ACORN Housing's Response to Conservative Attacks
Last week the nation became aware of video tapes made by a conservative activist targeting ACORN and ACORN Housing Corporation field offices across the country. A secret camera was used to record informal conversations. Three of the employees seen in the tapes are ACORN Housing employees, who are observed responding to the imposter's inquiries about ways to hide an illegal enterprise.
I was horrified, just like many of you, when I saw the video. While no transaction took place in this incident -- no client files were created or billed, no loan documents were signed or submitted, no bank loans were arranged -- this is not how members of our organization should behave. The employees might not have broken any laws, but they violated the moral and ethical standards that we have set for ourselves.
We have fired or suspended all of the employees that appear in the tapes and have transferred their client files to other offices. We have suspended all Housing counseling work in the DC office until we conduct a thorough investigation of that office's activity.
While nothing excuses how a handful of our staff responded, we will use these incidents as an opportunity to ensure that ACORN Housing operates according to the highest moral and ethical standards. We are taking steps to make sure that all employees know and understand the organization's standards, the behavior required by those standards, and the procedures and policies we have in place to enforce them. We are planning an expanded series of mandatory trainings on ethical standards and behavior and have initiated a thorough review of our existing policies and procedures.
Having said that, we will not let the behavior of a few employees, out of the hundreds we have nationwide, be used by those with a political agenda to either define us or distract us from our mission. The conservative activists who made these videos chose not to show the offices where the activists were turned away like the one in Philadelphia where the staff called the police. Here is the police report for that incident:
James O'Keefe Police Report -
Our mission -- to make the American dream of home ownership available to everyone who wants one and to keep people in the homes they already have -- has not changed. I am proud of the work we do. The numbers back us up. In the last 18 months, we have helped over 50,000 families in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure, with over 80% of those having low and moderate incomes. Since we started in 1986, we've assisted over 110,000 families to get mortgages and buy their first homes. We've provided mortgage counseling to at least 350,000 families. We have provided foreclosure prevention counseling to at least 26,000 people. That's the real ACORN Housing story.
We know that these conservative activists visited offices in several other cities and there may be more videos to come, but ACORN Housing takes its mission and work very seriously. If there is more action required, we will take it, but we will not lie down without a fight and that is why I am publishing the official statement we released on Friday detailing the actions we have taken so far along with the police report filed by our Philadelphia staff. Our mission is to help low income people get and keep housing and despite the attacks of right wing activists, that is what we will keep doing.
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Update:
http://mediamatters.org/research/200909220026
"Kelly noted police in California say ACORN worker called them after encounter with filmmakers"
I told you so....
Glen Beck and the right wingers are like sharks. They got blood in the water with Van Jones, and now it is an all out feeding frenzy. Stay out of the water Mr. Shea, or you will become their next vitom.
YES! if you don't start to attack these conservatives, they will continue unabated.
the other thing that's noteworthy about ACORN'S response is that as they institute an independent investigation, as well as cleaning their own house, they begin to notice connections. they make that wonderful connection as to the logistics of these videos (that were all by the same videographer, but in multiple locations, so where was his funds coming from in that short span of time); and that they string it into their history as one of the multiple attacks throughout their history that have such disparate claims (even now), when they have made clear as to their mission as an organization.
Mr. Shea,
Maybe it isn't just trying to fight video by video, but also showing if any paperwork from the Acorn volunteers have been filed, or were intended for processing. Whether or not the camera was there recording, all it recorded was verbal. Maybe the process of the paperwork itself will reveal whether or not these volunteers attempted to commit fraud. Right now, these volunteers are verbally implicated until raw footage is found; but I suspect it won't appear anytime soon, which to me...well, smacks of something else.
accountability NE1?
I worked for ACORN for a very short time back in the 80's I am surprised they are still around. They hired anybody to canvas for signatures for different initiatives (some I really didn't agree with - like a law limiting pain and suffereing in a lawsuit to 100k) and then paid workers by how many signatures they got. Not surprising at all that desperate people who are out of work would take the job and fake the signatures.
