CHUCK LAWRENCE |
|
"It's way overdue," said Chuck
Lawrence, a Vietnam veteran
living in Sumner, Wash. "I was just fed up, as was most of the
veteran community."....... SEE
THE HEROES OR VILLAINS LIST that now includes HIS name.
|
|
Richard Roesler
Olympia Bureau
The Spokane Spokesman-Review
360-664-2598
fax 360-664-4978
email: richr@spokanenews.net
web log: www.spokesmanreview.com/olympia
newspaper website: www.spokesmanreview.com
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Crime
New law targets fake vets
Impersonating a veteran now a crime akin to
pretending to be a police officer
Richard Roesler
Staff writer
OLYMPIA _ Everyone's seen the cardboard signs clutched by panhandlers
at intersections, freeway exits and supermarket parking lots.
...
This week, Gov. Gary Locke approved a law making it a crime to profit
by falsely claiming to be a military veteran. Among the bill's
targets: people wrongly seeking hiring preferences or educational
benefits, con men preying on people's sympathies and panhandlers.
"It's one of the worst kinds of fraud. It devalues the concept of
being a veteran," said the bill's prime sponsor, Sen. Pam Roach,
R-Auburn. The state Legislature unanimously approved the bill earlier
this month.
"It's way overdue," said Chuck Lawrence, a Vietnam veteran
living in Sumner, Wash. "I was just fed up, as was most of the
veteran community."
Lawrence said his own father-in-law ripped off a friend for $10,000 by
falsely pretending to be an ex-Navy SEAL left penniless by a
government paperwork foul-up.
....
|