see if any laws were broken. Who are they investigating? I bet they are reviewing laws to see if they can hook the show on some zoning violation, or improper permit. Not on if there was a law broken by the police department. How come no one will qualify a remark like that?
Growing and/or smoking Marijuana is a political offense. Perhaps the only one I can think of on the books in this "free" nation of America.
It is 100% completely victimless. And no, you can't use associated violence or illness as a "proxy" for its danger.
I, for one, do not trust an organization which can not even spell 'Cop' properly.
This type of story can always bring out the ignorance of a commenter pretty easily.
Of course it's a publicity stunt, that's part of its beauty! And you know what, even if they did snitch on themselves the cops would be proving beyond their lack of investigation that any crank can call up the police and mess with another person.
I'm going to wait and reserve judgment on this one. While it sounds like an interesting idea, it does seem odd that the cops would have found this house within 24 hrs if they didn't rat themselves out. Barry Cooper has a history of claiming he's fighting the good fight for drug reform, but then making a hefty profit off his efforts without contributing anything of value to the reform community.
@ Mark
Honestly, I could care less if anyone grows pot. I have a friend who has a plant or two, but it is for personal consumption. I fully believe in the decriminalization of marijuana...I don't smoke this stuff, but it is only because I like to pick one vice and stick with it. I choose alcohol and I *KNOW* it is far worse than the alternative.
The point I'm making is, it was an organized criminal activity...not the simple doper. They brought elements into the neighborhood that we still can't get rid of...I had a child die on my front doorstep two years back around this time because of these elements.
Right now, the folks doing these activities are bad bad people. If the activity were legal, no one would be moving into neighborhoods and bringing their guns in JUST TO GROW POT. Phillip Morris, Monsanto and Eli Lilly would be the suppliers...probably worse. But it wouldn't be in my neighborhood.
And of course, these people would move on to something new...and they'd still probably set up in my neighborhood, but I'd rather just not see guys with guns and otherwise setting up shop around me with others coming in to argue about the vicinities of the two shops arguing with said guns.
Really nothing to do with pot...everything to do with the criminal element.
@ GRIMC
You have my point all wrong...I never said they filed a false police report. I said they put in a 'tip'...never said they did anything illegal, I'm just saying they are as immoral as cops and maybe worse because they are sensational publicity whores.
more of this please, any honest cop has nothing to hide.
http://www.odessapd.com/opd/
Body cameras and mikes are dirt cheap. More people need to record their interactions with police, maybe we can help keep them honest.
This is a brilliant idea, and I hope it spreads. As long as there is no penalty for false positives, the system will continue to generate more and more of them. Reverse stings like this are a good way to redress the balance.
@Clif
Seriously, man? You equate publicity whoring (requisite of anyone trying to garner viewers for a reality show) with policemen who wantonly violate civil rights because they're mad with power?
I mean, I'm a moral nihilist and even I think that's some faulty-ass logic right there.
I use grow lamps (around a 1000w worth) in my basement to grow orchids. Oddly, in 10 years, never had a visit from the police. I feel that I'm missing out.
@Clif
Of course it's a publicity stunt - if you want to expose police corruption, you need publicity.
Take it to the court? Give me a break - do you think the police and judiciary are going to do a conscientious and thorough investigation of allegations that cops are routinely lying on affidavits, judges are signing them without a second thought, and prosecutors are putting people in jail despite knowing the evidence is phony - all without the light of publicity on them.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Fixing this problem needs people with a flair for promotion. You can use loaded terms like "publicity whore", but it doesn't change the fact that Barry Cooper is doing his best to protect you, Clif Marsiglio, personally, from police corruption that could at any moment destroy your career and your health, tear apart your family, and rob you of years of happiness.
I'm just glad he was able to put together a nice solo career after Kurt Cobain died.
The video for "Everlong" is AWESOME.
Previously:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/27/update-to-never-get-.html
I don't trust Barry Cooper.
No Dragonfrog,
Barry Cooper has been proven over and over to be just as corrupt in his years of law enforcement and looking to profit off of this.
The fact that he may be exposing others doing wrong is not his primary purpose.
I did a year and a half of security work while in college, occasionally working with law enforcement as a volunteer. It was something I wanted to get into...I found a LOT of corruption. Hell, a week after volunteering, I started getting calls offering to join the klan. It disgusted me. I also found most of the people there were honest individuals that really wanted to be involved in public service.
Why these people allow the bad to continue...I don't know. Something about the fraternity of police make them think that even the bad are doing more good than harm. I don't know. All I do know is MOST of the people I met were good people.