Should ACORN get any stimulus money? You decide:
-the brother of the founder of Acorn embezzled over $1 million from the organization---Acorn has decided not to prosecute him (much of this money came from U.S. taxpayers)
-11 Acorn workers in Florida stand accused of falsifying information on 888 voter registration forms
-Las Vegas election officials now say 48% of Acorn's voter registrations were fraudulent
-70 Acorn officials in 12 states have been convicted of voter registration fraud
No sourcing for the claims made. Why is that? With so many claims, you must have a disclosure for readers. You do have a disclosure you want to make, right?
Google.com it
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday September 16, 2009
Time someone publishes ALL the comments.
ACORN is necessary in our society. Don't use it as the excuse to foil your real purpose of derailing the work of President Obama.
Unless people who love truth and justice say something and take action the Bully --the one whoe takes and never gives-- will subjugate the majority. You hate mongerers filled with bile, you know who you are.
"....The conservative activists who made these videos chose not to show the offices where the activists were turned away..."
What difference does that make? Your organization was caught red handed, and I hope the Obama administration audits your books all the way back to the Rathke Brothers.
This not a coincidence, or a few bad apples.
Here is one of your employees speaking this morning;
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2009/09/16/former-employee-fox-acorn-most-corrupt-group-country
According to testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, ACORN has been under investigation in some states for, among other things:
* "Violations of the Internal Revenue Code as a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization for intervening in partisan campaign activities;"
* "Violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) which prohibits expenditures by non-profit corporations, including ACORN and Project Vote, that are made in coordination with, at the request, behest, suggestion or with the material involvement of a federal campaign; and"
* "Fraudulent voter registration activities, failure to comply with state law in voter registration drives, absence of quality control and training, and the internal procedures as to how ACORN responds to allegations of illegality."
This is NOT just about the undercover tapes.
I think there is an element we are missing here. I'm not making excuses for ACORN, but pimps are usually known as thugs. If you lived in the inner city, and knew your whole life that these people were willing to KILL you if you got in your way, would you give them advice on tax evasion? I think if someone was going to kill me, I would give them a 10 part business plan for prostitution. I think the biggest problem isn't the advice they gave them, but that they didn't call the police immediately after these people left. At any rate, none of this will probably matter in court anyway.
During the election I wondered what exactly a "community organizer" does. Now, thanks to these Acorn videos, I know.
So, according to your knowledge from these videos, what do you think a community organizer do?
I do not in any way, shape or form condone what was done, but I think you could go into any non-profit or for profit business and find people willing to cheat the system. We have corporate fraud on a much larger scale every day but that never brings forth the outrage seen with this. Just asking, but why does the outrage seem so much harsher for a non-profit that basically works for the poor than it is against any other fraud?
I commend the writer of this quote :
" All companies have a handful of rogue employees. Some of them actually engage in incredibly risky investment behavior and help to take down an economy. (USA's & the rest of the world.)
ACORN provides an invaluable service. Keep up the good work."
STOP, ANALYSE, LOOK, LISTEN!
This is an opportunity for ACORN management and workers to clean up their shop (new training and statement of ACORN's mission, for starters) and to become more determined to work for the rights of disenfranchised people.
Those yelling for the demise of ACORN should stop for a second and review who told them to do it.
I support ACORN and am proud of the good work they've done and they say they want to continue to do. The handful of rogue workers should be fired as they have been and the indepth training meetings should start immediately. Go to it ACORN!
On the other hand,
all those -media, conservatives, racists, haters, etc. should take note that trying to take down the fairly elected president of the United States with any filth they can muster has got to stop.
STOP the OBAMA HATERS NOW! Lynchings, assasinations are on their agenda.
HELP FIGHT THE EVILDOERS who can't accept the fact that in November 2008, the majority of the USA electorate elected OBAMA PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
What in the heck does ACORN's dirty operations have anything to do with electing of Obama? Grasping much?
