*IMPORTANT* Regarding Never Get Busted

[Invictis]

In Barry Cooper's controversial video 'never get busted' he strongly recommends consenting to searches. FlexYourRights strongly disagrees with his standpoint on this, and it's important you understand that you should NEVER waive your 4th amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Here's the full article from FlexYourRights(It's a bit lengthy): http://www.flexyourrights.org/cooper

Flex Your Rights has eagerly anticipated Barry Cooper's new video Never Get Busted Again: Vol.1 Traffic Stops, which finally arrived yesterday. After reviewing Cooper's DVD, we're disappointed to report that Never Get Busted badly misses the mark regarding consent searches.

We hope the following will not be interpreted as a rebuke of Cooper or his video, much of which we enjoyed. Still, we find it necessary to comment at length on his surprising advice.

Unfortunately, Cooper recommends consenting to searches, which is the worst imaginable strategy for handling a police encounter. His message flatly contradicts the consensus judgment of civil libertarians, and encourages the very behavior Flex Your Rights and many others have been struggling to abate. Hopefully Barry Cooper can be persuaded to reconsider his recommendation that citizens waive their constitutional rights. He should be excited to learn that refusing consent is a viable and prudent option for his audience.

Here is a transcript of Cooper's section on consent searches, interrupted by our detailed reactions:

You've heard your entire life: Refuse consent. Refuse consent. Refuse consent. I don't recommend that. You're free to do whatever you want, but I recommend quite the opposite.

If you've hidden your stash in a hard to find location -- like taught earlier in this DVD -- give the officer permission to search if he asks. Here's why: One hundred times out of one hundred, when somebody refused consent to search to me, they always had something in their vehicle they did not want me to find. It was usually drugs. Sometimes it might be a Playboy magazine or something of that nature. But there was always something they did not want me to see. Law enforcement officers know this.

There's no doubt that refusing consent will often heighten an officer's suspicions. But the officer was suspicious before asking for consent to search. (That’s precisely why he asked!) The argument that consenting will deflect suspicion cannot be sustained. Any officer, including Cooper elsewhere in the video, will confirm that almost everyone consents whether or not they're hiding something.

Cooper's claim that he searched everyone who refused suggests that he repeatedly violated constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable detentions and searches without probable cause. Such misconduct remains common, but it’s not exactly the norm.

Since Cooper's retirement, lawsuits over racial profiling have resulted in settlements limiting suspicionless consent searches in some states and increasing documentation and accountability when such searches occur. Much work remains to be done in this area, but many police departments are more respectful of constitutional rights than Cooper’s notorious Permian Basin Drug Task Force was.

Even though you have the constitutional right to refuse consent -- when you refuse it raises a huge red flag. You could almost call it a huge reasonable suspicion.

Refusing a search can never be called reasonable suspicion. A responsible discussion of a citizen's constitutional rights during police encounters must emphasize that exercising your rights can never be held against you as evidence of wrong-doing.

Though it's not his intention, we fear that Cooper's use of the term "reasonable suspicion" in this context could give many viewers the false impression that their refusal of consent can be used against them in court.

Upon refusing consent, that officer automatically knows now you have something to hide. If you simply say "Go ahead and search my car," he's probably going to make a quick cursory search, and then you'll be on your way.

Again, consent is given so routinely that it cannot contribute to a presumption of innocence. Cooper's terrific traffic stop footage is itself a perfect demonstration of this. It's risky to assume that a consent search will be brief or that officers will overlook Cooper's recommended hiding places, which are now an open secret.

If you refuse consent, he can do a weapons pat-down search of your vehicle without your permission, and upon patting the interior of the vehicle down for weapons, if he finds a marijuana seed or a marijuana pipe or something of that nature or if he smells marijuana, then he's going to search your car without your permission.

Refusing consent does not, by itself, give police the authority to do anything. If police have reasonable suspicion to believe you're armed (e.g. furtive movements, high crime area, etc.) they may perform a Terry frisk of your person. This pat-down does not include your vehicle, nor are police authorized to do this based on your refusal to consent. A weapons search of your vehicle's passenger compartment is only authorized in the course of a probable cause arrest.

