{"id":39614,"date":"2014-02-03T10:50:02","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T15:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=39614"},"modified":"2014-02-03T10:50:02","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T15:50:02","slug":"south-carolina-to-address-stolen-valor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=39614","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina to address Stolen Valor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary sends us a link to the Augusta Chronical<\/a> 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;<\/p>\n

Goldfinch, a South Caro\u00adlina attorney and Navy veteran, said at least 10 veterans and advocacy groups in the Charles\u00adton 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.<\/p>\n

The South Carolina bill [The South Carolina Mili\u00adtary Service Integrity and Pre\u00adservation Act] would create a misdemeanor offense and cover all \u201cwritten or oral communication\u201d that is fake, including service r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, decorations, medals, ribbons or other means of honoring veterans authorized by Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, well, we’ve had more than 150 just since May when our last tournament started, and they’re piling up.<\/p>\n

Mary Schantag, a Marine widow who lives in Missouri and operates the Fake War\u00adriors Project, said \u201cprevent\u201d is the key word.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is not the law,\u201d Schantag said. \u201cIt\u2019s enforcement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary sends us a link to the Augusta Chronical which reports that a South Carolina state … South Carolina to address Stolen Valor<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stolen-valor-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}