As I was perusing my marijuana-related news site, I came across, Cops ‘Busted’ for Raid on Fake Grow Op [Reason via High Times]. Seems our old friend, Barry Cooper is at it with Kop Busters. Barry Cooper rented a house in Odessa, TX to set up a grow operation. The great part about it is that they were growing two tiny Christmas trees (no taller than a foot each from what I saw in the video). The theory is that if police were as honest and straight as they claimed, this grow operation should go undetected. Obviously, it didn’t.
Who’s Barry Cooper
Barry Cooper is a veteran law enforcement officer and anti-drug-war lecturer made famous throughout the anti-drug-war community for his film Never Get Busted Again Vol. 1. During the course of his eight year career as a drug enforcement officer he made more than 800 drug arrests, 50 vehicle seizures and confiscated over $500,000 in cash and assets.
Barry Cooper is a man who saw something wrong with the system. He realized that he was being lied to about marijuana and sought to effect change. In many rights, he’s still a law enforcement officer. He’s just brave enough to do something about the dirty police tactics that corrupt his duties. Where he was considered a hero to many during his time as a police officer, he’s more of a hero without the badge because he didn’t need the badge or a gun to do the right thing.
Never Get Busted [website | youtube]
Kop Busters [website]
Marc “Prince of Pot” Emery interviews Barry Cooper
How We Know Cops Were Crooked [Raw Footage]
First of all, this grow operation was 100% legal as there is nothing illegal about growing plants indoors much less Christmas trees (just in time for Christmas too). Secondly, the only people who knew about the grow operation were Barry Cooper’s staff.
So, new questions are raised:
- How did Odessa police “know” there was an “illegal” grow operation?
- How did they obtain a warrant to raid the location?
First of all, the police did NOT know about the grow operation. With no marijuana and no way to know there was marijuana in this house, the police, the people you trust with your lives, had to have found out illegally. But, even then, with that illegally obtained “evidence” how did they go about obtaining a search warrant? Lies beget lies. They had to have lied on to get the warrant. If they knew for a fact there was marijuana being grown on this property, there would be no way for the police to lose. But, they did indeed lose.
Now that we know Odessa police lied to obtain this information, we want and deserve real answers to those questions. What did the police do, illegally, to target this location? Exactly, what did they use to lie to obtain the search warrant? While we can guess at a few things, we’ll never know unless the police stop lying. But, lies beget lies.
Why Set Up A Grow Operation: Yolanda Madden
Well, it seems this isn’t the first time Odessa police have lied.. go figure. In 2005, Yolanda Madden was set up by the very same police department in a methamphetamine scheme in which the police informant planted evidence on her. But, this is not some lie to get Yolanda off. The informant admitted planting the evidence on Yolanda. She’s currently serving 8 years in federal prison on distribution charges because the police set her up near a junior high school. If you don’t know, many counties, cities and states apply harsher punishment when dealing drugs within a school zone.
Yolanda Madden is just an example of the police corruption that exists all over the United States. As long as innocent citizens continue to get targeted by police for their own fun and excitement, we’ll continue to have these problems. This should let people know that we are all at risk from police, innocent and guilty.
The Real Problem: Judges
We can play this game of “cat and mouse” with police departments around the nation as much as we please. In the end, it comes down to what happens in the court room. When police officers set innocent people up, informants misinform, and evidence is fabricated, it’s all left up to the judge to decide what’s fair and what’s NOT fair. Far too often, it’s the judges that take the word of police over other people. When you have entire police departments acting criminally, it’s up to the judges to do a better job of protecting the people from the animals that attack them.
The very reason police corruption exists is because the judicial system allows it. The people ought to begin chastising and scrutinizing the judges for their decisions to allow evidence that was obviously illegally obtained. If this continues, then what’s the point of the US Constitution and other laws. Police officers can not continue to choose what laws they decide to follow and enforce. As long as judges continue to allow this activity, there’s no reason for police to stop being badged criminals.
like Ice Cube and NWA said
F*CK the PO-LEESE!!!
-Ed.
Hey Kitty. As the main article stated (and I did leave out because it isn’t fact yet), police use something called FLIR which is a heat detection system. You would usually see this system used when they are trying to catch people at night from the helicopter. You see them as white dots or figures in a dark background. Basically, they use it to detect the heat levels within a home. For example, if the attic is brighter or hotter than other parts of the home, it would signal to the police that there was something hot in the location, usually the lights of a grow operation. Those lights aren’t your typical household bulbs. They can be upwards of 250, 400, 600, and 1000 watt bulbs. So, they burn bright and hot.
The cops would either drive by homes or do fly overs to see which house lights up more than the next. The problem is that it’s illegal to use that FLIR system without a warrant because you can’t always tell what’s in the house just because of the heat and it’s an invasion of privacy. For example, I use a heater in my room so the temps can be as much 10-15 degrees hotter than the rest of the house. That doesn’t indicate a grow operation. Check out youtube for the usage of FLIR.
Now, to obtain the warrant itself, the police have to lie, obviously. Normally, they use a fake informant to “tip them off” to the grow operation. With this falsified evidence they’ve brought to the judge, they can get the warrant easily.
That’s why this is so significant of a bust. We all know police lie. But to catch them in that lie soooooo definitively is a first. To see that it’s not just some planted evidence or perjury by one or two officers but an orchestrated effort by an entire department is MAJOR.
This thing Barry Cooper did could possibly force the court system to review EVERY case by the Odessa police department, at least those related to these types of RAIDS because the activity is all cookie cutter since they do it so often. Since they’re so brazen about it, there’s a chance that everything they’ve done might get undone. It’s a heavy heavy heavy move.
That’s why I like Barry Cooper. He’s a real police office. He knows exactly what they do and what he’s doing as well.
Great information and nice site, I’ll be visiting much more often. Keep up the good work.