(From the screenplay of The Untouchables starring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery:)
Charles Martin Smith - l've found a financial disbursement pattern which shows some irregu...
Sean Connery - You carry a badge?
Charles Martin Smith - Yes.
Sean Connery - Carry a gun
Sean Connery - Well, here we are.
Kevin Costner - What are we doing here? (seeing it's the Chicago Post Office)
Sean Connery - Liquor raid.
Kevin Costner - Here?!
Sean Connery - Everybody knows where the booze is. The problem isn't finding it. The problem is who wants to cross Capone. Let's go.
Kevin Costner - You'd better be damn sure, Malone.
Sean Connery - If you walk through this door, you're walking into a world of trouble. There's no turning back. Do you understand?
Kevin Costner - Yes, l do.
Sean Connery - Good. Give me that axe. - Federal officers! - Get your hands in the air! - Nobody moves! - This is a raid!
The Douglas County Republicans are a necessary stop for any aspiring GOP candidate. Candidates for Governor, Senator, Congressman and State Legislature come by for the breakfast meetings. Last week's meeting hosted U.S. Senate Candidate Ken Buck. He was asked questions and eventually identity theft issues came up.
On October 17, 2008 Operation Number Games kicked off. The raid was the brainchild of the District Attorney for Colorado's 19th Judicial District, one Kenneth R. Buck. Ten Law Enforcement Officers raided Amalia's Translation and Tax Service ("Amalia's") in Greeley, Colorado. They seized computers and boxes of paper records. After copying the records, Operation Number Games found 1,338 of Amalia's Clients were using forged social security and idenfication records of other Americans. This was identity theft and felony criminal impersonation as only organized crime can do it.
Just as Kevin Costner made the decision to walk into a world of trouble in enforcing the law, Ken Buck got his share of trouble. This time it wasn't Al Capone but the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado. The ACLU retained six lawyers and filed a massive lawsuit against Ken Buck and Weld County Sheriff John Cooke. Some highlights of the ACLU's allegations are:
- *Amalia's has assisted thousands of her customers with filing income tax returns.
- *Seizing the records of felony criminal activity violated Amalia's right of privacy.
- *Amalia's customers include persons who are not eligible to obtain social security numbers.
- *Three of the ACLU plaintiffs are "Doe Plaintiffs". They have filed a motion seeking permission to participate without revealing their true identities.
- *Amalia's serves primarily a community of Spanish-speaking clients, a community that has seen tremendous growth in recent years in Weld County.
- *Amalia's is damaged because of fear that their spanish-speaking customer will not return.
- *Amalia is afraid because the District Attorney asserts that continuing the company's tax practice could constitute probable cause for additional future searches.
So how does a person who is not a CPA or licensed tax professional get so many tax customers? Tax Service owner Amalia Cerrillo has filed thousands of tax returns for Mexican migrants since the Greeley meat packers began their recruiting of workers from Mexico. A few years back the INS did a massive raid on the Swift meatpacking plant and carted off illegal immigrants by the dozens. The other meatpackers were largely untouched.
So far, even with six attorneys, the court case hasn't gone as the ACLU has wanted it. They have now appealed the case to the Colorado Supreme Court and the case goes on and on, with D.A. Buck and Sheriff Cooke still defending the right to enforce our laws.
Now Ken Buck has tossed his hat into the U.S. Senate race and is making the rounds.
If selected as the GOP nominee, he will likely run against the appointed senator, Michael Bennet. Bennet, is "to the manor born", having inherited untold millions. To hear him speak is to hear the old style upper class East Coast speech pattern we usually only hear in movies like Trading Places.
Let's look at these two guys.
- * Ken Buck has worked as a truck driver, high school football coach, ranch hand, school janitor, paper boy, furniture mover, adjunct law professor, prosecutor, and businessman. He went to Princeton for undergrad and to the University of Wyoming for Law School.
- * Bennet has had a series of appointed jobs, as a Governor's Aide, in the Clinton Administration as Asst. Sec. of State for International Organization Affairs, director of the Anschutz Investment Company, Hickenlooper's Chief of Staff and four years ago got appointed Superintendent of the DPS. Now he's appointed U.S. Senator. Sound familiar? Bennet got into Wesleyan University under the legacy rules because his dad was an alumni and past President of this elite, private school. He later went to Yale Law School, presumably by the same legacy way.
- * Ken Buck's grandfather first started a shoe repair shop in Greeley in the 1930's. He has long and deep roots in Colorado.
- * Bennett moved here a few years ago and has much greater knowledge of the foxhunting and country clubs of the East than Brighton, Greeley, Castle Rock, or Pueblo.
- * Buck is being sued by the ACLU.
- * Bennet is adored by the ACLU. Their ACLU scoreboard gives Bennet a Lifetime Score of 100%.
Take your choice. Elliott Ness or Louis Winthorpe III
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