Despite Proactive Operations in Battling Foreclosures ACORN is Facing Trouble in Connecticut
ACORN a grass root level organization, non-partisan and non-profit in nature, has been at the forefront battling low wages and foreclosure injustice among its many other welfare activities. It has always been the butt of criticism by the conservatives.
Criticism has spread to Connecticut. Attorney General of the state, Richard Blumenthal, is poised to investigate diversion of state funds to the group. Senator Chris Dodd termed some of the operations of ACORN as “indefensible”. Today some of ACORN’s own past supporters are joining in the criticism.
Investigations are being carried on at Bridgeport where ACORN has been engaged in various programmes regarding foreclosure issues including housing counseling. It is now being alleged that the group indulged in voter fraud operations.
Video tapes have surfaced showing that staff in its Baltimore office were advising two conservative activists who were impersonating the roles of a pimp and a prostitute. They were being given advice on how to purchase a house for the purpose of using as a brothel that would exploit minor girls from El Salvador. Tapes of similar nature have surfaced in ACORN offices in Brooklyn, New York, Washington D.C., and California. The publicizing of these has led to a deluge of criticism.
Recently the House voted to refuse any federal funds for ACORN. A similar measure had been adopted in the Senate a week previously. These were done shortly after the Census Bureau decided to break its ties with ACORN declining its help in taking the census of 2010.
Governors of a number of states – New York, Louisiana, Georgia, Minnesota and California have recently started to review any state level contracts inked with ACORN. These would be suspended outright.
Blumenthal is asking agencies of the state to review similar contracts. He said, “We will actively review, closely and promptly, whether any state funds go to ACORN, directly or indirectly, and whether any steps should be taken to stop them.”
Bertha Lewis the CEO of ACORN sharply noted that Congress has been surrendering to the pressures coming from the conservatives. The latter have always targeted the group. She said in a statement, “We’re disappointed that the House took the rare and politically convenient step of attempting to eliminate federal funding for a single organization, one that has been the target of a multi-year political assault stemming variously from the Bush White House, Fox News and other conservative quarters.”
