The purpose of the book is to identify certain areas of fraud waste and abuse by officials from both the state and federal government. These officials have been abusing the trust that the American taxpayers have given to our elected officials. For over fifty years the Democratic and the Republican parties have created a system of government that has provided a pot of gold for themselves. This book contains examples of the power structure that the Democrats and the Republicans have created. The book also contains solutions to solve the economic crisis that looms over America. The question is, "Will the American taxpayer take charge of their own future and the future of their children"

Wake Up America

By Robert Allen Hamlett

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Robert Allen Hamlett
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-5462-2

Contents

Chapter 1 Identity Theft – Consumer Fraud...................................................1Chapter 2 Government Bribes.......................................................................10Chapter 3 Police Shootings........................................................................14Chapter 4 Police Contacts with the Public:........................................................18Chapter 5 Defense Attorney Issues.................................................................23Chapter 6 Drunk Drivers—A Victim's Death Penalty............................................28Chapter 7 Consistent and Fair Guidelines..........................................................33Chapter 8 Restitution—Repaying the Victim...................................................43Chapter 9 Repeat Offenders & Judges' Failure to Recognize Life Long Criminals.....................47Chapter 10 The Death Penalty......................................................................51Chapter 11 Prison Reform..........................................................................56Chapter 12 The Cost Of Crime......................................................................62Chapter 13 Politicians and their Impact on Criminal Justice.......................................67Chapter 14 Privacy Issue..........................................................................s 70Chapter 15 Law Suits & their Toll on Taxpayers....................................................74Chapter 16 Can or Will Congress Make the Needed Changes?..........................................80Chapter 17 Solutions—How Can the American People Fix This Chaos?............................86

Chapter One

Identity Theft – Consumer Fraud

Who pays the cost of Identity theft? The consumer pays the cost for identity theft just like the consumer pays in every other category. The crime should be called consumer theft. Businesses lose out, but they pass those loses back to the consumer. This is just the cost of doing business. Now let's look at the credit card companies or the banks that actually operate the credit cards.

Identity theft has doubled every year from 2001 until 2005. Most identify theft cases involve the use of stolen numbers-either a credit card number or a social security number. The unfortunate dilemma is that we use our social security numbers for everything we buy, sell, or register, for organizations that we join, on and on. When we purchase a VCR from a store or order one through the mail, we are forced to complete the warranty card and send this back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer then has the information that we willingly provide to their database for marketing. This information includes our name, social security number, date of birth, address, telephone number, etc. They already have our credit card number from the purchase. Now the company takes this information and uses it to identify the consumer as potential customers for something else, like a camcorder. The company will also sell their database of customer information to other companies to be used for the same purposes. These companies will sometimes trade their information or databases.

This policy creates the problem. If the FBI or police wants to tap into this database, the law requires a subpoena or court order to obtain that private and allegedly protected valuable private information. If Con Man Carl wants the information, he just creates a company, becomes a customer, and buys the database. Now Con Man Carl has access to all of your data, and this is the data that he needs to tap into your hard-earned money.

Unfortunately the FBI cannot review any of this data to protect you, because the liberals in this dear country want you to think that the FBI is spying on you. The liberals think the FBI wants to know who you are talking to on the phone, where you shop, or who you might be sleeping with. Take a personal note. The FBI doesn't care. Nor does the FBI have the time to care. FBI agents have families too, and they would rather be home with their spouses and children going to soccer games.

The FBI used a computer system known as "Carnivore" to extract potential terrorism information and to identify those who might be planning a terrorist attack. I ask you a question. Would not most Americans prefer that the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, or one of the appropriate government agencies take every step possible to prevent another 911 attack on the United States? The ACLU and their followers would like for the average American to worry about the government spying on them. These liberals spread numerous reports that the FBI was reviewing all of the emails that Americans were sending. Do you know how many emails are sent per day? About ten zillion, if the number is even accountable. There are only twelve thousand FBI agents as of 2011. There is no way that the FBI and/or all the federal agencies together could handle this job. But beware, the liberals will promise that you must worry about what you email to your friends or relatives.

Sometimes victims of identity theft do not find out that they are victims for many months, even years. In 2002, the Justice Department estimated that over 700,000 people would become victims of identity theft. It costs the average consumer more than $1000.00 in expenses to cope with the damage to their credit history and their buying power. The cost and responsibility to recover from identity theft or credit card theft is solely the responsibility of the consumer. In 1997, a woman in California obtained a driver's license of a soon-to-be victim. The crook was able to drain $4000.00 from the victim's bank account and steal a rental car. When the victim went to rent a car, the victim was almost arrested. Have you ever tried to correct a problem at the Department of Motor Vehicles? It takes an Act of God or at least a Presidential pardon. Currently, the highest areas for identity theft are California, Arizona, and Washington DC.

The present and future arena for thieves exists on the internet. A victim in Kentucky received a call from an online retailer that the victim had never known. The caller asked the victim if he knew a man by the name of Boonchard and of course, the victim responded that he did not know the man. The caller then asked if the victim really wanted to charge $4000.00 worth of cell phones and other electronic equipment, then ship these items to Thailand. Thank goodness for the call. Most retailers would send the merchandise and only follow-up after a problem arises. Hacked from unsecured computers, swiped by crooked retailers, or located in trashcans, there are stolen account numbers flying across the internet faster than you can send an instant message. The victim from Kentucky had been a victim because his name, address, credit card number, etc., had been zapped across a chat room for all to see and all to use.

Scams on the internet are booming. The crooks try to use identical web sites and use pop-ups to advise the user of an impending virus or present a request for an update of the user's information in order to install various protective measures. A user in Virginia received an email message in his in box reflecting that America Online needed to verify his credit card information. Unfortunately, for the crook the user was a technician for the FBI. The domain name was a fake and was a scam known as "phishing." The...