Oakland Mayor Promotes Lock-Picking Class

No, really. From the what on earth are they thinking?! department:

In her State of the City speech Wednesday night, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan mentioned that violent crime was not the city’s only problem — and she is correct. Burglaries of cars, homes and businesses skyrocketed from 8,797 in 2011 to 12,549 in 2012. That’s an average of 34 burglaries a day — or one every 42 minutes. So, Oakland resident Noah Garber was plumb flabbergasted when he saw what Quan’s weekly newsletter was advertising this weekend: a class on how to pick locks. ”For reasons that cannot be explained, and defy logic, there is a class this weekend on lock picking,” Garber wrote in an e-mail. “Given the uncontrollable crime in Oakland, we are beyond ourselves that Oakland can advertise an event on lock-picking. It’s akin to teaching a class on making IEDs in Iraq.”

The link from Quan’s newsletter takes readers to the details of the “Introduction to Lockpicking” class: “Have you always wanted to know how to pick a lock? In many cases, opening a lock without a key is easier than you think!” The class costs $40 and is open to ages 10 to 101.

“Don’t get me started about how she surrendered to the Occupy thugs,” Wesley J. Smith writes at the Corner. “Quan has to be the worst, most clueless mayor in the United States.”

As Yoda would say, no, there is another.