Stolen Valor

All right, who is up for a controversial topic?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/12/fake.veteran/index.html

I'm sorry, what? Stolen Valor charge? WTF is that? I'm sorry, but I don't care how much you deface what it means to be a member of the military and a good and moral citizen, if that isn't the definition of a trumped up charge than I don't know what is.

To me that crosses the fine line between patriotism and nationalism. What's next are we going to start being jailed because we have anti-war demonstrations? Or because we lied to our parents?

Ugh...

Fucking facepalm.

All I see in this article is a shitload of appeal to emotion. So he tricked people into believing shit that wasn't true and got on T.V. because of it. BAWWW, he dishonor my "famiry", put him in jail because I personally disapprove of his actions, BAWWW.

Politicians should be brought up on "lying dickwad" charges. No, it's okay guys, arbitrary charges like that are perfectly reasonable in our society.

Exactly. Just emotionally charged nonsense. I can't believe someone in the United States could be jailed for something like that.

What did he exploit? He said that he did not use any money from his group to enrich himself and the FBI is agreeing with him by not pressing fraud charges. Other than lying about who he really is what has he done wrong? That group helped families of vets just as much as any other group. It would seem like the only reason he is in trouble is because he got Gallucci upset. And as Rbz wrote, " BAWWWWWW!"

Those charges are total bullshit. I cannot condone the waste of time for prosecuting some dumbass while people are DYING IN IRAQ!

L.Ron Hubbard sole valor too
Hubbard the theif

I think you have to serve in some armed forces and see some action to be called a "veteran" i dont like wars or fighting personally.

Guess I'll play devil's advocate.

As far as I'm concerned he got what he deserved. The only place the phrase 'stolen valor' is used is in the headline, which means the CNN journalist that wrote this probably made it up. No where in the article does it say he is being charged for stealing honor or valor. It does, however, say that he is being charged for claiming to have "military decorations and medals". Now you can argue that lying about being a decorated war hero still shouldn't carry any weight in court, but I think its on par with faking a college degree - a crime which carries at very least fines in most states, and which he is also kinda guilty of (he had been lying about having graduated from the naval academy as well).

The sheer magnitude of the whole thing makes it difficult for me to believe that he is sincerely sorry for it as well. If you can lie about everything else, putting on a puppy dog face and telling everyone you've been bad and you're sorry probably isn't gonna trigger a guilt trip or anything. You also have to consider that he has done time in prison already for forgery charges according to the article, and that he was trying to use his fake war hero persona to influence local elections.

The bottom line is that there needs to be one. You can pretend he is being charged for telling a few lies, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Ryan Gallucci might agree with the charges, but I don't think that this guy is going to goto jail because Gallucci is butt hurt. Hes going to goto jail because he lied on a massive scale about who he was, because he pretened to have official recognitions that he didn't have, and because he took peoples money on false pretenses (even if he didn't spend it on himself) - Gallucci and everyone else will just hate him for it.

Second paragraph.

Also, this same phrase is used in another article which also points out that it is against federal law.

Although I agree that the degree to which he took this lie is wrong, I, however, don't agree that it should be punishable by incarceration just for saying you've got medals and are a veteran. To protect the reputation and meaning of military decorations? Ugh.

Ah, I skimmed through it and didn't see it, then used find to check if the term was used in the article. For some reason it didn't find anything except in the title, I probably capitalized the first letter or something though.

The rest of what I said is still true though, especially what I said in the last paragraph. I looked up the law you linked and the maximum sentence is one year, but they don't have to send you to jail at all - there isn't a required prison term. While they say they didn't charge him for fraud since he didn't actually spend peoples money, I'm betting it influenced their decision to prosecute for jail time, and I'm sure that it will come up in court. Ultimately I don't think there is anything wrong with the system, because the jury will be the ones to decide if they think what he did deserves jail time - not a bunch of pissed off veterans. I will say again though that hes already done time for stuff like this, so its really hard to feel sorry for him, and the jury will probably see it the same way.

Doesn't deserve to be charged but is an asshole and I hope someone beats the shit out of him.

He exploited the status of being a war vet to become popular and promote himself. The douchebag contributed a great lot to the lost of that Bidlack dude, who was actually at the Pentagon on 9/11. While I think the $100k fine is too much, he should be beaten at least once. Pretending to be some kind of magnificent vet is crossing the line. He's also trying to exploit the status of being mentally unstable to get a lighter sentence and get people to forgive him. If he wanted to help vet families, he could've just donated money instead of this

Last time I checked his declarations should have been protected under the 1st Amendment. It would have been different if he somehow was scamming people for money with the lie or worse, stolen an identity of a veteran.

Technically, he did scam people out of their money by saying he's a vet. Just what he did with the money is another story. They said his real name was Rick or something so he assumed a false identity. It's still unclear if he stole the name of a vet though.

Well he's a sad and lonely man for claiming to be all he was not, but these charges are getting ridiculous.

Well, it is fraud.

You shouldn't be able to claim that you are a veteran when you are not just like you should not be allowed to claim that you are a federal agent when you are not. Even if you don't hurt anybody or take anything that isn't yours. If I said that I was a federal agent and got past a police line, so I could look at a murder scene, wouldn't I go to jail? Even if I didn't mess with any evidence or cause any trouble, it'd still be wrong. Because the law is a deterrent. People are supposed to not break laws because they are afraid of the punishment. If it's okay to lie about being a veteran, then how far can a person take it? Is it okay as long as he doesn't try to exploit the fact on television? Is it okay if he just accepts money from a neighbor, who wants to help out someone who was injured defending the country? Is it okay if he just accepts praise and accolades from his neighborhood?

I didn't read anything about him using his lie to get benefits or something along those lines and as long as he's not doing that I can't really see a reason to arrest him just one to laugh at him.

Sounds basicly his heart was in the righ place and his head was not.

I dont think hes done anything truly wrong. as least in terms of law. He said he was a vet but i didnt see it mentioning him claiming he had medals. At most i think he should get a slap on the wrists, told not to lie anymore, and congratulated on forming and running a good little group.


HE should probably be monitored though in case he actually does do something bad or illegal.