The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

Here’s the story, as handed down by the family of Yolanda Madden:

The police in Odessa, Texas persuaded (or maybe forced) an informant to plant drugs on Yolanda Madden. This informant later testified in federal court that he had planted the false drug evidence. Other evidence (hair and urine) exonerated Yolanda. Even so, she is currently serving an multi-year prison sentence.

This is a story, of course, that many of us have heard many times before. The names and details change, but the story is largely the same. Because this is how drug prohibition works— Or rather, this is how drug prohibition fails us. If you’ve read the Abe’s Turn series, you have surely noticed it also infused with the spirit of these real-life stories.

The pattern of growing police power in order to combat fear, instead of actual crime, and Americans’ nonchalant acceptance of that power, is gradually eroding our security as free citizens. It is one of the most overlooked critical issues in American politics today.

But wait! There’s more to the story!

In a twist that is so Abe’s Turn I can hardly believe it, Yolanda’s father Raymond got KopBusters, a new, online reality show, to set up a sting on the Odessa police department. Yes, you read that right. They set up a sting on the police.

KopBusters is a brainchild of Barry Cooper, ex-drug-cop turned drug-legalization-activist and the man behind the Never Get Busted Again DVDs. No stranger to controversy, in KopBusters, Barry and Candi Cooper, along with a team of detectives and lawyers, set up Constitutional-rights stings on hyperactive police departments. Odessa is the first such sting, which Radley Balko called “one of the ballsiest moves I’ve ever seen.” BTW, read down the comments on Radley’s post for more stories.

Also BTW, I wonder why “a group of professionals who are supposed to be so brilliant are… playing hippy saboteurs rather than just contacting the Feds and getting their problems solved.” Hmm… I think we’ve been here before, because I recognize that tree. (Please allow me just a moment of unalloyed gloating.)

And speaking of trees, here’s how the sting went down: KopBusters secretly rented a house in Odessa and grew two small Christmas trees (i.e., fir trees) under a grow light, just as a marijuana grower would grow his crop. They had to set up the sting over 6 months, using encrypted email and throw-away cell phones to avoid letting the government listen in on their plans. Less than 24 hours after the sting went live, the cops raided the house, where the KopBusters crew had set up security cameras, streaming video of the break-in to a secret mobile base, whence it was broadcast on the web. On the living room wall was mounted a hand-drawn poster, which began:

Police,

You are the focus of a new reality TV show called KOPBUSTERS.

There is nobody in the house and nothing illegal has happened.

We will be approaching to interview you with TV cameras…

There’s nothing illegal about any of what was happening inside the house (except for maybe the break-in itself). So how did the cops get a search warrant? And how did they find out about the site so quickly? Barry speculates that they may have used infrared cameras to spy on the house from the outside, which the U.S. Supreme Court has said is illegal. Then they may have lied to the judge in order to get him to issue a search warrant.

Regardless, the cops’ response to the sting, in true police-state style, was find the KopBusters lawyer waiting nearby and—despite the warning of interviews and TV cameras—handcuff him! I’m not sure whether they merely detained him—in handcuffs—or whether they arrested him. In any case, they let him go when 11 KopBusters detectives showed up, as promised, escorting the news media and asking hard questions. The police also refused to hand over the search warrant affidavit they had used, which Barry suspects cites false evidence regarding probable cause.

According to a local news report, the Odessa police are “looking to see if any laws were broken.” And given some of the stupid drug laws on the books, which basically make it illegal to piss off bullshit cops, they might actually find something to get back at KopBusters with.

“Police sometimes have other police investigating their crimes,” writes Barry, “but the American court system has never dealt with a group of citizens stinging the police. Will the police file charges on the team who took down the corrupt cops?”

Still developing. But for now, Barry Cooper gets a Conscience of Abe’s Turn Award, for the ballsiest move I too have ever seen.

-TimK