Author: Brenda McNary
On Sept. 9, a video featuring an undercover “pimp” and “prostitute” who appeared to receive advice on human trafficking and tax evasion from the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now’s (ACORN) Baltimore office was released on BigGovernment.com, a site owned by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. With a secret camera in tow, the pair captured ACORN employees helping to falsify tax forms and write offs for illegal earnings.
After the video surfaced ACORN lost its contract to help with the 2010 census and was stripped of its federal funding by the House and Senate. The NY Attorney General and Brooklyn District Attorney have also both opened investigations into funding for the organization.
These reactions were condemned by ACORN intern Giovanni Saarman (sophomore). “Judging an organization of more than 550 employees on the actions of a handful will undoubtedly lead to the misrepresentation of the entire group,” said Saarman.
ACORN, founded in 1970, is a non-governmental organization which works in voter registration, community safety, health care, affordable housing and the minimum and “living” wage campaigns. Controversy beset ACORN during the 2008 presidential election, and the organization has in the past been accused of voter registration fraud, worker misconduct, embezzlement and mismanagement.
While the latest accusations play out in the national media, a number of Oxy students and Urban and Environmental Policy Professor and ACORN board member Peter Dreier are advocating for ACORN during what Saarman describes as a “national smear campaign.”
“Despite the substantial coverage of ACORN,” said Saarman, “Little attention has been placed on the accomplishments made through the hard work of not only our employees but also the leaders, representatives, members and residents of the communities that we have served over the last 39 years of existence.”
The aggressive nature of the video exposé and subsequent loss of funding for ACORN has many liberal thinkers worried. Professor Dreier appeared in a number of Web, radio and televised news spots to discuss the scandal, where he emphasized the need for progressives to rally for ACORN or suffer the consequences. “Its not about public policy, and its not about the misuse of federal funds,” Dreier said on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. “Its about destroying the power of ordinary people to have a voice in society.” Suspecting that these attacks will not stop at ACORN, Dreier warned in his Huffington Post article “First They Came for ACORN” that other organizations like the Service Employees International Union may be targeted next.
“Incidents like this are always overblown and spun in certain ways by the conservative media that makes it look worse than it is,” ACORN intern Ian Nunley (senior) said.
Despite the controversy, Saarman and Nunley both expressed that they had positive experiences. “Their work is tremendous, moral, just and right,” Nunley said of ACORN. “They fight for the poor consistently and without fail.”
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