I too am delighted that Barrack Hussein Obama was elected in Nov 2008. I'm absolutely certain I wouldn't be having nearly as much fun if the old white guy had been elected. Under BHO's watch every day brings new revelations. If it's not another Czar biting the dust, it one of his community organizing friends advising on how to steal from the IRS. You couldn't invent this stuff; it's wonderful!!
I wonder what today's shocker will be??
The hypocrisy here is staggering beyond belief. Congress has showered special favours on corporations and the rich for generations. Lobbyists and special-interest pleaders for the former can engage in all manner of corruption in service of profit and privilege. Over 50 years, “mainstream” America has voted itself a massive middle- and upper-class welfare state in the form of Medicare, the mortgage tax credit, tax exemptions for health insurance, and various other goodies via the tax system, whilst steadily whittling away at the welfare benefits of the “others”, i.e. minorities and the poor. Organisations like ACORN, as silly as they may be at times, are part of the feeble resistance to this massive imbalance. And yet Shock! Horror! They help people to evade the law! They consort with criminals! They want to change the System!
It reminds me of that powerful scene from 1984 where O’Brien, the party official, says to Winston Smith: “Just imagine the Party as a boot endlessly smashing down on a human face”. Now were now which Party he means – both of them, Republican and Democrat.
Acorn corruption vs Wall St. corruption.....Like comparing an afternoon shower with Hurricane Katrina
The right wing media megaphone wants us all to focus on Acorn while the massive fraud and corruption is ignored.......All of a sudden the Republicans DEMAND and investigation on Acorn, but had no interest in demanding how Banks that are too big to fail and destroyed millions of 401k's run their businesses.. You are fools to fall for this. If we investigate Acorn, we investigate the banks that wiped us out also.
Not all of the sudden. I have demanded an investigation from the WH in my emails for years. My Senators and Rep. do not care either. I get no answers. As far as 401K, yeah mine took a cr@p also.
I was against TARP from the beginning.
Audit them all.
Have you ever looked into the link between ACORN's lobbying efforts for low income & higher credit risk and the effect with Freddie & Fannie? Their lobbying basically paved the way for the entire housing bubble. Learn a little about how securities and such are rated.
The problem with the liberal ideology is that there is no consideration for unintended consequences or cost for that matter. It is always just wouldn't it be wonderful if........
ACORN was in fact lobbying for tighter regulations on things like subprime and balloon mortgages. Get your facts straight.
Wall St. works for both Democrats and Republicans alike as we see it today. ACORN has been a front for the Democrat canvassing using taxpayer money.
So Acorn employees have the goal of making home ownership available to everyone. OK, then why is it here in Nevada the Las Vegas election officials say that 48% of the voter registration forms turned in by this group were "clearly fraudulent." I would say the evidence of systemic wrong doing in this organization is readily apparent. This was followed by the accusation by Florida prosecutors of 11 Acorn workers who delivered 888 voter registration forms with falsified information. What does home ownership have to do with massive voter fraud? Given this, Acorn has no right to expect any funds from taxpayers.
Joe, here's another piece to the puzzle that you may want to consider:
Joe Rich, the former Chief of the Voting Section at the Justice Department, who spent nearly forty years at the DOJ, said the overt actions taken against Nevada ACORN strongly suggest that DOJ policy may have been violated. "Certainly, doing a raid on an organization that is trying to register voters is terribly intimidating,” Rich said. “I mean that’s much more intimidating than interviewing voters or people from ACORN."
Rich said he was familiar with the Oct. 16, 2008 Associated Press report of an anonymous Justice Department leak which revealed a national investigation into ACORN on allegations of systematic voter registration fraud – noting that the leak itself was against Department policy. "Its timing, he added, could amount to another breach of guidelines in the Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses manual."
But he had heard little about the events in Nevada. "I find it unusual that the federal government, given its policies, would jointly do an investigation like this, this close to an election,” Rich said. “It certainly indicates that what was going on back then was much more of an intrusion into the election than the initial reports showed.”
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NV_State_Officials_say_feds_involved_0316.html
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