Stolen Valor Confrontations

About

Stolen Valor Confrontations are video recordings in which active military service members, veterans and/or their family members approach people in military dress uniforms suspected of impersonating a decorated veteran, an act that is in violation of the United States Stolen Valor federal law, and publicly question the validity of their backgrounds. Online, such recordings have become a staple subgenre of justice porn.

Origin

On December 20th, 2006, United States President George W. Bush signed into law the Stolen Valor Act of 2005,^[1] which outlaws fraudulent claims of military decoration with the intention of obtaining money, property or other tangible benefit as a federal misdemeanor. On December 13th, 2009, YouTuber Don Shipley (a.k.a. Buds131) uploaded a video in which he discusses the practice of stolen valor, followed by a slideshow of people he accuses of fraudulently representing themselves as decorated military veterans (shown below).

Federal Laws

On June 28th, 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Stolen Valor Act was unconstitutional in a six to three decision, finding that the law violated freedom of speech under the First Amendment.^[2] On January 15th, 2013, the Stolen Valor Act of 2013^[3] was introduced by Republican United States Representative Joseph J. Heck of Nevada's 3rd congressional district, which revised the 2005 Act by making it a crime to falsely claiming military decoration for the purpose of obtaining a tangible benefit. On June 3rd, the bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Spread

On December 19th, 2011, South Carolina National Guard staff sergeant Anthony Anderson launched a Facebook page titled "Stolen Valor^[4], which describes its mission as "outting people who falsely claim military service and/or unauthorized medals or tabs." On January 20th, 2012, Anderson launched the website Guardian of Valor to compile a master list of veteran imposters, along with a YouTube channel that highlights videos featured on the site.^[6] On September 15th, 2012, YouTuber BenChaibTV uploaded a parody of the LMFAO song "Sexy and I Know It" titled "Stolen Valor 'Stolen and I Know It'" (shown below, left). On November 20th, Shipley uploaded an ABC news segment in which he confronts a man impersonating a Navy SEAL (shown below, right).

On July 30th, 2013, the /r/stolenvalor^[5] subreddit was launched for examples of people being confronted for stolen valor. On November 28th, 2014, the Stolen Valor YouTube channel posted a video in which former infantryman Ryan Berk accuses a man at a local mall of impersonating an Army Ranger, gaining over 4.2 million views and 8,300 comments in the first five months (shown below, left). On December 2nd, YouTuber yazchat uploaded an interview with Berk on the Fox News television program Fox & Friends (shown below, right).

On February 27th, 2015, the Stolen Valor YouTube channel uploaded a video of a man being confronted for wearing an Army uniform at an airport (shown below, left). In the next two months, the video received upwards of 1.3 million views and 800 comments. On March 3rd, Redditor SlipperyThong submitted the video to the /r/JusticePorn^[7] subreddit, where it garnered more than 1,300 votes (88% upvoted) and 500 comments over the next month. On April 15th, the Comedy Central YouTube channel uploaded a Tosh.0 segment on stolen valor videos (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References