I'll also say the same about most mom and pop dealers I've met...very few were actually bad people. They hung out with people I don't around me or my neighborhood, but for the most part they were honest people that performed a service that was against the law.
All I know is that I don't really see Barry Cooper as anyone that is better than the people he is up against. Still the same scum he was back in the day, just playing a different game.
I like their sign.
It reminds me of an eight grade dance, which was probably where I smoked pot for the first time...
first comment in the #31 link gives me an idea...
http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.ew.com/img/98D77C74-8183-4877-B562-D4551DECE342
ll cps r lrs. So what else is new?
takuan @ 34 - hee hee :D
Cliff, give it up man. Are most cops any better than most of the poor bastards they bust for drugs? No. There are corrupt cops, and the system is broke and wasting billions of dollars. Drug and forfeiture laws, along with this brutal system are ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of manufactured criminals, destrying their families in the process. This guy decides to take them on and you are pissed, don't be foolish. I don't care what his motives are if he can actually keep this up he deserves to make a profit. The only reason there is so much crime is because of the war on drugs. Do you want to stop police corruption, cut crime in half, close prisons, and save billions of dollars? Then fight the drug laws. If this guy can help, support him. I hope he gets rich. Do you think someone is going to do this for free?
BTW, if all it took was an anonymous tip to get these idiots to show their hand, then they deserve to get busted.
Hey Tak what's your link on #24?
For some reason I'm getting a 'Forbidden from your client' thing.
Perhaps the Internet Filter has started it's trials in Aus early.
If she's innocent (Which it looks like she definitely is) then I hope this works to get her out, and the people responsible for this are fired and possible convicted and whatever practice be it illegal use of heat imaging or just lying is stopped. I have a feeling the outcome won't be as optimistic as I hope it to be though.
#24 is the Odessa Texas Police Department page for contact - so everyone can tell them what they think of their practices. hmmmmm....
http://www.odessa-tx.gov/public/electedofficials/contactus.asp
email The City of Odessa and express your opinion of their servants. And how you might feel about visiting, moving there or doing business there.
Hmm. Perhaps they just block anyone not from a US IP address. Still getting no love.
I don't really care about Barry Cooper. I'm not sure where the idea comes from that he ratted himself out. He's not afraid to build his own soapbox, certainly, but when he gets on it I don't know why he'd just lie. And attacking him as a person doesn't invalidate the argument: no matter who is in the police force, the enforcement-industrial complex is a scary thing. I am perfectly willing to believe that the police do this, if only because I know they've done it before.
As to the wider argument, the criminal element intersects with drug use only because it has been forced to be criminal. Obviously, you can't legalize it until you normalize it; you can't normalize it because it's illegal, and potheads don't disobey (civilly!) in public enough. As long as you let the criminals run the market, it will be dangerous; taking the black market and bringing it into the light will stop criminals from making enough profits to continue. Sure, they'll do stupid things, but it'll be hard to convince anyone else to do it when there's more money in the real world.
It's also not as simple as most potheads I know have made it sound ("Tax it, man! That'll cure the economy!"), but it's just something that has to be done.
While I admire his ambition, Barry Cooper is the last person I want to head something like this... The guy reeks of greasy car salesman and I'd bet dollars to doughnuts he or his crew tipped off the cops to his chrismas trees.
This sort of publicity stunt gets the public eye into the issue, but once Barry Cooper himself is exposed to the limelight it'll do nothing for the cause.
Personality flaws of vocal individuals can ruin whole campaigns. I'm inherently against this.
Awesome, I hate how cops are technically witness just like anyone else in a trial, and yet their word is never questioned by the judge. Maybe this will make the judges of the county think twice before taking their word on faith.
I applaud the effort to expose corruption, but the fact that the kopbusters.com URL goes directly to Cooper's pot-arrest evasion website destroys any mainstream credibility. If he really cares about fighting corruption, he'd have an independent site for the "show," but it looks like he's more interested in hawking DVDs.
so, this will encourage better imitators.
ITSUMISHI @#42: The Incognito Live CD allows you to pick an IP address anywhere in the world to be from. Forr added convenience, you can also d/l a VMware image: http://anonymityanywhere.com/incognito/
Perfect for this kind of thing.
I understand why people might be for gestapo enforcement of drug laws. Drugs, especially at higher distribution levels, tend to be associated with really bad people. The problem though is the prohibition, not the drug.
