Keeping you up to date with Barry Cooper

Keith Plocek had a rather fascinating feature on Barry Cooper, the former cop who is marketing “Never Get Busted Again” in the Dallas Observer a couple of weeks ago. It may give you some of the flavor of the circus that is Barry Cooper. [Thanks, Kaptin]
Scott Morgan at Flex Your Rights reviewed Cooper’s DVD here in a post that drew some comments from Barry himself, and Scott later followed it up with The Viability of Refusing Consent
Mark at WindyPundit has been following that exchange and providing his own analysis in On Refusing a Search of Your Vehicle and a followup: More Email From Barry Cooper.
A lot of the controversy here has been Cooper’s suggestion on his DVD that you should give consent to search your car in some situations. My stance is that you should never surrender your rights. Ever.
Scott Morgan gives An Offer For Barry Cooper, which is agreed to by all parties and Windypundit condenses it to:

1. Be aware that consenting to a search means that you’re waiving your 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. If anything illegal is found after you’ve consented to a search, there will be very little your attorney can do for you.
2. If an officer asks to search and you have private items that are not well hidden, always REFUSE consent.
3. If you’ve got nothing to hide, always refuse the search. You’ve got nothing to lose.
4. If you find it necessary to refuse a search for the reasons listed above, calmly state the following: “Officer I don’t consent to any searches. Am I free to go?”…If the officer says you may leave, depart immediately regardless of anything else he says.