The demise of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, in Baltimore and across the country, ought to be a sad story. The group’s purpose was to help the poor to gain a voice through grass-roots organizing, and it was taken down by political activists using ethically and legally questionable means.But it’s not a sad story. The people ACORN was designed to advocate for certainly do need the help, but they deserve a much better partner than ACORN.
The beginning of the end for ACORN nationally was the release last fall of videos secretly recorded by two conservative political activists in which they entered the Baltimore ACORN headquarters, pretended to be a pimp and a prostitute, and got advice from ACORN workers on how to avoid taxes on the supposed brothel they intended to set up with underage, illegal immigrant girls. That video was followed by similar ones recorded in several ACORN offices in cities across the country, making it impossible for the group to claim that the problems were an isolated incident. Congress quickly dumped contracts it had with the group for outreach work, and ACORN’s budget plummeted, forcing its branches to close their doors or reconstitute under different names.
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