Veritas Visuals, operated by filmmaker James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, has released a third ACORN video in the growing scandal over ACORN workers engaging in illegal conduct on hidden camera. ACORN is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a nonpartisan organization whose goal is to work on issues like voter registration and advocating for affordable housing in the inner cities.
As in the first two videos, O'Keefe posed as a law student/pimp whose prostitute-girlfriend Giles needs advice on taxes and housing. This time, they entered the ACORN office in Brooklyn, New York, where they received more advice on breaking laws related to taxes, sexual conduct, and campaign financing.
Included in the advice this time was to bury money in a tin in the yard, creating fake leases, opening bank accounts at multiple locations at different banks, and classifying herself as a self-employed freelancer.
At one point, O'Keefe says to the ACORN workers that his girlfriend is very honest. The response from one of the ACORN employees is,
“Honesty is not going to get you the house.”
The other employee repeatedly tells the girl that if she is going to work as a prostitute she needs to “think fast,” and that “if you are going to do it, do it well and start thinking for yourself.”
The girl then goes on to say she has all of these “13, 14, 15 year old girls from El Salvador” that she has to protect and give them a place to live. There is a jump in the video at that moment indicating something has been edited out which apparently does not advance the videomakers cause. The video resumes with one of the workers calling in a third worker to give more advice on how to establish credit and get a mortgage, who discusses creating payroll records and check stubs.
Compared to the earlier hidden camera videos prepared by Verital Visuals, this one is actually pretty mild. It is annoying that when O'Keefe and Giles drop the bombshell piece of news regarding the underage prostitutes from El Salvador, the response of the ACORN workers is edited out in a way to make it appear that there was no response. That said, the unedited portions still indicate that the problems in the local ACORN offices may be more widespread than the national organization would like to admit.
Based on having watched all the Veritas Visuals videos so far, it appear that a major problem with the ACORN advisors is a lack of training in how to handle matters of this nature. In the process of being trained to be helpful to those who come to their office for advice, they seem to have forgotten that they cannot give advice to people on how to break the law.
Republican lawmakers have called for congressional hearings and IRS audits of ACORN. The U.S. Census Bureau has already severed its ties with ACORN, and several ACORN offices and officials are being prosecuted over voter registration fraud. Republicans want to cut off ACORN's eligibility for federal funds for their various projects. According to USASpending.gov, ACORN received over $10 million in federal funding this year.
Given how many members of Congress have been caught in illegal or unethical conduct over the last few years, perhaps Congress should consider hiring some of these former ACORN employees as their own advisors. Or perhaps Veritas Visuals should have sought their advice about operating hidden cameras in Maryland, where one of the earlier videos was filmed. Apparently no one told them that they might face up to five years in prison for violating Maryland's law against videotaping someone without their consent.
Based on the steady stream of video releases, it is a safe bet to assume more videos are on the way. In the interest of fairness to ACORN, perhaps Veritas Visuals should release the videos of the ACORN offices where O'Keefe and Giles were thrown out and reported to the police. That seems unlikely, given their clear political agenda.
For more information:
ACORN scandal video shows tax advice on prostitution, child prostitution, and human trafficking
Republican lawmakers turn up the heat on ACORN
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Comments
You are assuming that they were kicked out of any of the Offices they went to... is that based on what ACORN has claimed?
They also claimed that the folks were kicked out of the NY Office, Brooklyn to be exact... and yet, they had the vid of them AT the Brooklyn office.
"Lack of training"....perhaps "Lack of morals" might be a better way to phrase it? How do you propose we solve that? Oh, I know - more taxpayer dollars.
You criticize the filmakers for having a "clear political agenda", do you also criticize ACORN for having one sir? At taxpayer expense no less.
Be honest, you just make yourself look foolish when you lay out a thin tissue of arguments a child could poke holes in.
Whoever wrote this editorial is ignorant. It would be a fantastic idea to hire lying, cheating, and corrupt ACORN members as political advisors. Investigating the CIA is not a crime but what was meant to be a joke, turned out to be typical liberal corruption was actually taking place at a tax paying institution. Keep up the good work ACORN!
This type of thing happens everyday and my manager/office director allows it. Acorn and Acorn Housing support this type of activity and they fire employees that try to stand up for these individual, I know because I work for them. However, I will not be here too much longer, I'm in the process of looking elsewhere, this company is an embarrasment.