If you refuse consent to search, he's liable to get a narcotics detector dog to walk around the outside of your vehicle. If that dog fails to alert -- as you learned in the K-9 section -- he could quite possibly cause that dog to false alert. Then you have no choice.

Drug sniffing dogs are frequently used in this situation, but police cannot detain you in order to bring a dog to the scene unless they have reasonable suspicion (which again cannot be triggered by your refusal to consent). If police threaten to bring in a dog, simply ask if you're free to go. If you're denied permission to leave, everything else that happens is subject to 4th Amendment analysis in court.
Barry Cooper offers some interesting discussion of the misuse of drug dogs elsewhere in the video. Unfortunately, he misses the vital point that refusing a search and dismissing yourself from the encounter is the best strategy. His advice to consent is merely a shorter path to the undesirable outcome his audience is trying to avoid in the first place.

He will also invite numerous other police officers at the scene. The call goes out on the radio, I've heard it a hundred times: "I have a refusal. I have a refusal." And police come from everywhere to figure out how to get in that car, and then they begin a real detailed search.

But any evidence they discover during this "real detailed search" will be inadmissible unless they have reasonable suspicion for the detention and probable cause for the search. If you consent, officers will also come to the scene to assist with the search. The only difference is that by consenting, you've volunteered to be investigated, thereby eliminating any chance you have of challenging it later in court.

That's the most important point of all: Consenting to a search automatically makes the search legal. And if any contraband is found, you can’t suppress the evidence. Waiving your 4th Amendment rights places you at the mercy of the criminal justice system and everything it has to offer. Ironically, Cooper encourages defendants to hire an attorney with trial experience and refuse plea bargains, yet anyone who consented to the search will have no choice but plead out or become an informant.

The failure to explain that consent automatically legalizes the search is a confounding omission given his target audience of marijuana users. Cooper praises 4th Amendment rights in the introduction, but later encourages citizens to voluntarily waive these rights when they matter most.

Civil libertarians have a vital interest in combating the harmful myth that police can do whatever they want. Such perceptions stifle discussion of police accountability and foster a reluctant tolerance of coercive police practices. Fortunately, lawsuits from people who know their rights have been a potent catalyst for reform. A citizenry that is vigilant and unyielding in its defense of constitutional protections is more likely to achieve justice than one which buries its secrets beneath the dashboard while waiving the right to privacy.

With this in mind, we encourage Barry Cooper to promptly revisit the issue of consent searches. It's a brief portion of the video, though it will become longer upon correction. In the meantime, he should consult defense attorneys and report his findings to those who've already purchased the DVD.

With minimal effort, Cooper can dramatically increase the value of his efforts and redeem this otherwise fascinating video.

The original article was called "Barry Cooper's Video Could Get You Busted" but since then Barry and Scott Morgan from FlexYourRights have come to a compromise and have been working together on this issue.

[junkiedays]

Good find. I can't believe he recommends submitting to a search.

I also didn't know that for an officer to bring in a K-9 unit he has to detain you and therefore would have to have probable cause to do so. Doesn't this mean he could search without the K-9 anyway since he would already have probable cause?
That would make sense, considering most of the time cops just use that as a bluff to scare kids into consenting...

[ledfut]

i watched the dvd last night and was aslo shocked to hear him say that. though you have to realize, he's coming from the perspective of a narcotics officer that made most of his busts on the interstate.

fact of the matter is if they get it in their hands, you are getting arrested. might as well make their job as hard as you can. cops are like muggers, they prey on the weak and uninformed. they scare you into believing that they have all the authority, when they don't.

[astro_righteous]

yeah i was wondering about that too.

i havent seen the video yet but i saw the trailer for it and when he said he was retired cop i was like well yeah its a good sellng point to say that you know what you are talkingabout when it comes to where they are gonna look and the tell signs to say when the cop is lying.

but i was also thinking, why would i completely trust everything this dude says cuz how do i know he isnt just trying to get more people off the street and help his old police buddies get more drugs.

but im glad i read this before i watch the movie.

thanks for the post.

[stickyone13]

now, anyone have links to the whole video?

great find, invictis.

[Invictis]

Here are two torrents for it sticky: http://www.torrentspy.com/torrent/10...y_Barry_Cooper
http://www.mininova.org/tor/590095

Glad you guys enjoyed the post, thanks for the +rep

[Invictis]

*Final Bump*

I know a lot of you have torrented/bought this movie, and I don't want to see you get arrested(most likely won't happen, but hey, you never know) because of this small part in the video.

