O'Rielly Urges Action Against Destruction of Telecom Facilities
New laws criminalizing the destruction of telecom facilities and a renewed focus by law enforcement “cannot come soon enough,” former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said this week in a Free State Foundation blog post. “From fiber cable cuts and copper thefts to cell tower sabotage, the damage caused by these crimes is creating harms that are rippling across our nation's communities -- disrupting emergency services, Internet access, and essential business operations.”
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But “on the positive side, seven states (Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, and Texas) have passed new laws to govern this activity, and others are looking to do the same.” In Congress, Reps. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., and Marc Veasey, D-Texas, introduced the Stopping the Theft and Destruction of Broadband Act, O’Rielly noted. “It should be evident that there's no time to waste.”