Here's article from McSweeny's that's interviewing a professional safecracker.  Some of these quotes are pretty good:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ken-doyle-safecracker

Q: It seems like you could use this knowledge in bad ways if you wanted to.
A: Clients often ask, jokingly, whether we learn our trade in prison.

Technically, the biggest difference between what a burglar does and what I do is that the burglar wants to get in and out quickly and doesn’t care if the safe ever gets used again. I take my time because my objective is opening it with minimal damage so the owner can use it again.

A criminal safecracker also needs different knowledge and skills, beyond the technical, that I don’t have or need. I don’t need to know how to avoid leaving evidence, circumvent an alarm system, plan a get-away, or fence-stolen goods.

--

Anca.



On Feb 28, 2013, at 6:43 PM, Michael Scroggins wrote:

I must have missed something in the email chain as I am unaware of the Workshop Weekend letter. Of course, you are right that the two letters should match, especially in front of the media. I can't help to think, though, that this is an opportunity to drive home the broader point that neither curiosity nor association is a crime.



Eddan Katz wrote:
Seems to me like sticking to correcting the misuse of the word unconscionable can be respectful to the police chief and informative about the difference between skills and criminal intent.

If Sudo Room does a separate statement, it should follow on Workshop Weekend's letter and support its posture and position.

There'll be TV cameras there this weekend - we can feel pretty confident about that. It would be very useful to share a common understanding in order not to have our purpose misrepresented.


sent from eddan.com

On Feb 28, 2013, at 6:07 PM, Michael Scroggins <michaeljscroggins@gmail.com> wrote:

I think a statement is well and proper. I also think arguing the right to disinterest inquiry is the proper line.

To the earlier back and forth about "known gang members" ... one of the differences between the people at SudoRoom and "known gang members" is simply that to be classified as "known" is to be stripped of your right to disinterested inquiry. All of your actions having been prejudged as interested and malicious.

If the letter is worded right we can make a statement about the lock picking class and about the direction policing in Oakland has taken.


Michael



Eddan Katz wrote:
J.D. - do you think there should be an additional statement from Sudo Room? 

Before we proceed any further - does anyone have objections to writing such a letter or signing on to it? What the statement says is another matter for which Sudo member objections should also feel empowered to raise. Comments can be made anonymously on the etherpad or on IRC, if someone isn't comfortable doing it on the list.

sent from eddan.com

On Feb 28, 2013, at 5:15 PM, "J.D. Zamfirescu" <zamfire@gmail.com> wrote:

Yeah, we were hoping to publish it tonight. Let me try to draft something and send it on? 

Part of me is concerned about editing a public statement on a public list...


On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 5:14 PM, Eddan <eddan@clear.net> wrote:
J.D. - where were you thinking of publishing this letter? 

I think it would make for a stronger and more thoughtful response if there was a collective voice signing on to it either as a group or listed as individuals.

With the help of the collective editorial prowess of the Sudo list, do you think you would be ready to publish it before tomorrow morning?


On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 5:09 PM, Eddan <eddan@clear.net> wrote:
I think the question is, rather - Can you get hired by a locksmith company without knowing how to pick a lock?


On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 5:01 PM, <thadwooster@gmail.com> wrote:
I could be totally wrong on this, but I believe locksmiths are required to be bonded, fingerprinted and licensed.

On Feb 28, 2013, at 4:59 PM, rusty lindgren wrote:

WTF #@*)DKLJ 

I sent an email to that newb at the newspaper... UM, where do they think locksmiths learn stuff?  Should they have to pay to become a locksmith??? 

So stupid.

On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 4:56 PM, Marina Kukso <marina.kukso@gmail.com> wrote:
ftfy!: THIS is unconscionable.



On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 4:50 PM, Eddan <eddan@clear.net> wrote:
Now, this requires a response. Has anybody started drafting something? If not, I will.

...
Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan was not pleased.

"I'm in shock that people would provide a class to teach people a skill to violate the law," Jordan said. "It's unconscionable."

Lock-pick instructor Michael Fitzhugh is a member of TOOOL (The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers), a Netherlands-based outfit that teaches and holds national and international lock-picking events annually. In their world, lock picking is done for sport and bragging rights. But, he says, it's also a useful tool if you lock yourself out of your home.

Jordan has a more conventional solution to that problem: "Call a locksmith!"

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Quan-s-wrong-note-on-lock-picking-class-4318130.php


Even worse than Quan, this guy's so desperate to change the subject about the incompetence of the OPD in news story after news story. 

Unconscionable!?! This coming from a police department that was about to go into an unprecedented federal receivership for its failure to reform; not to mention a police department seared with a global reputation for brutality, racism, and excessive means; and whose fundamental miscalculations and mismanagement of the response to Occupy cost the city millions of dollars.

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--
Cheers,

Rusty Lindgren




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