Hilarious! I didn't think about that!
The videos are bad, no question about that. Whether that means all of ACORN is bad is hard to say.
It is hilarious to see the right-wingers in a frenzy because the author of this piece pointed out the selective editing issues in the film and pointed out that making the Baltimore video was a felony. The author's previous article about the first two ACORN videos trashed ACORN pretty badly, so accusing him of being on ACORN's side is absurd. But I guess the right-wingers can't handle it when someone makes an even-handed observation that the tapes are edited and that filming at least one of them was a crime. John Stoessel (don't know how to spell his name) got prosecuted over making tapes like this years ago too.
RE Simpleswine - I believe that the Veritas Visuals people were the ones who admitted they were thrown out of some of the other ACORN offices.
Go to google maps. type in 1062 Elysian fields Ave New Orleans.
Go to street view and there it is. ACORN LOCAL 100 SEIU.
The last Federal funding went to that particular address in
FY 2006. Since 1993 this office received $6,259,000.
In 1993 and 1994 alone it received $820,000.
google maps. 846 N Broad St, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19130
See that storefront? Since 1995 that storefront received $16,420,000.
That storefront received $1,368,000 a year since 1995.
google 411 Bellamah Ave NW Albuquerque 87102
This office of ACORN received $349,253 in 4 years.
I count at least 12 separate address and 24 different ACORN entities that received $53.6 MILLION.
What happened to all that money? Time for an audit!
I hope the makers of the video go to prison for felony. A place in hell is saved for them. I think this kind of undercover stuff is a creepy as it gets. I think the left needs to start fighting back, and targeting these creeps.
"...O'Keefe declined to comment on the allegedly unsuccessful attempts, but said it's a "lie" to claim that any ACORN offices "kicked us out.""
www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/13/filmmaker-demands-apology-acorn-claiming-undercover-video-doctored/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g2:r3:c0.072802:b27707418:z0commentscommentscommentscomments
Nope, you believe incorrectly.
Oh, they didn't admit to being thrown out at other locations, he merely "declined to comment" about all the times they failed to get anything they could use against ACORN on video. If they want to be respected as journalists, they should release ALL the videos, not just the ones where they tricked these ignorant inner city social workers into saying something stupid. These women spend their days helping low income people get affordable housing, they aren't politicians or lawyers and they certainly aren't getting rich working at an inner city ACORN office.
Being appalled and disgusted at child sex trafficking is not something that is learned in job training, it is the natural response of any decent human being. For Acorn to claim that these people acted this way because of the lack of job training is absurd.
Typical results from an organization that supports a socialist president, his communist czars, and his big government agenda.
Bottom line is the organization is supported with U.S. taxpayer financing and the individuals from ACORN are co-conspirators of a crime. Imagine, the President of the United States used to work for and with this organization. Its long past RICCO time for Acorn, however I don't see the corrupt U.S. Attorney General investigating the matter or filing charges anywhere in the near future.
So Mary, you don't believe private individuals should investigate whether or not others are involved in conspiring to traffic human beings (children) for sexual purposes?
Is this part of the "new Democrat" way, now that Obama is President? The other way of looking at it is they are saving children from the individuals who work at Acorn and who have no problem with trafficking minors for purposes of prostitution. Silly me, I thought the days of slavery were over.
"I hope the makers of the video go to prison for felony. A place in hell is saved for them. I think this kind of undercover stuff is a creepy as it gets. I think the left needs to start fighting back, and targeting these creeps."
These two journalists have engaged in poor journalism, failing to fact check their information and they have lied about their investigation.
James O'Keefe had written an article in the New Guard Magazine that stated that he was a conservative activist, and that he was willing to use deceit to accomplish his goals, promoting conservative activists to "be their own media", using independent media to achieve success. He also mentioned that in a previous sting, when threatened with lawsuits for recording illegally, he released video anyway, because any action against them would make them the victim, regardless.
His partner in crime, Hannah Giles, is also a conservative activist who had written on Townhall.com, in which she referred to Planned Parenthood as an organization founded by a "sex fiend" that kills thousands of babies each day.
To me, this sounds like a couple of really conservative activists abusing the media to achieve their goals of taking down an organization
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