South Carolina to address Stolen Valor
Mary sends us a link to the Augusta Chronical which reports that a South Carolina state representative and veteran Stephen Goldfinch has noticed what we’ve known for a few years; stolen valor has exploded with phonies;
Goldfinch, a South Carolina attorney and Navy veteran, said at least 10 veterans and advocacy groups in the Charleston area have contacted him to report more than 100 incidents statewide of con artists claiming to have served in the military or won a medal.
The South Carolina bill [The South Carolina Military Service Integrity and Preservation Act] would create a misdemeanor offense and cover all “written or oral communication” that is fake, including service résumés, decorations, medals, ribbons or other means of honoring veterans authorized by Congress.
Yeah, well, we’ve had more than 150 just since May when our last tournament started, and they’re piling up.
Mary Schantag, a Marine widow who lives in Missouri and operates the Fake Warriors Project, said “prevent” is the key word.
Since launching the veteran-vetting venture in 1998, she said her nonprofit group and partners at similar sites have identified more than 6,000 hoaxers. The VA does not track such cases and as a result, suspects are rarely prosecuted.
“The problem is not the law,” Schantag said. “It’s enforcement.”
Yep, when I reported phony general Charles Baxter to the Maryland FBI office, I had to tell the agent what the Stolen Valor Act was, and then she told me that I had too much time on my hands. Trying to report phony SEAL Joe Cryer, who is obviously stealing veterans’ benefits for a condition that doesn’t exist, the VA won’t pay attention and won’t make the easiest bust in the history of the VAOIG’s office.
Even if the law gets passed in South Carolina, they’ll have a problem getting prosecutors to do their job because they don’t see the personal benefit of doing their jobs. The problem in this country isn’t that there aren’t enough laws to punish criminals, it’s convincing prosecutors that it’s in their interest to actually prosecute laws. And Stolen Valor is waaaaay down their lists of priorities.
Category: Stolen Valor Act
That’s because almost no lawyers have ever served, and situational ethics among some in the legal profession, coupled with selective enforcement, makes getting them to pay attention nearly impossible.
But what these “lawers” don’t realize, or don’t want to bother taking the time to find out, is that if there is someone claiming Stolen Valor, there are usually (hell, nearly always) other legal issues accompanying–a fact which has been demonstrated here literally dozens if not hundreds of times.
Other than exposing them here we can only hope that the guys at the tip of the spear, the LEOs that run into these dirt-bags don’t let them slide. If not stolen valor itself they can always push something else the guy is doing, and they ALWAYS seem to be doing something. Even if it’s drunk in public, a few miles over the speed limit or panhandling a cop can make a judgement call about telling the guy to move along or citing/detaining him.
Every homeless person in San Diego usually has enough meth on them for a possession charge. Cops usually don’t bother with them
Sparky, the problem is not ethics, but cost and allocation of resources. If all you have is an allegation that some jerk is telling lies in a bar, you will get nowhere with a lawyer. I agree with you that the potential for “other legal issues” exists, but proof is dauntingly expensive.
Newspapers, however, always need content, and they are MUCH cheaper and easier to reach, not to mention faster, and much more effective at correcting relatively small incidents of fraud on the public.
A nice, neat packet including a copy of the relevant laws, the results of a FOIA request, and a good walk-through of the claims made by an individual, why they are false, and where the fraud is (such as receipt of benefits for injuries that never occurred) would be a godsend to a reporter on a slow news day.
It wouldn’t be much different from what appears in this blog. And, it would be local news.
This can be done.
I dunno, us Vets in South Kackalacky take this fairly seriously. I see it more as giving beat cops something to jam a fraud up with, than anything else.
There are lots of officials who simply do not understand that this IS a serious issue. Few, if any, of them ever will understand if we do not educate them.
Yes, it is we who are the best to educate them. This is an excellent forum to use to do so. That alone is what keeps some of us coming back here. With each one of us doing a small part in this we can do what few of us could do alone.
Each time I talk with law enforcement officials about some clown who is pushing the valor lie I see it as training opportunity. So far, so good. And so far it has been very well received.
This isn’t going away. We can either help the process along, holding accountable those who should be held accountable or wait for someone else to do it for us.
There are even members of the media who care, as we have seen here ourselves. If we find and educate them our job will be easier.
Jonn, you just put much of the whole gun-control ina metaphorical nutshell – there are literally thousands of laws on the books that never get enforced, or when arrests are made, are plea-bargained to death.. Then the ignorant anti-gun polititcians say “we gotta have a new law”. Much of the problems with either kind of law stem from prosecutorial laziness.
Val, don’t get me wrong–I totally understand prosecutors are already way overburdened and they have to go after the truly “bad actors” first. Murderers, drug dealers, rapists, etc., are always going to trump assclowns who might try to scam a little something on the side.
But then again, how many kiddy-diddlers, etc., have we seen doubling as SV clowns as well? More than a few, I’d wager.
Sparky,
We have seen many ticklemonsters and ‘probables’ among these clowns.