Two staff members of the Baltimore office of ***********0000ff]ACORN[/COLOR] were fired Thursday after they were captured on hidden camera appearing to give advice on evading tax laws to a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute. The video depicts a man and a scantily dressed female partner visiting the ***********0000ff]Charles Village[/COLOR] office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, where they appear to ask two employees about how to shield their work from state and federal tax requirements. The supposed pimp also appears to ask the employees how to conceal underage girls from El Salvador brought into the country illegally to work for him. "If they don't have Social Security numbers, you don't have to worry about them," the employee says. Stuart Katzenberg, lead organizer for ACORN's Maryland chapter, said ACORN is questioning the validity of the video but had fired the employees who appeared in it because their handling of the situation "did not meet ACORN's standards of professionalism." "Our work historically speaks for itself - fighting for working-class families across the country and in Baltimore," Katzenberg said. ACORN, which provides services to the needy, emerged as a target of Republicans during the 2008 presidential campaign, when it was accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration cards in several states. Although officially nonpartisan, the organization tends to serve poor and minority communities that traditionally vote Democratic. Posted online Thursday, the video made waves, particularly in conservative circles. Although it first appeared on a Web site called Big ***********0000ff]Hollywood[/COLOR], Katzenberg said it was part of a "coordinated" campaign by ***********0000ff]FOX[/COLOR] News to damage ACORN. He could not offer evidence to support his claim, and a spokeswoman for FOX News said the allegations were without merit. Katzenberg said ACORN offices in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles had received visits under similar scenarios, but those people were turned away. He said the Baltimore employees did not know they were being videotaped. He said Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, the supposed prostitute and pimp, consistently misrepresented their intentions. He said the ACORN employees, a part-time receptionist and a part-time tax preparer, filed no tax returns and provided no assistance. ACORN now is trying to determine whether the videotaping broke any laws, Katzenberg said. Giles, a 20-year-old student, told FOX News host ***********0000ff]Glenn Beck[/COLOR] that she came up with the idea for the video and funded the project herself. "I saw them as a thug organization getting my tax dollars," Giles told Beck, who said he first viewed the video Saturday. The ACORN employees appear to show no hesitation in helping Giles and O'Keefe, a 25-year-old filmmaker. In the video, O'Keefe introduces himself as a Johns Hopkins graduate student with aspirations of running for Congress. He and Giles describe their work as an "off-the-books" business catering to "male clients" several times before making clear that they are discussing prostitution. One employee appears to discuss ways that the pair might justify the business ("Let's see - independent artists, you could be that," she says), and the other tells them to "train" their prostitutes to "keep their mouth shut." The four extensively discuss the issue of underage foreigners living in a home that Giles says she is trying to buy. In telling the pair about a coming conference, which was held in August, the employees also encourage them to purchase a membership to ACORN.
If you do your research you will see that this group is set up for profit. There was inquiry into Acorn but Democrat John Conyers said the powers that be told him to stop. Those poor blacks are being used by the Wm at the top.
ACORN should be go through a fine tooth come when it comes to being in power. The racist wingnuts are going out of their ways to bring them down with crazy beck in the lead.
Just goes to show you, the American people are sick of these corrupt, liberal, far leftwing, demonic nutjob organizations. Everyday Americans are stepping up to the plate and doing things about it, wonderfull thing i tell ya. Its scary that Acorn has recieved over 8 billion dollars (our tax dollars) of stimulus money already. Corrupt organizations beware, the American people are coming for ya!!:smt070
ACORN or the state of Maryland may sue because of a law saying you must have the subject's permission to record him/her in the state.
Reading your post "Amanda" makes me believe that you are one of those right-wing nut jobs whose sole purpose in life is the bring down ACORN just because it's largely run by African-Americans. The "everyday Americans" that carry signs presenting Obama as Hitler and as a witch doctor only show that they are scared of a black planet. Which make me wonder . . . why are you here on "white women black men.com?
Sneakeedyck, why don't you come out of the closet and tell the black male members of whitewomenblackmen.com that you are a self-hating black man. You have the right to be in any political party you want and I respect that, but for any black man to call himself a conservative black republican in today's climate in by saying that the President is not an American is suspect. [YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tEASAP5zBTw&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tEASAP5zBTw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE] If the Klan starting taking black members, this man would be the first in line. Oh by the way Sneakeedyck, how's the recruiting of blacks to the Republican party going?
