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- Shamed govt. staff should get honest jobs
- Will naming taxmen create violence?
- SUNNYSIDE (Monday 6-21-99)--A leading county attorney says naming investigators and prosecutors of persons who lose their home to the tax man could "result in somebody getting killed or hurt."
- The attorney, who works in the Yakima County prosecutor's office, says the YVN's plan to "put a face on government" might lead to serious violence in Yakima County. "There are too many people who hate government these days," said the prosecutor.
- County Senior Attorney John Steffan told YVN that "journalistic ethics" ought to caution the online newspaper about naming names of tax-paid officials who make their livings by taking the homes and properties of others for state and federal taxes.
- "You ought to just write a book or something and show the process. But not name names," Steffan said.
- We don't agree.
- Those who work for the government should not be ashamed of what they do in the name of government. History is full of government agents who have committed atrocities because it is their "job". After their covers are blown, however, many wish they had simply quit their jobs and moved into honest employment.
- The YVN will take the time to peruse the "excise (forced payment) affidavits" filed in the county treasurer's office in an attempt to name the names of those who have lost their property and name the names of those who bought them.
- We will name the names of all government officials involved in the process, showing what role they played.
- We understand that, of the 90,000 - 100,000 properties extant in Yakima County "about 1,000" are in some sort of tax difficulty at any given time. The fact the taxman is forcing people into homelessness is obscene. Especially when democrats are using the robbery to fund programs at least partly "for the homeless."
- We see the faces of Bill & Hillary on the front porch of every home the feds manage to take in Yakima County. If Bill's & Hillary's IRS agents, as well as those of Gov. Locke, are not proud of what they do for a living, they should resign. They should come "out here" and gain the experience of making a living with no tax funding.
- "The Yakima paper (Herald Republic) would never use the actual names of officials," Steffan told us.
- Right.
- --LA