Crandolph’s Barbaric Yawp

No, it’s not a chapter from Paul Reubens’ autobiography.  It’s an opportunity to spread the word on knowing your rights when encountering the long arm of the law.  From the organization Flex Your Rights, which puts out an infotaining video on surviving police encounters titled Busted:

"This message is for the hardcore BUSTED Super Fans. Many of you have asked what else you can do — in addition to hosting local screenings or ordering volume discount copies — to get more people to see the movie.

A great and simple idea for expanding BUSTED’s circulation comes from Super Fan

Brian Schwartz

from

Boulder,

Colorado

. Brian made a donation for two DVDs and donated one to Video Station, his town’s biggest independent video rental store.

Interestingly, according to Brian, the owner initially said he wasn’t interested. Undeterred, Brian checked back a few weeks later and BUSTED was somehow in the store’s system — and it had been rented out three times! Also, the owner forgot that Brian donated the DVD and offered to pay him for it!

Chances are that you’ll have an easier time getting BUSTED into your local independent video store than Brian did. Such outlets often pride themselves for their wide selection of quirky titles, which, like BUSTED, aren’t backed by a big studio distributor.

I just donated a DVD to my local store, and the manager seemed very open to making it available. (I’m a regular customer, which might help warm them up to the idea.)

Now every time I rent or return a DVD I’ll ask the manager on duty if they’re renting BUSTED. If not, I’ll ask if the DVD is still on hand and if he or she has seen it yet. Once BUSTED makes it to the shelves, I’ll make sure the DVD case is prominently displayed whenever I rent or return a video.

Tip #1: When pitching the manager, it might be helpful to mention the great response you or your group received from your local BUSTED screening. (Check www.flexyourrights.org/busted/event#screenings to make sure we’ve posted your past or upcoming screenings.)

Tip #2: Try these same tactics with your local public library.

We’ve reduced our required donation amount to $19.99 for single DVDs, so visit www.flexyourrights.org/busted/order to order more today, and check out our quantity discount rates at www.flexyourrights.org/busted/order?select=quantity.

Thank you for helping to create a society where every citizen is prepared to assert his or her constitutional rights during police encounters.

Steven Silverman

Executive Director

P.S. This alert is the latest entry on our new Flex Your Rights blog (www.flexyourrights.org/blog). So visit the site regularly for news and other updates, and post your co

mm

ents about your efforts to make BUSTED available at your local video store.

P.P.S. Your support makes a big difference. Please consider placing a tax-deductible credit card donation at www.flexyourrights.org/busted/contribute, or send a check or money order donation to: Flex Your Rights Foundation, 1623 Connecticut Ave. NW, 3^rd Fl.,

Washington

,

DC

20009

.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 26th, 2005 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Current Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.