Don’t Go Bust
‘The video cuts to a decade later, a few months ago. “That was me, Barry Cooper,” he says, “top narcotics officer.” His hair is longer. That ‘stache is now a full-on goatee. The top cop has become a dude. “I’m going to show you places that I never found marijuana hidden.” He talks with his hands, like a mellowed-out P.T. Barnum. “I’m going to teach you exactly how narcotic-detector dogs are trained, and I’m going to answer that age-old question: Do coffee grounds really work?”
It’s quite the pitch: Former drug warrior sees the light, goes to the dark side and makes a video, Never Get Busted Again, with shady tips on how to fool the fuzz. Stoners rejoice. The new beginning of the end of prohibition is near.’
February 13th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Originally, I was inclined not to comment further on Barry Cooper’s “Never Get Busted” video without seeing the video first.
However, after having read the following two blogs about Mr. Cooper’s video, I did not wish to wait to see the video before addressing the following two issues here, particularly after having contacted and heard back from Mr. Cooper (as reprinted below) on these two issues:
– FlexYourRights reviewed the video, and shares my deep concern — dissent, actually — about Mr. Cooper’s recommending rampant waiver of people’s right to refuse a police “consent” search. Mr. Cooper’s purported interest is in showing people how to conceal drug crimes, whereas my interest is in helping people know and exercise their Constitutional rights, whether or not they have anything to hide.
A person may be risking more than s/he realizes when consenting to a police search. I believe it is all too common for people in a car to throw their drugs and weapons (if they have any) into another passenger’s or driver’s area of the car when a traffic stop takes place. No matter how innocent the car’s driver may be, consenting to a search risks the police finding contraband that someone else secretly left there…
See the rest of my comments at this blogposting:
http://tinyurl.com/ytyd4o
Jon Katz Criminal Defense Lawyer for MD, DC & VA MARKS & KATZ, LLC Silver Spring, MD 20910, (301) 495-4300 Underdog Blog: markskatz dot com /justiceblog