I received two emails from a reader who asked to remain anonymous. One is about supposed identity theft, the second about sundry other matters in Whitewater. Her remarks in black, my reply in blue. As you’ll see, we do not share the same views.
Anonymous Reader:
Mr. Adams, you stated:
“Real identity theft not the odd, distorted definition that the Whitewater police use involves theft of consumer credit cards, access to bank accounts to pilfer funds, etc.”
This is wrong. That definition may be the one the media has led you to believe, but that doesn’t make it correct.
The Federal Trade Commission states:
“Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.”
The Department of Justice states:
“Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain.”
The Social Security Administration states:
“Misuse of someone else’s SSN is a violation of Federal law and may lead to fines and/or imprisonment.”
You went on to state:
“Truly responsible and truly professional police forces, unlike our police department, know that identity theft is a serious matter of consumer fraud, not an opening wedge to an immigration action.”
Have you gotten a hold of the individuals whose social security numbers were fraudulently used by the employees at Star Packaging? Several have some very interesting things to say about how their lives were affected, and are still being affected. One of the victims was a four-year-old child. I have a hard time believing you think stealing someone else’s social security card is not “a serious matter.”
I have been asked for my SSN when pulled over by an officer. When one states one doesn’t have his or her license with one, the officer then asks one for other forms of ID, such as “student or employee ID, credit cards, social security cards” and so forth. Seeing as most illegal immigrants hold no driver’s license, I am not surprised that an officer would fish for further identification as to who the driver truly is.
As much as I felt, and still feel, for the families who suffered during the Star Packaging raid, I still believe the law is the law.
Adams:
I’m not persuaded.
There was no genuine, solid ‘identity theft’ investigation. See my earlier post entitled, “The Identity Theft Excuse” for information on how responsible, capable police departments investigate identity theft to protect consumers. That’s not what happened in Whitewater. In actual police practice, what happened in Whitewater doesn’t happen elsewhere. By the admission of the prosecutor in this case, no other district attorney in the state — in over a year since the raid — has copied this sort of prosecution. Not one other county in Wisconsin. They’re all alone in Elkhorn. You can look in all the dictionaries, catalogues, encyclopedias, etc. that you want. In practice, this prosecution was an aberration from Wisconsin practice. If it were such a good idea, other prosecutors in bigger counties would have followed suit. No one did.
I was waiting for someone to write about the four-year old supposedly a ‘victim’ when her Social Security number was allegedly used by an adult. The whole idea of referring to the small child as someone victimized is a vulgar play on emotions, and an attempt to conjure notions of the real and serious problems of child abuse — when children are victims. They’ve used this description in Elkhorn, and the Whitewater Police (and supporters like you) have picked up on it. It’s not at all like true victimization of children. It’s a shabby, ham-handed appeal to emotion from someone who thinks it’s clever, and damning. It’s not so clever, and I can respond to it easily.
Unlike real, despicable physical victimization of children, in this case a four-year old never knows the effects of the alleged crime, and a credit report can be repaired without any lasting physical, emotional impact on the child. In fact, there’s no good, decent reason for a parent to tell a four-year old child about this sort of matter; it would be reprehensible and confusing to burden a four-year old with this sort of knowledge.
This alleged identity theft does not ‘victimize’ a child in the way that instances of physical harm constitute victimization. This is nothing more than over-the-top hyperbole to prejudice unnecessarily people against a defendant who never physically injured anyone.
One of the great moral gaps in life is between those who use a serious charge (e.g., racism, victimization, anti-Semitism) when it should be used, and those who hurl it for temporary advantage. You, and those who hurl this charge, fall on the wrong side of that gap.
The Whitewater Police reportedly abandoned the practice of requesting Social Security Numbers after inquiries about the fairness of the procedure. If they were justified in their conduct, then why did they desist (as always, without acknowledging that anything might have been wrong in their prior conduct)?
It’s improbable that they desisted from any recognition that the prior practice was wrong; does Chief Coan even acknowledge that his force might — ever — do wrong by someone? It’s equally improbable that the Whitewater Police acted out of an abundance of caution; they’re as arrogant as they are ill-trained. These are men and women poorly led, held unaccountable, and ignorant of how far they fall from solid, responsible police departments elsewhere.
The most probable conclusion is that they stopped only when someone called them on it.
As for your second email, unpublished here, it speaks for itself, and none too well. I’ll offer one example, from among several. Your repeated description (four times) of disabled children at Lakeview as ‘misfits’ pretty much says it all. You write as one put upon by having to attend elementary school with disabled classmates. I’m unsympathetic to you. Their right to be in the classroom trumps your discomfort.