Turns out that this latest ACORN controversy is indeed the product of a RW smear job. http://mediamatters.org/research/200909170031 Police report filed by ACORN exposes false claims by individuals behind videos Giles, O'Keefe, Breitbart, and Flynn each claimed every ACORN office the filmmakers visited was complicit ...... On the September 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity, Sean Hannity interviewed Giles, a Townhall.com columnist, and Andrew Breitbart, founder of BigGovernment.com, the website that first posted the ACORN videos. During the interview, Hannity asked Giles: "hen you go to Baltimore and D.C. and New York and San Bernardino and San Diego, and this all happened, were there any cities you went to where you just didn't get any videotape not worthy to air?" Giles replied: "We are airing it. It's pretty worthy. Everyone seems to be -- ." Hannity then asked: "In other words, you didn't go into one office, and they said, 'We're not going to help you do anything like that?' " Giles responded, "No." Breitbart: "There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious." Following Giles' denial, Hannity turned to Breitbart and said, "Not one? Every place you went, they helped you or were willing to help you, either -- not report you for an underaged prostitution ring, evade taxes as we've -- ." Breitbart responded, "Right. The -- it is interesting. There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious." O'Keefe: "None of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie." During the September 13 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ, senior correspondent Eric Shawn asked O'Keefe, "ACORN says that you went to, what, five other places around the country where they kicked you out. ... id you find ethical, honest ACORN employees in any of the places that you went to that kicked you out and said, 'No, we're not going to do this. We're not going to cooperate. We're not going to have ACORN help you'?" O'Keefe responded that the people at ACORN are "liars" and that he "bsolutely" wanted an apology and later added: "one of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie."O'Keefe was a little testy when told that ACORN claimed they WERE kicked out of several offices and thanks to Hannity, in his best 'salivating-at-the-thought-of-bringing-down-a-few-liberals' mode, they were given the chance to lie, not once, but over and over again. After hearing about their denials Acorn's Philadelphia Office made the following statement: .... "e called the police and filed this report." In a newly released YouTube video, Katherine Conway Russell, ACORN Housing Corp.'s Philadelphia office director, stated that O'Keefe visited the office "ast July" with "another woman." Russell stated that "fter asking several general questions, began to veer off into suspicious territory." Russell said that O'Keefe eventually "asked about bringing girls from El Salvador and getting them papers, et cetera," but that "I told them that there was nothing we could do to help them, that I didn't know anything about what they were asking about." Russell also said that after she contacted another ACORN official and it became clear that O'Keefe "lied to get his appointment," they contacted the police.Katherine Conway Russell produced a copy of the police report proving that O'Keefe and Giles lied about the Philadelphia office. Too bad these 'great journalists, didn't do a little investigative work by calling the police themselves in the various towns they visited. Rather than answer questions about these major discrepancies in their story, it appears that the two 'heroes' of the far right, are now in hiding from the press. It looks like Hannah Giles decided to skip a scheduled interview on CNN after these revelations:CNN's Tucker: "ACORN gave CNN a copy of the police complaint." On the September 11 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN news correspondent Bill Tucker reported: "ACORN gave CNN a copy of the police complaint filed against the filmmakers In Philadelphia. The filmmakers, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles are not commenting and Giles was a no-show for an agreed-to interview with CNN."There is lots more at the Media Matters link, including the transcript from the Hannity Show and video of the statement from Katherine Conway Russell which is really worth watching. The problem now for them is, there is no doubt they lied about the Philadelphia office so why should anyone take their word about the other offices? There is also a statement from another ACORN worker taped by them, that they left out crucial parts of her conversation with them. And there is also the statement and the evidence in the video itself, to back up ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera's statements,(whose heart-wrenching statements can be seen in mzmolly's OP here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... ) that these tapes were heavily edited and at least these two workers were badly smeared, losing their jobs and ruining their lives. It's way past time to start a thorough investigation into this operation. The Baltimore State's Attorney is considering an investigation into their activities in MD where they may have violated laws. She issued this statement last week: STATEMENT OF STATE’S ATTORNEYS OFFICE FOR BALTIMORE CITY RELATIVE TO THE ALLEGED BALTIMORE ACORN INCIDENT Baltimore, MD – September 11, 2009 – We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation for acts allegedly committed at ACORN offices located in Baltimore. The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent. If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years. Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy can be reached by email: mail@stattorney.org or by phone (410) 396-4001.
