There have been a whole buncha blogs, from WindyPundit to Balko, Randazza to Overlawyered, Crime & Federalism to Turley, posting about some ex-undercover cop who’s decided to become the newest internet hero by exposing corruption by cops in obtaining a search warrant on false info.
As Radley succinctly puts it,
Barry Cooper, the former drug cop turned pitchman for how-to-beat-the-cops videos. He comes off as more of a huckster than a principled whistle-blower, which I think does the good ideas he stands for (police reform) more harm than good.
But damn. I have to hand it to him. This might be one of the ballsiest moves I’ve ever seen.
Granted, this could turn out to be a hoot, if this cop-turned-huckster-turned-whistle-blower pulls off something credible. That he might have caught the cops in Odessa, Texas, illegally using thermal imaging technology to locate a grow house and then lying about it to fabricate probable cause for a warrant, will stun and amaze everyone. Kinda.
So why don’t I want to go to the party with my blawgospheric brethren?
Having seen the harm of police doing what they believe they have to do to get the bad guys off the street for so long, and having experienced the quiet truth that many people really aren’t all that disturbed by the notion that police might occasionally fudge the truth to circumvent what is generally perceived as a plethora of inhibiting rules that protect the criminal at the expense of the citizen, shows like this scare me. They turn real problems, systemic problems, into a circus.
I know, this Cooper fellow has done the legwork, huckster or not. He set it up, filmed it, put it together, and added music (maybe, I don’t really know how good his production values will turn out to be). It should make for some interesting viewing. But it takes the issue of police corruption and deception to a different place, and I suggest that it’s not a place we necessarily want it to be.
I remember Serpico. I remember the Dirty 30 and the day Abner Louima was anally raped with a toilet plunger handle in the 70th Precinct, and not a voice was raised. New York-centric, of course, but real and undisputed. These were hard demonstrations of systemic pervasive corruption, abuse and deception by police officers that shocked a City, and perhaps a nation. They changed little, as people became inured to the reality that not all cops are perfect.
What scared me then was that few people were willing to connect the dots between what undisputedly was happening in these celebrated scandals and what routinely happened behind closed doors in our police departments and on our witness stands, My psychological analysis was that they didn’t want to, they couldn’t, or the system would collapse upon open recognition that this was not just “one bad apple,” as apologists always insisted.
What scares me now about this freak-show performance is that it will not simply further inure people to these intransigent problems, but turn it from something that is incredibly serious and painful for the real people and families harmed into some half-baked Vaudeville act. This diminishes the real pain.
It’s not that exposure of wrongdoing by police is not an critical step in informing the public that this is real, it exists and it’s going on daily. It’s not that clarifying why, in the smaller minds of those who can blink and make it disappear, this is wrong is a bad thing. But this Cooper is not the poster boy for credibility, and his approach stands an awfully good chance of trivializing the problem and compromising serious efforts to change police culture by turning this into another bit of internet goofiness.
There is no question that things such as Cooper claims happened in Odessa do, in fact, happen. But it isn’t entertainment. At least not to the children who grown up without their parents. When this becomes nothing more than fodder for some huckster’s latest self-promotional venture, does it mean that the battle might be won, or that the battle is over and police misconduct is just the latest sitcom.
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I looked at his site and I, too, put up a blurb about this story… But I agree with your assessment.
Further than that, what makes me nervous about Mr. Cooper is that what he’s doing seems almost akin to profiting from the suffering of others. I dunno, maybe I’m looking at it wrong, but it’s the main reason I’ve refused to advertise or ask for donations on my site…
But… one thought does come to mind. If all the articles about abuse out there, all the video tapes that prove it happens, all the trials and torts, and even stunts like this guy’s can’t make a dent in this pervasive problem of police corruption and abuse…
What will?
After all, we can’t just throw our hands in the air and give up… we have to keep trying to fix the problems somehow, don’t we?
I wish I had an answer PR. I truly do. It scares the crap out of me that this will turn into some voyeuristic game show.
I think this sort of thing—with a little more dignity—is something that the investigative news media ought to be doing. Just how little proof do the police really need before they do a raid?
(Although frankly, if the media would report the existing cases a little better, there’d be no need to stage anything.)
Don’t disagree at all, but still having a hard time with why the public is all too happy to forgive and forget. I have this nightmare that everybody knows the truth, but just plain doesn’t care.
The underlying issue was pointed out by H.L. Mencken many years ago; “. . .very few people really care for liberty: what they crave is merely security.”
Just as abused children will retain their attachment to the abusive parent because of their own needs, the vast majority of the population will continue to ignore the abuses by their “protectors.” That denial makes it possible for them to maintain the illusion that they are being kept safe and secure, even when the evidence leads to the inescapable conclusion that they are in more danger from the “protectors” than they are from the bogeymen they are threatened with. I’m afraid I don’t see this changing anytime soon.
Well put. as always.
I’d never heard of this guy before this and just took the piece for what it was ,another example of how the drug war has corrupted law enforcement.Compared to COPS and Dateline NBC I found it amusing to see the other side for a change.
I disagree about turning a blind eye to police corruption for the sake of security.
Perhaps deep inside people know that if they stick their heads above the parapet and take on this pervasive corrupution that they too will become targets of said corruption.
The problem for free thinking people the world over is the lack of truely independant oversight of police forces.
In the UK the *IPCC* (Independant Police Complaints Commission)is seen as a national joke, (on us unfortunately).
I’m not really a betting man but i’ll bet that 99.9% of all cases referred to the IPCC are just rubber stamped to keep things running smooth for the respective government!
Remember, distilled to its essence a police force is nothing more than the paramilitary wing of a government!
Without its paramilitary the government does NOT function.
In the UK whenever there is an election, the first words out of the mouth of the newly elected MP are the words, “I would like to thank the police…”
If you dont believe me, have a goosey, (look see)
I offer the “everyone yawns” thread as proof that some system of holding police (and judges, and all other officials) accountable for due-process violations is a moral imperative.
Government ought to be providing us with that accountability itself by stripping officials of their immunity, and of their monopoly on the right to prosecute, so that every victim of official misconduct can have a day in court.
But since we’re not likely to get that anytime soon, the negative publicity that Kopbusters, RateMyCop, and similar groups can bring to bear on bad guys with badges is the next best thing, and I’ll take it any day.
To be beyond the reach of legal remedies is to be inherently untrustworthy.