[StickyxLover]

I thought he actually had a good point about submitting to search. His main point was that if YOU HAVE YOUR STASH HIDDEN IN A GOOD PLACE IN YOUR CAR you should submit to search because if its hidden in a good place and you tell the officer he can search the car, he will most likely do a routine search, looking at the easy to find places (such as ashtray, trunk, etc.) If you have your stash hidden and you dont submit to search you will most likley have bigger problems like having the dogs come in.

[laxphenom]

I've actually been wondering about this a lot lately since reading the summaries...anyways, it makes sense that if you dont seem too shady and consent, he wont go apeshit and search every crevice. However, if you are rolling shady, it probabyl wouldn't be a good idea to consent. I think a lot of it depends on how well your stuff is hidden, the strength of smell, and the cop. What I figure is best is to study the cop, and if he seems like a good guy and your stuff is well hidden, go for it, he probably wont be lame. But if the cop is a hardass looking for a powertrip, i'd say dont consent (unless you have a solid hiding spot and pheromones sprayed in your car or something)

[Fanya]

Originally Posted by laxphenom

I've actually been wondering about this a lot lately since reading the summaries...anyways, it makes sense that if you dont seem too shady and consent, he wont go apeshit and search every crevice. However, if you are rolling shady, it probabyl wouldn't be a good idea to consent. I think a lot of it depends on how well your stuff is hidden, the strength of smell, and the cop. What I figure is best is to study the cop, and if he seems like a good guy and your stuff is well hidden, go for it, he probably wont be lame. But if the cop is a hardass looking for a powertrip, i'd say dont consent (unless you have a solid hiding spot and pheromones sprayed in your car or something)

Couldn't have said it better

[Buzzwell420]

Originally Posted by junkiedays

Good find. I can't believe he recommends submitting to a search.

I also didn't know that for an officer to bring in a K-9 unit he has to detain you and therefore would have to have probable cause to do so. Doesn't this mean he could search without the K-9 anyway since he would already have probable cause?
That would make sense, considering most of the time cops just use that as a bluff to scare kids into consenting...

ITS ALL A BLUFF




50% of the time people consent, or if they dont they admit guilt after an illegal search was preformed.



REMEBER KIDS THERE BLUFFING STICK TO YOUR GUNS UNTILL THEY CUFF YOU

[emrandel]

I've watched Busted many times and have read a lot about rights. I've only ever had a cop once try to search my car. I just told him that'd be a violation of my rights and he continued on to arrest me. But that was for four counts of attempted man slaughter... which was dropped down to reckless endangerment which was then completely dropped. Just so you guys don't think I'm some muderer, we were just seeing how fast my new car would go on I-25 and the cop claimed I could of killed all of them because I was going 140.

Anyways that aside, I have a rather important question:

WHAT IF... I get pulled over, he takes my license, goes to his cruiser to check it and WHILE he's there calls a K-9 unit in for support. And then doesn't come back to my car till it's there. Therefore I have no chance to ask if I'm free to go and am not detained because he was running my plates and license or writing me tickets. I've waited over an hour for them to do all that, although I've never had a K9 called on me. What the hell do I do in that situation?!

I remember one day I was coming back from work from one side of town to the other and saw over a dozen K9 units parked in random places ALL over town. Seemed like they were waiting for some people to get pulled over and then rush to the spot. It was a scary day I saw over 30 cops that day.

AND... What if I get pulled over by a K9 unit? That's some scary, mother-fucking SHIT. I mean, I shiver just driving by a K9 unit.

[Mohegan]

Great post and point made.. never consent to a search..

[tea.mochi]

And this is why I ride the bus/a bike~!
Can't be pulled over if you're not driving, and as long as you're following biking rules and bus rules, you shouldn't be searched for those reasons either.
Not to mention the earth would thank you.

But thats enough of my eco-nut stuff.

Cooper's claim that he searched everyone who refused suggests that he repeatedly violated constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable detentions and searches without probable cause. Such misconduct remains common, but it’s not exactly the norm.


This is the norm. cops word vs yours GG