Schumer Attacks Battered Women with New Bill
For Immediate Release: June 15, 2010 Contact: CREDICO2010
For more info: 212 924 6980
Schumer Attacks Battered Women with New Bill
New York — “Another shameless and hollow gimmick by Wall Street Chuck”
Schumer’s cell phone sign up bill is little more than a shameless and hollow gesture giving the appearance that Schumer is tough on terrorism, but yet again, at the expense of poor people.
Requiring that identification be produced at the point of sale, transmitted to the cell phone company and then maintained by the cell phone company will not only dramatically increase the price of prepaid cell phones, it will have a chilling effect on the number of vendors willing to put up with the hassle of the paperwork. Fewer stores will offer prepaid phones for sale, and those that do will increase the price.
Who uses prepaid cell phones, aside from terrorists? Children across the state, whose parents are wisely proactive when it comes to limiting the amount of time and expense of their children’s phone usage, but who know that in the times we live in, cell phones for children, are a necessity. Poor people, who may not have the necessary documentation and credit to qualify for a cell phone plan. People who are out of work, but desperately seeking employment -it is next to impossible to secure a job without providing a contact phone number. And battered women living in a shelter who can not provide proof of address, for whom access to a phone could mean the difference between life and death.
What will requiring proof of identity at the point of sale, and maintaining a record of that identity, accomplish for the war against terrorism, virtually nothing. Fake identification cards are a dime a dozen. Those who plan on using a prepaid cell phone for nefarious purposes will be the most adept at providing false documentation – and the most able to absorb the additional cost. And what information will be available to law enforcement? Just a name and not an address to which a bill is regularly delivered, not a place of employment, not a bank account or credit card number. Chuck needs to ask himself – what is that name worth? Not a lot to law enforcement, but a big expense that poor people can ill afford.
Filed in: Press Releases