ACORN Shutting Down All Offices

Never underestimate the power of a deceptively-edited hidden camera video to bring down an organization that tries to help poor people. Despite being cleared by the Brooklyn DA this month, ACORN announced today that it's closing all its offices by April 1st. "For Acorn as a national organization, our vindication on the facts doesn’t necessarily pay the bills," says Bertha Lewis, chief executive of Acorn. Congress voted to cut off all grants to the organization in the wake of videos made by a young Conservative gadfly who, joined by a woman posing as a prostitute, posed as a pimp seeking advice from ACORN employees. The DA found no criminality, but by then the ACORN offices in New York had already reorganized as Communities for Change.

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By John Del Signore in News on March 23, 2010 5:00 PM

Comments [rss]

wingedearth

The DA who cleared ACORN of wrongdoing was elected based on support from the Working Families Party, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACORN. What, did you expect him to find his benefactors guilty?

Helen Thomas knows the score

it may have been a setup, but I wont shed a tear for them. These are same people who made a deal with Ratner to support the Atlantic Yards.

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/28/22/28_22nets1.html

why dont we stop PRIVATIZING community service and accept that the goverment will do it. The way is now, it 'feels' like a lot of charities are just fronts for people to give themselves income while espousing some greater good. Its an invitation for corruption.

sundar2012

"Whenever the private sector introduces an innovation that makes the poor better off than they would have been without it, or that offers benefits or terms that no one else is prepared to offer them, someone—in the name of helping the poor—will call for curbing or abolishing it." - Woods Law

Not saying I disagree with you, but lets not demonize PRIVATE actions. @ the end of the day, its businesses that stave off poverty by creating jobs, goods, services, and capital investments that our society relies on.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

it is Wall street that has collapsed this economy.

sundar2012

Also from 08...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html

this ACORN thing was a long time coming. The video stunt was just the final nail in the coffin.

snickerdoodle

Acorn the shell entity will be shutting down on April Fool's Day, lol.

They're not shutting down, they're just moving to a new location probably near 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash DC. and will try to rebrand themselves with a new name.

sundar2012

back in 08...from a left leaning source:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/whats_behind_the_the_acorn_rai.php

ides_of_march

ACORN was busted, deal with it.

When 60 Minutes does the same thing to expose tobacco companies for example, the same people have no problem with it.

ACORN are a bunch of radical sleazebags.

sundar2012

While the videos may have been deceptively edited, some acorn employees did in fact offer advice and aid with the knowledge that the individuals in question wanted to operate a brothel.

And wasn't acorn also under fire by their own members for embezzlement and by the state of ohio for voter fraud? I'm all for helping poor people, but acorn was more than shady - long before these videos hit faux news.

Atomische

Meanwhile ... the NYTimes waited until Acorn folded before printing this critical correction to several stories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/us/politics/20acorn.html