Flutterby™! : Busted! 2008-12-08 21:26:02.427344+00

Busted!

2008-12-08 21:26:02.427344+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

The Odessa Texas police have long been known as some of the worst abusers of asset forfeiture law around, and there's currently a bunch of questions around a drug conviction where the witness who planted the drugs which lead to the conviction has admitted as much in court.

Barry Cooper is an ex-cop who sells the "Never Get Busted Again" series of DVDs, and who is apparently putting together a reality TV show, and for this episode he and his team rented a house in Odessa, wired it with hidden cameras, put a couple of pine trees under grow lights, and waited for the raid. SF Examiner article on the raid with embedded clueless local TV news coverage and some footage of the police search (notice how many times they walk past the poster telling them what's going on before they finally take notice...).

Cooper's assertion is that the only way that the cops could have thought there was something going on inside the house was thermal imaging, and that Kyllo v. United States calls that a search for which they should have gotten a warrant. So if they got a warrant, someone lied, and if they didn't.... I hope this gets followed up good and hard.

Radley Balko at The Agitator, and at Reason Hit & Run, MetaFilter entry.

Bonus link: FBI says 15 Chicago area police officers were 'the muscle' for 'drug dealers'.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-08 22:56:59.349886+00 by: meuon [edit history]

No dogs or people (including cops) got shot/killed, or wheelchair bound people thrown to the ground and injured (with possible long term/fatal effects). This is just some overzealous cops with kewl toys bending some laws, civil rights and personal at home freedom.

When I lived in Ft. Worth, TX, I was outside in the apartment complex talking to the resident cop. There was some serious weed smoke coming from an apartment window that Friday night. I asked him why he wasn't doing anything. I remember his answer: "If those two good-old-boys burn a couple on Friday night while drinking some beer at home after a hard weeks work, what do I care? But if they try to drive, I'll bust their ass for DUI." Sane enforcement of the law.. we need more of that,

Cooper, in an interview with "The Prince of Pot", talks about how he became a narcotics officer and his remorse at busting up good families over a bag of weed.

The point of the setup was that this could have been a couple growing a little for personal use. The raid and likely separating by Social Services would scar the children for life. The cops had no reason to go into the house other than inadmissible thermal scanning. And then, the scanning just tells them that someone is growing something indoors. Could have been tomatoes - and was pine trees. Sure, no one was hurt this time - but what about all the other times when it wasn't on camera?