Stolen Valor!

I despise those who claim to be what they are not. My dad retired from a US Army Special Forces Reserve unit (11th SFGA, Jamestown, OH) back in 1992, when he was still jumping out of perfectly good aircraft at the age of 60. Unfortunately, I run into plenty of folks who claim to have been SF. I generally just ask them a simple question. "What Group?" If they're a real person, they'll know the meaning of this question. Wannabees tend to reply something useless.

Pitiful idjits.

 

wow, sad,
entertaining, but sad.
gotta wonder what people are thinking.

 

I have never run into someone trying to impersonate being a veteran. I have seen the clips of some who have. Esp. those trying to get veteran's benefits like retail discounts. Makes my white thin hair stand on end. It has taken a lot of therapy just for me to begin to talk about military experiences as a medic. I was asked once, as a veteran, how I wanted to be treated. I responded that what I wanted was not to be mistreated. Misrepresenting a veteran's status is very reckless and should be responded to with punitive consequences.

 

Should be criminal do jail time and get a retired drill instructor to give them basic training to get out of jail! At least they would learn something!

 

We had a case of stolen valor up here in Canada, a really pathetic one (as if they aren't all pathetic). Some guy over in Quebec or Ontario was pretending to be an ex soldier. There was a Remembrance Day ceremony, and tv reporters interviewed him if I recall. Imagine that, of all the real soldiers around, they ended up with him! He even had his wedding and photos in military uniform....

He was caught and charged, but it was probably a slap on the wrist up here. Truly sad.

This loser.

 

I ran into another patient today who said that he was SF. I asked "the question", and he gave a useless answer.

I just smiled....and disregarded many of his other claims to fame.

Sad....

 

Hey, I am not ex- (or current-) military, but one of the podcasts I subscribe to covered the 'Stolen Valor' thing and I thought some guys here might like to listen. It's close to half an hour long. The podcast is called 'Reply All,' and their stock in trade is exploring and explaining various internet phenomena. Here's the episode:

» #70 Stolen Valor

 

The whole stolen valor thing is a tough call for me. Impersonating a vet is definitely a douchebag move. However making it illegal trumps the constitution. I'll take preserving the constitution over trying to stop people from Impersonating a veteran. If they try to get money or free stuff with their ruse we already have laws to handle that. Theft by deception comes to mind.

 

It's illegal to impersonate a police officer because police are granted special authority over other citizens, and a police uniform is a signal that marks who has that special authority and who doesn't. Outside of very special circumstances like war zones or during declarations of martial law, a military uniform confers no such special authority. That's why the military uniform thing is a freedom of speech issue, and the police uniform thing isn't.

My completely non-expert guess is that state laws protecting the military uniform will crumble under a Supreme Court challenge, and state legislators know it. They pass the laws anyhow as a sign of solidarity with and support for current and former military personnel and their families. On one hand it's hard to argue with that sort of intent, because military people deserve support, and to not be invisible or taken for granted. Military service, especially in times of active conflict, is no joke. But on the other hand I worry that the line dividing political theater from serious governing is getting harder and harder to see.

 

Jon1270 just took my response out of my head and put it on here. I agree 110%

 

I hear you, but there's a maxim that goes "hard cases make bad law," sometimes phrased "edge cases make bad law," that I think applies here. Shaping law around an extremely rare situation like Katrina would have a very high cost:benefit ratio (where the cost is measured in 1st amendment terms). Besides which, I doubt anyone playing with a full deck would chose that sort of situation in which to pose as a military person for some nefarious reason when there would be a lot of heavily armed genuine military around. If you think the government that governs best governs least, then this wouldn't be an improvement. Even on the police side of things, I think the crime we're alluding to is "impersonating an officer," not "wearing a police uniform." Actors don't get arrested for wearing police duds on a set, for example. But I don't know, maybe we should start jailing anyone who drives a white Crown Vic with a spotlight mounted by the driver's door...

From what I can tell, that's not what these videos are trying to address anyhow. The tagline is "stolen valor," not "stolen authority."

Not to spoil the podcast I mentioned above, because I think it's worth a listen, but one of the people they interview is an elderly veteran who was wearing his old uniform in public after a function, who was harassed and threatened to the point that he feared he was about to either get shot (one of the harassers was an armed police officer!) or have a heart attack (he'd recently recovered from one), just because a couple of "Stolen Valor" yahoos were getting their jollies by confronting people. That poor old guy hasn't worn his uniform since.

 

Hey, this is reminding me of my favorite online car reviewers...

 

Impersonating a vet is definitely a super duper douchebag move.

 

I stumbled across a bunch of videos where they expose these morons. Not sure how I feel about it being illegal. I'm not big on adding laws to our code books, but it is a unique circumstance too.

Either way, calling them out is fun to watch.