Despite 12 jurors declaring him guilty on 34 felony counts, Donald Trump – and the Republican Party – insists he did nothing wrong.
Closer to home, Missouri’s Attorney General accepted campaign contributions from a company under investigation, by the Attorney General’s office, for operating slot machine-like contraptions all about the state. The state GOP supports his actions.
Republican politicians and even some Democratic politicians quickly label law enforcement actions against them as “witch hunts” targeting perfectly acceptable – and legal – activities. Cops and courts just don’t understand.
Fortunately, many such misunderstood types get to discuss their actions with their cell mates.
Yet, the perception grows among many otherwise sane people that “crime” merely describes activities those who rule don’t like.
Alas, at street level we daily witness drivers ignoring red lights and license plate laws or SUVs passing school busses with their STOP flags out. Stores with self-check-outs get nicknamed “stop and steals” for a good reason.
Plus, it turns out stealing $25,000 from me isn’t a crime either…
You heard that right.
As I’ve recounted over the years, I handled a friend with Alzheimer’s affairs for several years, thence served as Personal Representative for his estate. For reasons beyond my control, his complicated financial affairs outlived him. As a result, it took years of action by a very good CPA to get IRS to acknowledge that IRS made us to pay too much in taxes. In late April of this year (after the estate had closed) I got a form letter saying a $25,000 refund check was headed my way. Planned mailing date was May 7, 2024, please wait ‘up to two weeks’ for the check to clear the USPS.
On May 20th I got a call at home from the fraud office at First Community Credit Union: the nice woman asked if I knew a certain name, and, had I given him a check for $25,000?
UH-OH!
Here’s the undisputed part…IRS mailed the check, then the check was stolen from the mail, thence deposited at a credit union ATM in south city. The credit union accepted the deposit but afterwards their fraud office saw irregularities, such as an account with a microscopic balance suddenly getting $25,000 from a government check made out to The Estate of George C. Burr, Glenn Koenen, Personal Representative.
Step One: take notes during call with fraud staffer.
Step Two: go to local post office to talk to the Branch Manager/ Postmaster to get Postal Inspectors involved…That didn’t go so well. The manager wasn’t there. The employee stuck with the situation called the Postal Inspectors office. In the conversation parts I heard he got the facts 99% wrong (saying I mailed a check to IRS, for example). Still, I gave him my retired guy business card with my name, address, cell phone number and email. The local guy promised I would get a call “immediately.”
An hour later – while I was calling the postal fraud toll free number and getting told they couldn’t open a case – a person from the Postal Inspectors called. I gave her the correct info and continued my drive to the First Community location which accepted the check.
Step Three: the credit union staff tried to figure out what to do with me. I explained that the Postal Inspector told me to get a “local police report” at the scene of the incident. Perplexed and unhappy people conferred and decided all they could do was give me a copy of the front and back of the deposited check.
Step Four: I called the St. Louis Metropolitan Police. The dispatcher promised to send an officer to get a report. After a wait I got a call from the police, a sergeant, telling me I had to get to the south area station to fill-out a Fraud Report. I asked, “Fraud?” Yes, in the city stealing $25,000 is fraud, not theft. So, I drove to the station and the lady behind the glass pointed at a clipboard with packets to report Fraud. (Helpful hint: bring your own pen.) I filled out the couple of pages, giving them to the Cadet then staffing the window, along with my business card and one from the assistant manager at the credit union who had accessed the ATM video.
The woman who had pointed at the forms then said the paperwork would be given to the fraud detective who would determine in five to seven business days if a report would be made.
(I wasn’t the only one getting bureaucrated: while I wrote two people came in to report damaged cars getting even less courtesy than I did.)
I had the detective’s email, so, when I got home I sent her a friendly message with some things the form didn’t have space to accommodate. I got an automated reply stating that the detective would be gone all week.
Step Five: the postal inspector called to let me know that she had opened an investigation and referred information to the post office’s Office of Inspector General. She strongly intimated that the incident occurred in the Oakville branch. So, I visited the Fourth Precinct office of the St. Louis County police in my quest to get a police report number to share with the CPA, the trust managers who assumed the estate’s assets, IRS, the Probate Court in St. Louis County (and the estate’s lawyers), the credit union…you get the idea.
Nope. The window officer went back and talked to a detective who said they wouldn’t take a report.
I have friends in law enforcement (though most are now retired). They noted that time is the enemy of every criminal investigation. Evidence disappears, memories change and official care moves on to newer issues. A now three week old case might as well be something from the 1980’s.
How about 2002?
Right before Thanksgiving 2002 I got an overdue notice from Sprint for “my” cellphone bill. Only I never had a Sprint cellphone.
As strongly suggested by the nice person on the hotline at the Attorney General’s office [obviously pore-Republican control], I went to the nearest Sprint location, a storefront in Sunset Hills. The store manager denied involvement and the responding officer said he’d take a report but didn’t think it would get processed. It wasn’t.
Months passed, I started a newsletter – AS THE PHONE RINGS – detailing my struggle, noting in Volume 2, Number 4 that the Postal Inspectors (the phone had been mailed after an on-line application process) called to tell me that the office has “limited resources” which they concentrate on “major crimes.” They noted a lack of cooperation from Sprint, and, evidence that the phone had just been used by a north city drug dealer – they get a clean phone and use if for their business for a couple of months, then throw it away. Therefore they closed the case. Since information shared with city cops on the phone’s delivery address and the phone number of the resident at that address didn’t result in action, well, me and my credit rating lost. I never heard from Sprint but their collection agency did try to harass me.
Oh, the city fraud detective did call me back on her first day back in the office. No progress since that call.
Now, as I said I have friends who worked in law enforcement and I’m a proud supporter of Backstoppers. I know there are good cops…I just don’t seem to get them when I’ve been a victim.
So, the Republicans ignoring what everyone else calls “crime” remains just a new wrinkle on a common problem. Law enforcement doesn’t have to enforce laws. Any you can’t make them.
Glenn Koenen
Photo Credit: US Postal Service website