Good thing for Ford that he was white. If he was black, the mayor might be saying that it was appropriate for the cop to shoot the suspected fraudster.
As much as I despise stolen valor, it isnāt the cops job to call anyone out on it. IIRC they did pass a law on stolen valor, but the courts struck it down. Dressing up as a Captain Admiral Elite Black Ops SEAL Sniper is technically free speech.
The only problem here is the weird fetish the US have with their military.
We have it here in Britain too
I really despise agreeing with you, because your rabid hatred for anything and everything of, by, for, or about the USA is so glaringly apparent in every single post you make that youāve made yourself a caricature, rather than a member of the community.
That having been saidā¦
The very name of the law āStolen Valorā reveals the appeal to emotion and jingoism that was the motivating factor in the 2005 law of the same name, which was struck down by the Supreme Court.
What remains (the 2013 version) is narrowly enough defined that it will probably stay on the books, but the crimes defined in the 2013 version were already covered by existing fraud statutes.
I assert the following as fact
It would seem the complaining citizen and the investigating officer were both ignorant of the above. The Mayor is just being a typical politician and backing up the cops who serve him with the sole consideration of not harming his chances of being re-elected.
Thereās also this weird subculture thing about āI was in the military, so I have a lifetime license to loudly harass people in the street.ā
I think a big part of this is that guys go into the military as young men and it is the first thing that really gives them an identity and purpose. Then the military gives them the boot and they donāt have an adult identity, so they inhabit this in-between area of being an adult civilian but also looking down on civilians.
Valor?
Thatās a bit of a stretch. Sure itās fairly common, but for being a soldier itās certainly not a given. Often itās the complete opposite. And plenty of civilians display great valor too.
As @davide405 quite succinctly puts it;
(Valor)
My father served in the navy during WWII. He went to college on the GI bull and became a newspaper journalist. He was super patriotic on the Fourth of July, but he strongly believed in the First Amendment. I know he believed in the right to burn the U.S. flag as a form of free expression. What bothered him more was the the lack of respect shown by jingoistic Americans with respect to our flag. I also remembered him rolling his eyes if someone āmisrepresentedā their military record. I canāt help but think that he would believe that todayās police have more important things to do than policing matters of military protocol.
Something Iāve heard several actual war veterans say theyāre tired of hearing is other purported veterans saying things like, āI didnāt serve in the military and risk my life so that homosexuals could get married!ā
This isnāt Starship Troopers. Iāll gladly thank any veteran for their service, especially if it actually involved combat, but serving in the military doesnāt bestow anyone a right to impose their will on others.
āI protected your freedoms so that I could advocate for them to be taken away and tell you what you should be doing!ā
We see this in the recent Caitlyn Jenner foofarah. A lot of people are all like āThatās not courage! This is courage! [Insert pic of soldier]. Share if you agree!ā As if the Armed Forces have an exclusive lock on courage, or other swell human traits.
As shown by the way the US treats veterans, of course.
Youāre fixating on the general term for what it is called when someone fakes being in the military. I didnāt make it up.
Certainly not everyone in the military posses valor. But generally people who fake being in the military donāt wear a Tech Sargent rank and patches showing he is a Humvee Mechanic. No, they generally fake being SEALs, Rangers, Airborne, Special Ops, etc. People who had to work really hard to attain that tab/position. Some times all of them at once.
Oh right, those are the guys who hang out at the VFW Post. The Valor Posse.
My response:
People in the Armed forces get to go back to safety after a tour of duty. I donāt. Iām always on the front line, at risk of getting attacked and killed. I donāt have the Veterans Association/British Legion to support me when things get bad. Yes, I could have chosen not to transition, just like the troop in the picture could have shot themself in the brain with their rifle to get away from the fighting. The end result would have been the same.
Thankfully none of my relatives have been that tactless towards me or the other trans* person in my extended family.
Those military-fetishist reactions to Jenner and her supporters were so weird. As if ācourageā or āheroismā is only one thing and that one thing must involve a literal battlefield - nothing else could ever be considered courageous.
Ironically enough though - that pic referenced by all those people was not actual military action but miniature toy-model soldiers posed by a guy recovering from the brain damage he got getting beaten almost to death by people outside a bar because he admitted to being a cross dresser in 21st century America.
The term itself is ridiculous, thatās what I meant.
And plenty of people in all walks of life work really hard to attain their own position in life, but donāt feel the need to wear badges proclaiming their achievements.
I get why they do it, but over in civilianland it just becomes fancy dress.
WTF are you talking about? Generally people actually IN the military only wear their uniform on duty or wear a dress uniform where appropriate (ie wedding or other formal event). Just like most people wear a uniform for work, they donāt wear it when they donāt have to.
Stolen Valor is when some schmuck who never served or perhaps served in some capacity but not in the way their uniform suggests, poses as something they arenāt in order to get attention at best, free stuff at worse. And like I said, they very rarely are some generic MOS, but nearly always assigned to some elite unit - one that would require some valor just to complete the training.
Heās an example of stolen valor:
Well that is a whole other subculture which can be found on websites where the tagline seems to be āI took an oath to protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign AND domestic.ā These are the Oath Keepers and former Ron Paul or Lyndon LaRouche types who showed up at the Bundy Ranch. Many of them spend a good bit of their time fantasizing about a civil war, political assassinations, or forming right wing death squads. Some of them become cop-killing Sovereign Citizens, but many of them are in law enforcement.
