{"id":58722,"date":"2015-03-13T09:30:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T13:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=58722"},"modified":"2015-03-13T09:29:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T13:29:57","slug":"stolen-valor-act-proposed-in-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=58722","title":{"rendered":"Stolen Valor Act proposed in Massachusetts & NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette<\/a>, Massachusetts State Representative John Velis has introduced a new Stolen Valor bill in that state;<\/p>\n

Velis\u2019 bill would make it a criminal offense subject to up to 2\u00bd years in prison to wear a military uniform, awards or decorations that one has not earned, or to use fake military identification for purposes of financial gain. If passed, it would be the strongest in the nation, he says.<\/p>\n

So far, the Westfield Democrat has received widespread and bipartisan support with more than 50 co-sponsors including a fellow Army Reservist, state Rep. Jerry Parisella of Beverly, who is also the newly appointed chairman of the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs.<\/p>\n

Velis would love to see every legislator in western Massachusetts support the bill as well.<\/p>\n

Until his bill is heard, he\u2019s reaching out to veterans and veteran groups to gain their support. He has struck a nerve.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New Jersey<\/a> is moving forward on their own bill;<\/p>\n

The Senate Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted 4-0 to approve the “New Jersey Stolen Valor Act” (S2704) which would make it a third degree crime impersonate a veteran or member of the military by wearing a uniform, medal or insignia “for the purpose of obtaining money, property or another benefit.”<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The bill also would levy a $1,000 fine on anyone who falsely claims to be the recipient of a decoration or model “with intent to deceive for the purpose of obtaining money, property, or other tangible benefit.”<\/p>\n

Fines collected under the bill would be dedicated to a Military Dependents Scholarship Fund, which is currently pending in the Legislature, having passed the Assembly and awaiting a full vote in the state Senate. That bill (A2849) would provide college scholarships to spouses and children of soldiers killed, MIA or disabled in post-9\/11 conflicts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, there is a Federal law to use against valor thieves, however, federal prosecutors aren’t using that particular remedy and as we saw yesterday, with Richard Rahn<\/a>, investigating stolen valor charges can be used to uncover violent criminals. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Massachusetts State Representative John Velis has introduced a new Stolen … Stolen Valor Act proposed in Massachusetts & NJ<\/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-58722","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\/58722","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=58722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}