From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:24:03 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: I don't need no steenking badge...but I got one anyway
In-Reply-To: <199710282132.WAA09810@basement.replay.com>
Message-ID: <v0310280fb07c3cd80352@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 2:32 PM -0700 10/28/97, Anonymous wrote:

>I know what you're thinking, kid.
>You're thinking, "I'm going to try doing this on Halloween, and if I
>get caught, I'm going to tell mom and dad I was checking on the old
>lady's health."
>
>Forget it. You don't have a badge, and you're going to get your
>bottom tanned.

You should see some of the various realistic-looking badges one can buy at
the gun shows! From agencies and correctional departments and obscure law
enforcement agencies...but all very realistic-looking. Also availabe from
the back of various gun and survival magazines, but I like to look at
things in person, up close, before committing to a purchase.

This has some very slight ObCrypto connections, in that badges are, as a
class, taken to be "face value claims of authority." Flashing a badge is
often all it takes to gain entrance to a house, or access to controlled
areas.

So, with the proliferation of essentially perfect copies of badges, and
laser-printed credentials to match them, what happens to "real"
badge-carrying officers? (And just what _are_ real officers in an era of
ten thousand police and law enforcement jurisdictions, hundreds of agencies
authorized to have their agents carry guns and make arrests, and no
traceability, no top-down authentication system?)

--Lt. Timothy May, sworn Peace Officer, Lagrange County, CLS

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."