Thread: "Identity Theft" Card Was Dealt From The Bottom Of

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/di ... 998c78ca31

"Identity Theft" Card Was Dealt From The Bottom Of The Deck
December 20, 2006

The news media got sucker-punched like a pacifist in a barroom brawl when the feds raided Swift & Co. plants in Grand Island and six other states.

Mainstream media and alternative media and every other kind, including StatePaper.com, let the government go unquestioned when the story broke and spokesmen said the snatching up of workers centered on “identity theft.”

Say “identity theft” and most of us think of some rotten sumbitch using our credit cards to buy stuff – usually luxuries – that we ourselves couldn’t afford. You’ve seen the commercials and heard the real-life horror stories. The words “identity theft” conjure a vision of some innocent poor soul being tormented for years while trying to straighten out the mess.

When the Immigration and Customs Enforcement people rounded up 261 people in Grand Island and hundreds more in those other cities, the “identity theft” spin fell from the lips of every federal spokesperson.

They weren’t lying. They were doing what advertisers and other hucksters do, every day. They pushed a “hot button” and it worked.

Identity theft does occur when you use someone else’s Social Security number to get a job. It’s a crime, just as it is a crime to be in the country illegally. Violators can be deported, or sent to jail, or both. News venues in Nebraska and elsewhere in America appropriately reported that the feds had used the “identity theft” label in this case.

What they didn’t do, generally, was to figuratively grab a federal mouthpiece by the white collar and say: “Whoa! Tell me more about this ‘identity theft’ angle. Are we talking about illegals who carve chitlins’ by day, and cruise Main Street by night in a Cadillac, garbed in tailor-made Versace? Are they skiing in Vail when they aren’t packing veal? Clarify, please.”

The view from here: Reporters and editors didn’t clarify the “identity theft” angle with sufficient speed. Most still haven’t, based on what we’ve found in cruising the Internet. The public was left open to the impression that the feds weren’t just rounding up illegal workers – they were rounding up really bad illegal workers involved in “identity theft.” The government left the rest to the public imagination. Lots of people initially figured the raids represented some higher level of gotcha’ than previously known.

Lots of people no doubt said, or thought: “Listen, I understand people coming here illegally to get their kids enough to eat. Make a better life. That type of thing. Besides, the meatpackers hire them. Right? But when they get into identity theft, that’s where I draw the line. We can’t have it.”

That’s what Uncle Sam’s public relations crew wanted us to think. To the extent that it happened in this corner and was slow to be recognized: You have the editor’s red-faced expression of regret.

Otherwise:

Some critics complained that there was something inappropriate about raids that occur near Christmas, aimed at finding lawbreakers – because it can be hard on families, especially children. Well, that’s nonsense. If your heart swells with compassion for those families – as well it might – contribute money or food to the appropriate organization. Do what you can. Do not do anything to suggest to your kids, or anyone else’s, that felony violations of law are entitled to seasonal immunity.

Those who don’t want such hurtful things to happen should raise hell with their congressional delegations. The political cowards in the bunch – and that’s a majority of both houses – won’t do anything significant about the employment-driven immigration issue. However, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you might have given the most craven cynics among them one more thing to worry about.

When would Congress act with haste on a national scale? Not until something terrible happened. Something that would give them the sense of political empowerment they had after 9/11. The sense that the government could do about anything, so long as it helped to assuage the public anger.

I was glad that they chose to go after them using that route. It makes more people see what criminals they really are as they are committing multiple offenses rather than those who are here to make a better life for themselves.

Some critics complained that there was something inappropriate about raids that occur near Christmas, aimed at finding lawbreakers – because it can be hard on families, especially children. Well, that’s nonsense

Sure it's nonsense. This is the Christmas cheer time of year when lawbreaking scum routinely prey on the citizenry. It's only breaking and entering so some kids can have more presents. Don't bother them it's Christmas.

Crime doesn't stop because of Christmas so why should enforcement?

I saw a lot of police officers, at the mall to day and I'm glad they were there.

Dixie

What they didn’t do, generally, was to figuratively grab a federal mouthpiece by the white collar and say: “Whoa! Tell me more about this ‘identity theft’ angle. Are we talking about illegals who carve chitlins’ by day, and cruise Main Street by night in a Cadillac, garbed in tailor-made Versace? Are they skiing in Vail when they aren’t packing veal? Clarify, please.”

I guess the OBL idiots will never get it..doesn't matter what they were doing..they're here illegally..time to deport!

Nobody had the wool pulled over their eyes. When the media reported the illegals were arrested for ID thief everyone knew what they were talking about. And if the illegals didn't want to be arrested so close to Christmas maybe they shouldn't commit crimes around Christmas. Will the local police stop arresting criminals just because it's Christmas? Of course not. This is actually a major problem, to the media illegals are not criminals. They have their heads buried in the sand.

Nice to see you back rockfish.
As for Christmas crime, the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas is the worse time for crime. I jokingly say that some people go Christmas shopping in other people's homes or use other people's cash and credit cards. As for police being present at malls with crime that way it is, they have no choice. In the Miami Dade Police Department the mall detail is called: Operation Grinch Busters.
We had 2 men stealing packages left by people's front doors in the wealthy area of Coral Gables. Both men were caught and they were Hispanic but I don't know if they are legal or illegals.

When I think of Identity Theft, now, I not only think about
someone using my credit card to buy luxury things, but I also
think of the recent guest on KFI whose SS number was used
by over 80 illegals. Her horror story is here:

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=49468