rnationally on
inexpensive PCs. Carlton Fitzpatrick is teaching a class of drug-war
agents from the Third World, and he's very proud of their progress.
Perhaps soon the sophisticated smuggling networks of the Medellin
Cartel will be matched by a sophisticated computer network of the
Medellin Cartel's sworn enemies. They'll track boats, track
contraband, track the international drug-lords who now leap over
borders with great ease, defeating the police through the clever use of
fragmented national jurisdictions.

JICC and EPIC must remain beyond the scope of this book. They seem to
me to be very large topics fraught with complications that I am not fit
to judge. I do know, however, that the international,
computer-assisted networking of police, across national boundaries, is
something that Carlton Fitzpatrick considers very important, a
harbinger of a desirable future. I also know that networks by their
nature ignore physical boundaries. And I also know that where you put
communications you put a community, and that when those communities
become self-aware they will fight to preserve themselves and to expand
their influence. I make no judgements whether this is good or bad.
It's just cyberspace; it's just the way things are.

I asked Carlton Fitzpatrick what advice he would have for a
twenty-year-old who wanted to shine someday in the world of electronic
law enforcement.

He told me that the number one rule was simply not to be scared of
computers. You don't need to be an obsessive "computer weenie," but
you mustn't be buffaloed just because some machine looks fancy. The
advantages computers give smart crooks are matched by the advantages
they give smart cops. Cops in the future will have to enforce the law
"with their heads, not their holsters." Today you can make good cases
without ever leaving your office. In the future, cops who resist the
computer revolution will never get far beyond walking a beat.

I asked Carlton Fitzpatrick if he had some single message for the
public; some single thing that he would most like the American public
to know about his work.

He thought about it while. "Yes," he said finally. "TELL me the
rules, and I'll TEACH those rules!" He looked me straight in the eye.
"I do the best that I can."

PART FOUR: THE CIVIL LIBERTARIANS

The story of the Hacker Crackdown, as we have followed it thus far, has
been technological, subcultural, criminal and legal. The story