I was on BBC yesterday talking about the Stolen Valor Act and the video below that has gone viral after a man was confronted in a mall on Black Friday by a veteran who called him out as a fake. (Warning: the video contains bad language). The man, identified as Sean Yetman, 30, walked by a real veteran from the famed 101st Airborne Division who was not buying the uniform or claim that Yetman is an Army Ranger. He spotted problems right away, starting with the multiple Combat Infantry badges.
There is a news report stating that Yetman was previously arrested while wearing the coat of a Philadelphia officer who died in the line of duty. In May, he pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court to impersonating a public servant, a second-degree misdemeanor and was given three months of probation for that crime along with a charge of driving with a suspended or revoked license. If it is the same individual, it would show a sad and continuing desire for social recognition and status. These people tend to desperately want to reinvent themselves and their lives.
I have previously criticized past prosecutions for stolen valor (here and here) as a threat to the first amendment. Such cases are deterred through social stigma and simple research, as it was here. The key to any criminal charge is whether the accused used the false claim to secure financial or monetary benefits, even discounts or special treatment at the mall. Obviously, a discount on a Happy Meal is not going to garner much punishment but prosecutors are likely to work hard to make a case when presented with this type of alleged crime.
What is impressive is that this fraud knew a fair amount of details but could not hold his own against Ryan Berk, from Easy Co. in the 101st. The detailed knowledge is not common with the relatively few frauds that create these lies. What is equally common is the exaggeration of rank and badges. These people are ultimately undone by their insatiable appetites for recognition — often promoting themselves to ridiculous levels like Major Generals or covering themselves with enough medals to make a Soviet General blush.
This encounter occurred in the Oxford Valley Mall near Philadelphia. Berk calls out the man and screams “Stolen Valor” and more profane descriptions as the man departs. One of the more humorous moments is when the man says that he is calling his “Sergeant Major” outside and Berk asks if he always goes shopping on Black Friday with his “Sergeant Major.” The man responds “sometimes.”
I was an outspoken critic of the original Stolen Valor Act was passed in 2005. It was later struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2012 as violative of the First Amendment. Congress then passed a largely meaningless law that made it a crime to attempt to profit from lies based on military service. It is largely redundant with existing laws and is only subject to a fine, imprisonment for up to one year, or both.
Oxa,
Glorified? I know of no service member that EVER considered the privilege of serving as something to be glorified. I give glory to God and I HONOR our service men and women for the selfless sacrifice that make for our country.
The guy’s a pretty good con-man, except he could not match the truthful man in the video. It makes you think about others who con there way through life, gaining the trust of others to manage their money etc. Sociopaths make life scary.
Yes, Oxa, it is “wrong” that the men and women who are prepared to give all for their fellow countrymen are glorified. Oh the horror.
There is something wrong with a society in which the military is so glorified that simply being a member is considered valor.
Very dishonorable. To the young folks who do serve and put themselves in harms way, often to be overlooked when they become veterans. The suicide rate with those with PTSD is at record highs, hundreds of thousands will never be whole again left with a lifelong disability. This guy makes me sick. I think it should carry some penalty, community service perhaps. Teach them how to serve.
Maybe he is just a trans-soldier.
Like transdgenders, he feels he is a soldier, so he is a soldier.
You guys are all such H8rz.
I agree with the other posters above that this should only be a crime if a fraud was committed to get benefits, or speak at schools. Otherwise, it’s just sad desperation. I’m not sure this always crosses over into mental illness – he’d have to believe the lie was real, or be a compulsive liar literally unable to tell the truth. Rather, it’s just a weak man wanting to feel important without having to make the effort to seek out adventure.
This was too painful for me to watch the entire thing.
There is an intensity I’ve often heard in soldiers’ voices that you can hear in Berk, the way they rattle off questions and answers, that is completely absent in Yetman.
That is so sad how people feel like they need to lie to make themselves more interesting. Why not just make their real lives more interesting? Join the Peace Corps, dig wells in Africa, build orphanages in South America, go salmon fishing in Alaska. He’s 30. It’s not like he ran out of time to have adventure.
I cannot conceive of how a real soldier would feel, when confronted with stolen valor, considering how many of our military have been killed, maimed, or have PTSD from the battlefield.
Stolen valor cases make me feel ill.
Reblogged this on SpeakOutUSA! and commented:
Unbelievable…
Commas matter!
Should it be illegal? Probably not, unless the lie was used for financial gain or ended up actually harming other people.
This liar got what he deserved; a public humiliation.
I’ll bet he walked out to the parking lot and drove off in his 2002 Crown Vic he bought from a police surplus auction. Of course, complete with the push-bars, radio antennas, and blue kojak light he uses to play cop on the highway when nobody is looking.
Pretending to be a current or former military member is an illness. Just as pretending to be a lawyer, doctor or other profession when you aren’t is the evidence of a sick personality. As others have stated it is sad to see someone so desperate for status that they have to “steal” it.
Not only does this stealing or pretending diminish the REAL persons who earned their status or profession through hard, difficult and even dangerous work, it is a lie that they use to prey upon the gullible.
Should it be illegal? Probably not unless the lie was used for financial gain or ended up actually harming other people. Merely telling lies and exaggerations should not be punishable. However, I do understand the desire of the REAL military personnel to beat the snot out of these guys who do ‘steal the valor’ of those who fought and even died to earn that status.
This is similar (in my mind) to the ridiculous law that would make it punishable or illegal to lie about things to get sex. Not very nice, but illegal? Nope.
Give him a broomstick for a rifle and let him march around shopping malls. I log onto this column for more important stuff. It says more about those that are offended by the mentally deficient than the mentally deficient. Be nice to the guy.
It is sad to see someone who cannot live without living in someone else’s shoes. I have to agree that it is a sickness, but it is still disturbing. However, as sad as it is, it does not need to be a crime.
If this man gains nothing more than the pleasure of pretending to “serve” his country; and as long as he doesn’t dishonor the sacrifice of those who actually do serve, then I’m not sure what harm is being done. I would suggest he undergo a psych evaluation because this is actually pretty sad.
A far more noble cause would be to focus on the men and women impersonating a constitutional government. They are stealing our liberty and freedom which is far more egregious than what this man is doing.
Some people are not comfortable being who they are and have to pad their resume. We have at least one person on here who has done that. However, since JT sees no problem with pretending to be a member of the military when you are not, I am sure he sees no problem with someone pretending to be an attorney when they are not. Same thought process.
The obvious problem with this guy’s uniform is the big tub of goo that’s squeezed into it.
Kudos to Berk for calling this jerk out. For some reason this really bothers me.
When I taught at university, we had a history prof, wildly popular–especially with male students–who had been hired, and taught at the u for many years, on the strength of a CV that claimed he had been an itelligence operative in Vietnam during the war. He was outed by a man researching a book on fake Vietnam vets, and his only defense was the “if I told you I’d have to kill you” line. Further investigation discovered that his graduate degree was a fake, too.
His response was to decamp in the middle of the semester, leaving his grad students, many of whom were depending on his course to graduate, high and dry.
Well said. I agree it should not be illegal, unless he uses the deception for ” financial or monetary benefits“.
I think it should be illegal, however, for this man to speak in front of grade school, high school or college groups as a veteran, even if he does so for free.
I would suggest only community service as a punishment for that offence, but schools shouldn’t be duped by liars like this.
Heck, they have enough politicians speaking at high schools performing that service already.