People don't die over alcohol distribution. There is no criminal element associated with alcohol. People can't even fathom the idea of going to a criminal to get their alcohol. Legalization made it so that the only bad things about alcohol are the effects of alcohol. Truth be told, the effects of alcohol, while potentially damaging, are pocket change compared to the general enjoyment the populace gets from it and the overwhelming harm that making illegal would bring (has has brought in the past).
The quickest way to clean up American cities would be to simply start legalizing drugs. Three things would happen in rapid succession.
First, new drugs would be developed that are safer, less addictive, and overall better far less harmful for you. If a pharmaceutical company thought that they could sell a little happiness in a pill for purely recreational drugs, they would be cranking out safe recreational drugs as fast as the FDA could approve them. Drug over doses would become a thing of the past. Not only that, but drugs in general would be safer and cleaner because they would be made under the eye of government inspections, rather than in the basement of a crack house.
Second, the black market would die, and the gangs associated with them would shrivel. Sure, they would move onto other illegal things, but their primary source of funding would be slashed. Sure, you can try and branch off into prostitution and maybe even a little illegal gambling, but that is pocket change compared to drugs. You could save a generation from chasing dreams of a thugs life over night.
Third, there would be a shit ton more money to go around. Police could focus on real crimes, prisons would stop mass producing criminals by tossing youth associated with the drug trade into jail to harden into life long criminals. We could actually focus on real crimes. Even better, the piles of money we spend trying to drive the price of drugs down a few cents could be used for something useful, like rehab. If we were to spend even a tiny fraction of what we spend in the "drug war" on trying to actually make people better, we would have a far happier society. Even better, we would be rolling in tax money as we tax drug consumption. Marijuana is California's biggest cash crap, and the amount of money that the federal government gets for it is zero.
Ending "the war on drugs" or "how I spent a few billion dollars and countless lives to drive the cost of drugs up a few bucks" would be the greatest boom the US has ever seen. Sadly, I am pretty sure that hell will freeze over before we stop wasting resources and the utterly futile "war on drugs".
I'm with Takuan @46. Let's hope for some imitators who can expose corruption while maintaining credibility. In the meantime, I'm just glad someone is doing this.
Police definitely need to be held accountable - if there's a tool or technology they feel is useful there will be huge pressure to use it. I think this is a pretty dangerous road to travel and you know they're going to get caught up in breaking some rule themselves whether it's zoning "you don't have a commercial license to grow Christmas trees" or some other bogosity. But I'm glad to see someone shining a light. The police copters do regularly fly over my (admittedly drug-riddled) neighborhood in verrrry sloooow patterns at 3am. But they're probably just making sure no-one's left the lights on in their cars, right?
Legalize pot? One one condition. A mandatory 90 in the slammer if you corner someone at a party and blather on about Frank Zappa. 120 days if the subject of the monologue is the Grateful Dead.
6 mons. for dylan?
Those idiots are so stupid they bust cops when cops are supposed to bust them. I will never watch the show kopbusters in my life.
GuitarPraiseManiac @53: And furthermore the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire, so how about that, huh?
Ross @51, I deny that I have ever done that to someone who was trapped in a corner.
I can blather on forever about Sun Ra and the Arkestra. Sober.
I haven't got a clue what to think of Mr Barry Cooper. Anyway, without his “attention whoring”, I wouldn't be aware of the Yolanda Madden miscarriage of justice case. Of course, she is only “collateral damage” in this war On Drugs that is a hardly concealed war on the people.
@48
"First, new drugs would be developed that are safer, less addictive, and overall better far less harmful for you."
I disagree with this. While there are "safe" happiness drugs on the market, there are MANY MANY "unsafe" ones. Liver damage, long-term side affects, ect abound. Oh, and lots of lawsuits.
"Second, the black market would die, and the gangs associated with them would shrivel."
I agree with you partly. The "black market" on certain drugs, certainly. Pot would be included here, because it can be easily grown by just about anyone, but so can tobacco.
But cocaine? Heroin? METH?!? Don't forget international drug cartels.
"Third, there would be a shit ton more money to go around."
This is not true. See: Opportunity Costs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_Cost
Simply stated, just because a new industry starts up, does not necessarily mean that "there is more money". It usually means that money is diverted from other industries (often competitors). In the case of legalized pot, the direct competitors would be alcohol and cigarettes. Instead of spending $20 at a bar on drinks, and then another $10 on cigs, one could simply stay home and spend $30 on pot legally. It's not MORE money, but DIVERTED money.
