Ten years ago I was made famous for producing a series of NeverGetBusted videos. After a shift in consciousness, I used my experience as one of the best narcs in the nation to teach others how to avoid going to jail for non violent drug crimes.
The story of my transition from top cop to drug war insurgent caught the attention of a television producer. I was soon whisked away to Hollywood where we spent five days meeting with almost every major film production company in California. I met with Dreamworks, HappyMadison, MGM, Universal, Fox Entertainment and several others.
As the producer was trying to sell a comedy about my life, I passionately told the buyers I had a great idea for a reality television show. I explained I could use my experience as a top cop to sting crooked police and catch the corruption on film. I was told the idea would be one of the greatest reality television shows ever produced. The Hollywood kings instructed me to sting a cop and bring them the film as proof I could do it.
Within one year, I broke a world record by becoming the first person to set up a fake marijuana grow room for the purpose of triggering the police into illegally raiding my trap house.
The sting was designed to bring attention to Yolanda Madden. Yolanda was a mother of two who was serving an eight-year prison sentence after Texas cops planted methamphetamine in her car. At the time of the sting, Yolanda had already served four years behind bars.
I used the footage of the sting to produce a “sizzle reel” and flew to Hollywood to land the promised reality show. This is the exact video I used to sell the show I called, “KopBusters.”
The fame of the sting also caught the attention of National Public Radio who featured a detailed story of NeverGetBusted and KopBusters on an episode of "This American Life." You can listen to the story here:
https://nevergetbusted.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ThisAmericanLifeEdited.mp3
To my surprise, I did not get the reality television show deal. After watching the sizzle reel, all the networks agreed “Kopbusters” would probably become one of the most watched reality shows in history. They refused to buy the show because they feared advertisers would pull away because the show made the police look bad. They also explained it was less risky and much easier to film a crazy family for a reality show than to follow me around as I busted crooked cops. As you can imagine, I was shocked and very disappointed.
My disappointment was soon relieved when a federal judge reviewed Yolanda Madden’s case and ordered her to be released from prison. She remains free to this day. This is the news coverage showing Yolanda leaving prison and being reunited with her family.
Not long after Yolanda’s release, the police retaliated and raided my home. The search warrant was a misdemeanor and allowed the police to seize all my films, journals, cameras and anything relating to the sting. Within the year, the police arrested me four times, my wife three times and they took my Autistic son for over one year. All the charges were misdemeanors that stemmed from KopBusters.
Because of the retaliation and after receiving dozens of death threats from cops, I fled the United States. I spent eight months in Venezuela and one year in Brazil as a political refugee. I was the first American to ever be granted refugee status in Brazil. I now live happily in Mexico where I continue freeing drug war prisoners by acting as a criminal defense drug expert witness.
Thanks for listening to my story. Give me an upvote and follow me. Peace and Love.
You sacrificed your well being for the benefit of others. Hats off to you sir
Upvoted from my tiny about of Steem because
Keep fighting the good fight.
What an awesome story. You're a hero, Barry! We NEED a show like Kopbusters, because there are too many crooked ones, and way too few good ones. They get drunk with their perceived power, and we see stories of their corruption in the news, but little is actually done about it.
When I was a background investigator for the federal government (doing backgrounds on current and potential federal employees), I had to go to police stations a lot to get printouts of criminal histories. I carried a large badge that looked like an FBI one (unless you looked really closely). The difference in how the police treated me when I came in with that badge was SO different from how they treated me if I encountered them as a private citizen. They treated me with amazing respect, chatted me up, tried to get me to stay longer to talk if they were bored (common in small town police stations), and ALWAYS wanted to hold my badge, because it looked cooler than theirs. This, compared to the douchebag, holier-than-thou attitude I encountered on the rare occasion I spoke to one without my badge on me.
I get freaked out nowadays if I even pass a cop car in traffic. I'm not doing anything wrong, but I never know when some random, power-tripping cop will decide I am. I try to avoid police whenever I can now. I wouldn't even call them unless an intruder was ACTUALLY in my house. I just don't trust them. We need more people like you who are willing to go the extra mile to expose them and make the USA safer for all of us. THANK YOU for what you do. Respect.
Holy shit, I had heard of never get busted but I didn't know the back story. MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!! You are fucking badass, Barry Cooper. Thank you for being such a bad ass. Keep that shit up!
Thank for the wonderful compliment richardcrill! Big love to you sir.
you @barrycooper are a total fucking modern day better than Robin Hood dead set legend! This is the best story I´ve read on Steemit so far. You gotta make this show somehow... its time.
Im looking forward to more of this great crazy hypocrite busting bravado. The whole problem with society is the hypocrisy... call them out a few times and show people their treasured authorities are corrupt, week in week out... see who can keep paying taxes
You're doing great things for this world brother.
Very thankful you are here fighting the good fight ♡
Never give up and never give in, our children deserve that of us.
You've done some great stuff, Barry! Keep up the good work. It's heart-breaking to know that Yolanda spent so much time (or any amount of time, really) in prison, but you were instrumental in her release, and that is frickin' awesome!
Yes. The four years were heartbreaking. I'm glad she is out but it's still a tragedy.
Without doing more research on your story (yet).
How do you decipher the odd line, to busting corrupt cops, at the risk of teaching the criminal element of society on how to better commit crimes?
It's such a thick grey line...
The only crime in sight when a cop busts someone for growing, processing, selling, buying, or ingesting any drug is kidnapping, by the cop. Kidnapping is a capital offense. Hang the narcs. All of them.
