The Sundance Film Festival kicked off last week, with fans raving over indie dramas and illuminating documentaries like Pee-Wee as Himself and the docu-series Never Get Busted! The latter tells the story of a formerly dirty cop who becomes an antagonist and target of local law enforcement.
Barry Cooper was a member of the Permian Basin Drug Task Force (PBDTF) in West Texas before resigning for misconduct, falling in love with a pothead, and doing his best to repent for years of harmful actions.
RELATED: I spent my honeymoon at a psychedelic weed resort – it was a literal trip
Erin Williams-Weir co-created and produced Never Get Busted! with David Anthony Ngo, who also directed the series.
“The story takes the audience into covertly filmed police corruption, scenes of religious fervor, Hollywood pitch meetings, and the ultimate downfall of one of America’s most brazen activists,” filmmakers Ngo and Williams-Weir wrote in a directors’ statement.
How Cooper went from cop to target
Cooper is no angel. His actions spurned a federal civil rights case after performing an illegal search. He also openly admitted to inciting car chases for the adrenaline rush. However, after his fellow officers and higher-ups failed to stand by his behavior in court, Cooper began to question it all.
View this post on Instagram
He speaks about how cannabis arrests were always more peaceful than alcohol and that the families he busted were not dissimilar from his own. When he met a stoner named Candi, they began smoking pot together, and his frame of mind shifted. He recalls smoking with her, laughing until he cried, and then pouring out guilt over his wrongdoing. Eventually, he channeled that into a tool for helping potheads and dealers evade arrest.
The activist created a series of videos called Never Get Busted Again with tips on how to not get caught or framed by police when you’re carrying weed. For example, have a cat in the car to confuse drug dogs. He also has a YouTube channel with similar content called Never Get Busted.
His swan song was an online reality show called Kopbusters, where he caught police on camera violating people’s civil liberties. What resulted was a war against police that caused his family to uproot and move to Brazil in the 2010s.
“Never Get Busted! may be a crime story, but it’s also about larger-than-life characters in a stranger-than-fiction story,” Williams-Weir said to Sundance. “It’s for anyone interested in seeing a fresh take on the world that is the war on drugs.”
RELATED: Less is more with this specialty cannabis product
Never Get Busted! documentary provides fresh take
Cooper’s story has been told before. However, this documentary uses a combination of personal home videos, clandestine recordings, police dash cam footage from Barry’s beat, news coverage, and present-day interviews in an electric portrayal that keys into the adrenaline-seeking experience of Cooper himself.
The docu-series took five years to reach the screen, a feat for first-time showrunners. It debuted in the Sundance episodic pilot showcase. Viewers are invited along for a funny and sometimes harrowing story of this dirty cop turned anti-police activist.
“This is not a smooth ride, but one that bumps and grinds, jackknifing gears as the story unfolds,” Ngo concluded to Sundance.