I went to college with Barry Cooper. He was on my debate team for a short while back in 2003-2004. He never talked about drugs or legalization, he talked alot about abortion and razor blade vacuums that killed the babies. One of the people on the team accused Barry of being a NARC after he failed to keep his story straight and he disappeared from campus the next day. Next time I saw Barry he was on the cover of Cannabis Culture magazine with a pound of bud and a QP of hash. .
Barry is mentioned in the Our school newspaper the Patriot Talon in one story about the debate team from back in 2004. When we knew him he claimed to own a limousine service, which he highlights in official "never get busted" website and "Barry continued his education by returning to college and joining the debate team where he uses these skills to educate against propaganda."
That debate team was the UT Tyler debate team that I was on for four years.
Barry Cooper is a huckster and fool. Don't trust him with anything least of all your freedom.
This guy once threatened to sue Loretta Nall for giving his DVD a bad review.
@58: Ok, a few points.
Back 100 years ago, morphine/heroin (known as "laudanum") was widespread. Farmhands drank it when they hurt their shoulders. Housewives drank it when they had stomaches. Everyone drank it.
Note I say "drank" it. Because it was legal, and cheap, you did not have to maximize the value of it by injecting it, you could just sip some.
Sure, plenty of people were addicted. Maybe as many as are as addicted now. But no one died. No one went to prison. No one committed property crimes to attain it. No families were broken up. No lives were destroyed - or, at least, much fewer than are now.
Because illegal drugs are expensive drugs, they have to be purer and purer to maximize the profit/risk ratio. Every drug that becomes illegal immediately becomes more pure and more dangerous. Look at moonshine alchohol in the 1920s. Nobody is going to bother smuggling beer around.
2nd: That's why we need to legalize all drugs. Or at least allow addicts to receive it from pharmacies at the cost of production. I would much rather a meth addict receive it under a doctor's care, a doctor who is working with them to wean off it, than just in eight balls off the street. All drug cartels are created by prohibition of one kind or another.
3rd:
Ummm...the problem with your argument is that you assume that no one is spending money on drugs now. As it is, people are paying $10 for drugs, $10 for booze, $10 for cigarettes..and Mr. Joners across the street is spending $5 for a cop to arrest you. But the money from hard drugs is all going to organized crime. I've read that 5% of total global trade is drugs. So, you are taking that 5% away from organized crime and the justice system and giving it to honest entrepreneurs.
My dad is an appellate prosecutor in a border state. He guesses that if prohibition were ended, they would have to lay off half their staff in the A.G.'s office and in the local police. That's why it isn't ended.
P.S. You have a wrong interpretation of opportunity cost. Close, but wrong. Opportunity cost is when an individual or group has to choose between doing two things. Whatever choice they make, they lose the benefits of the second choice. The economic law you're looking for is the "substitution effect."
No serious economist supports the war on drugs. It has impoverished our nation immeasurably-far more than drugs have.
For the record, I am not a fan of drugs, I don't even touch pharmaceuticals.
P.P.S. On another topic, next time you look at the American flag and think we have a Democracy or a Republic, count the number of people you know who support marijuana prohibition. We don't.
As long as he is doing good, I will waste my time on him, but never my money. Anyone have further details about the Yolanda case?
Ross@51: Oh, it's only ok if it's the Stooges?
For those of you who haven't already, check out Law Enforcement Against Prohibition:
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
Anyone who works in narcotics for any length of time knows what a horrific policy prohibition is. It ruins lives, funds organized crime, corrupts police, wastes billions of dollars, criminalizes people for a consensual, victimless activity that is a crime only on paper, breeds contempt for the law and its agents (see "My First Impression of the U.S.A." written by Albert Einstein in 1921) ... and all this without accomplishing a single one of its admitted goals. (i.e. fails to reduce drug use or availability)
And comparing "media whoring" to corrupt police practices? Come on. Breaking the law (which fosters general contempt for it) in order to arrest someone for breaking the law destroys lives, tears families apart, and robs innocent people of their freedom (etc., etc.) for no other purpose than the self-aggrandizement and promotion of the arresting officers. Barry Cooper exploiting the media's tendency to jump on anything controversial enough to sell may end a practice that corrupts law enforcement and wrongly incarcerates innocent people. Oh, yeah, and it *might* (very slim chance) actually result in repurcussions for cops who break the law. Maybe.
Somehow I don't see those as being of comparable immorality. Or of comparable illegality, for whatever little that standard's worth. Sheesh.