Profile of ex-narc who's declared war on the "War on Drugs"

By at 11:22 pm Monday, Mar 1

Here's a great, long profile of Barry Cooper, the ex-narc whose new reality TV show sets up stings for dirty drug cops and videos them making illegal busts and searches:

Several months ago, Officer Nassour had stumbled upon a little black bag at a self-serve car wash in Liberty Hill. Inside, he discovered a drug ledger written in Spanish, a glass stem seemingly burned on one end, $45, some beers, a half-eaten peanut butter sandwich, a pair of red and blue 3D glasses and various other personal effects. Wedged in the top of the vynil lunchbox, a cleverly disguised GPS tracking device.

In the words of Admiral Ackbar, it was a trap, laid by Cooper who'd called in an anonymous tip about a suspicious package.

Cooper said that Nassour was specifically targeted that evening because he'd seen video, sent to his Web site by a reader, which showed the officer forcing his drug dog to false alert on a vehicle, thereby giving probable cause for a search.

Crouched behind bushes near the car wash, Barry had his camera leveled at the officer. The goal was to catch Nassour on video stealing the money, then pick a time later on to confront the officer with a camera crew, ambush-news style.

On the video, Officer Nassour can be seen flipping the top of the box open and peering inside, then returning to his car and driving away.

Barry Cooper: Drug War Insurgent (via Beyond the Beyond)
Previously:

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Cory Doctorow

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