It's immoral to cage a person for a non violent drug crime. The U.S. has a history of bad laws. Slavery. Alcohol prohibition. Women not allowed to vote. Blacks having to ride in the back of the bus. Drug laws are bad laws. It's moral to teach humans how to avoid being tortured because of a bad law.
It was a bit of an epiphany for me to discover the phrase "consensual crime" in relation to drugs and prostitution....two types of activities that should not be a crime. Great article Barry. Keep up the good work.
They are non-violent criminals so who gives a shit?
No victim, no crime?
@barrycooper I left the USA and I've never been happier. It's amazing how different the world is without the constant oppression and fear - and I'm a white computer programmer. Yet, the scariest times of my life were never around criminals but around cops.
The atmosphere in the USA is often one of anxiety and worry because at ANY MOMENT your life could get crushed by the government and the police and even IF you were able to dig your way out of the lawyers and BS, your life would be destroyed. It's horrifying.
This is why I left. You don't need to do anything at all outside the lines in order to get rekt.
USA is a mess!
Congrats rampant. I'm glad you escaped. It does feel good.
whoa, I did not know this happened after... great story and thank you for sharing that with us
You are welcome sir! Be sure to follow me. I have lots of cool posts coming in the future. One per day.
Yessir, been following you since your first day... I shared your videos back in the day with a couple homies from the hood. They really appreciated it as it helped them out.
I've been a fan of yours for a while and considering using your information to develop some comedy/funny videos with good knowledge mixed in to help "knuckleheads" understand a little better when they trying to "hustle to live"
You are what everyone needs to be,,,,,,,strong, resilient, passionate and determined. You know what everyone needs to know,,,,,,,everything boils down to money and power. It corrupts the system. Thanks for fighting for the ones without money and influence.
Thanks celsious100. It's my pleasure to help. Your support helps keep me going so big fist bump to you.
Nicely done Barry. Thanks for your work and for sharing.
Tip of the hat to you anotherjoe.
I feel you bro.
Five days ago I also posted some very important info regarding the law enforcement corruption in the U.S. - "Who the U.S. Police Really Are"
Great work out there. Thanks for sharing.
You are very welcome naifaz. Thanks for the support.
Nice to read ur story @barrycooper
Hey brother, very nice post! Thank you for sharing. Can't wait till anarchopulco.
Thanks homie! Looking forward to seeing you there. Loving your blogs man. You know I am one of your biggest fans.
Upvoted and followed.
How many times did you set up fake busts before cops were caught planting evidence? Would seem incredibly lucky if police corruption was witnessed happening on the first sting.
I also caught cops stealing drug money. I'm going to blog about it very soon. I only did two stings before they raided me and shut me down.
I positively love what you do.
keep it up, @barrycooper!
Heart love to you faddat. thanks.
Wow, hectic story Barry, great work you did in helping Yolanda Madden, she and her children have you to thanks for being re-united again.
Keep Steemin' and look forward to having you help us do a billboard in Mexico for the @steemdrive campaign. Thanks for your vote and support on our concurrent post.
Awesome! I watched your videos when they came out.. really helped me. :-) kopbusters would be awesome!! I really want to see what happened to those cops.. welcome to steemit.. I think this community could support you in this work.
Great stuff man! Wish we had more of a chance to talk in Acapulco last year! But I'll see you there this year! Peace
Great work, tanks for sharing.
I just want to thank you mr. cooper. because of you, I was able to keep some weed in my car without getting caught by k-9.
You are a hero buddy. A fucking hero.
Hi Barry!
Glad to see you're doing well!
In spite of the (hopefully brief) misunderstanding between us, I still consider you a hero to the freedom movement. The update to the parts of your story that I knew were unbelievably interesting (you being the first Brazilian to be awarded refugee status), and I hope you make a million dollars on steem! :) If you want to get back in touch and talk politics, I'd love to hear from you. Curious to know if you're following any of the advice from Doug Casey( http://www.caseyresearch.com + http://www.internationalman.com/articles/looking-forward ) or Roger Ver ( https://www.dollarvigilante.com/blog/2015/10/21/tdv-interview-series-roger-ver-bitcoin-revolution-and-expatriation.html ) on expatriation.
FWIW: I definitely found the quality of life in China to be better as an expatriate than as a citizen there. (As per Ben Goertzel.) Glad to see you never stopped moving down the rabbit hole!
The reality TV show producers were clueless, your show would have been amazing. I wonder how much luck you'd have now if you took the entire pitch to Netflix Originals, Hulu, or their online competition? You remain one of my heroes!
Staystrong,
Jake Witmer
[email protected]
Another great post friend! I will eventually leave the land of the sheep and home of the slave as well. Not sure of my destination yet but I will figure it out in due time.
It has been a while since I have read something so compelling and amazing. The route that the police force in the US has taken is absolute garbage.
In my opinion they're simply nothing more than a domestic terrorist organization.
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism
"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:
Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
Appear intended (i)
to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion;
or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.
Thank you for your write, dedication to keeping us safe, and educating the world with your knowledge.
Incredible story. Thank you so much for sharing those difficult moments in your life with us.
You do realise that your story is cemented in the blockchain forever and eternity. Are you safe? I assume you and your family are safe considering you posted your story online.
I am most certainly going to share this with the world.
I am definitely upvoting and following you. You are one of the most interesting people here. Although I'm barely a minnow. :D
You the man Barry! We miss you back in Central Texas.
John Bush
How do you upvote. Cause you desrve it.
wonderful story
Wow, what a story, didn´t know they tried on you so much. Big Up !!! (Article boosted) :)