Its sad how a good organisation becomes tainted by a few not so good people...

As for fake news...I aint surprised that they would lie like dogs...Even when they dont have to.

Honestly, I believe that the reaction (or lack of reaction) of the ACORN workers could indicate that they have taken on this kind of situation before. They seemed to be willing to help them in more ways than just tax evasion...they gave them pointers on how to conceal the trafficking. Even encouraged them to have a chaperone with the girls...to me, I think this video doesn't prove that they are trafficking but, am not surprised if they have helped to find gov't funding for it.

It doesn't bother that the acorn offices in 3 different cities were encouraging young people to continue illegal activity, I think every responsible community organization wants to expand the horizons of our young. What bothers me is that the acorn workers were unable to detect the fraud of twenty year old kids dressed like they just walked off the set of "Starsky and Hutch"....

If there's one thing we need in our community organizers, it's an eye for detail! Shame on them for not hearing the theme music from "Shaft" when those kids swaggered in.

I'm a card carrying acorn member (quite literally--I have a card in my wallet).  And you know what?  I'm not offended by FOX's focus.  I do think that trafficking in young women is reprehensible.  I do think that ACORN needs to clean house, like any group.  I also think they (we) clearly need to set more guidelines on right vs wrong and legal vs illegal.  

I was pleased to be a--volunteer, unpaid--part of the most effective voter registration drive, ever.  I agree that bringing people from every community into positions of responsibility is an essential participatory democracy.  But you know what?  Communities get cut off from the sorts of education that help people set, recognize and work within international norms for moral, human behavior.  That's true for rich kids from the exurbs who think that torture is OK, and it's true for poor kids from the inner cities who figure that trafficking in drugs or sex is pretty acceptable.  

I know ACORN doesn't want to preach to people, or talk down to them, or tell them their morals are immoral.  But for pete's sake, it's basic good sense, education and morality to bring in something really broad like the UN declarations on the rights of man, of women, of children, and of the poor.  

On a simpler level, people from all organizations need to learn professional boundaries.  "I feel for you /  I'm not judging you, but you've just asked me to do something very illegal / to help you do do something very illegal, and I can't answer that question. If you have other questions, ask away, but not if they're about breaking the law."  

Good comment, Joy, but I think ACORN was trying NOT to push their morality on the couple. Just because sex trafficking young girls is illegal now, doesn't mean it won't be legal later. We need to keep an open mind.

I normally enjoy your blog. Today I feel like I am reading a blog about conservative media that is more interested in protecting ACORN than addressing trafficking.

Whether ACORN was implicitly or explicitly supporting trafficking is not the issue. We've already decided not to support companies who implicitly support trafficking, even by ignorance-- that's why we buy fair trade and why we are reading the 194 page report slave-made products.

We both know that illicit activities such as tax fraud and prostitution accompany trafficking, so I don't understand why the other crimes should be the focus on a blog about abolition. Why are you fighting to get ACORN off the hook and for Fox News to get the fire?

God forbid you find out if I ever report a case of trafficking!

I just came from a seminar this morning on trafficking and am right now watching Glen Beck with another ACORN expose video, this time from San Bernardino.  Hey, people, this is about lots of things.  The focus of the commentary wants to blast and bash FOX News and gloss over the disgusting behavior of various ACORN employees.  What is wrong with this picture?  Too many things.  Whoever out there has ears to hear and eyes to see grasps the moral vacuum here of illegal and immoral behavior.   Tax evasion is a crime, but usually involves legal adults.  You bring in sex slaves from outside the country and you're talking something from the pit of hell.   Remember the slave ships going to Africa and tearing apart families and ruining lives for profit?  This is what we're talking about.  It is depravity at its core.  Get outraged and be grateful that FOX is on the news, informing of things that make some squirm.   At least most of the Senate knew it was a good move to pull funding from this so-called community organizing group.  I find it scary that ACORN is so closely tied to our President.

Yes, the girl posing as a prostitute was currently working under her own free will.  BUT she also pretended to have previously been under the control of a violent pimp.  In one of the videos she said she had been "working" since age 13.  Under federal law, anyone under the age of 18 who commits a commercial sex act is a trafficking victim.

In addition, the fact that she was posing as a voluntary sex worker does not mean these undercover investigations didn't reveal a willingness to aid and abet sex traffickers.  Her free choice to engage in prostitution can't cancel out the situation of bringing teen girls across borders (trafficking) to engage in prostitution (under law, sex slavery).

I don't understand how someone could say these videos aren't about sex trafficking (in addition to the other issues you mentioned). 

I really appreciate your work on Change.org and I've found many great resources as a result of your posts.  I hope you'll reconsider your take on this situation though, as it doesn't line up with federal law or what we know of the world of sex trafficking.

I hate to see anyone makes excuses for these kinds of situations, even when they are hypothetical.  Sex trafficking is a brutal business and we should not be turning a blind eye to it in any form or percentage.  "Trafficking only about 1% of the time" is still too much in my book.  I'm sure the girls who must suffer as a result of it would agree with me.

"The sting was orchestrated by conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe who targeted a number of ACORN offices, with incriminating results found in two."

I promise not to flood this forum with posts ;-) but I forgot to mention previously that there are now employees from 4 ACORN offices (Baltimore, DC, New York, and San Bernadino) on tape offering help to the alleged pimp/boyfriend/politician and prostitute/girlfriend.  Word on the street is that more videos are on the way.  Hannah Giles should also be credited for her work on this investigation.

Upon further reflection, I'm not sure where the impression of "Fox News and other conservative media outlets would have you believe this is a story about sex trafficking" came from.  Sex trafficking is a part of this story, yes, but for the most part the focus seems to be on the corruption in ACORN and the fact that our tax dollars are being used to fund their activities.

So ACORN is corrupt, it happens when things get too big.  That doesn't mean all of ACORN is bad.  The one thing that does irritate me however, is the sponsoring of underage prostitution.

 I've never witness our Country being so torn! The liberal's, along with that so called SOH, Nancy Pelosi make me sick. Americans are getting fed up with what we are seeing. I'm not just talking about Republicans, me, the Independents.  This is the worse President in History.  We need to get a new Congress. Acorn is corrupt. It's obvious.

The objective of this article concerns me. Why are we spinning political agendas here? Human trafficking is a serious problem. Not just on the international level, but within the boundaries of our own country - often in our own communities. I am assuming by the heading "End Human Trafficking" Change.org would take an agressive stance on this. Whether trafficking discussion took the stage 1% of the time or 99% the reaction should be the same - at the very least it deserves further investigation. What worries me is that more than one ACORN employee/office failed to act in an appropriate manner given the information that they received. And it was made worse by the fact that they offered advice on how to get around taxes, laws, etc. Given that the incident was not isolated to one office, ACORN needs to be investigated.  If we want to stop trafficking, then we start with zero tolerance within our own borders. It burns me that this atrocity exists today, that it thrives on American soil, and that a prominant political organization would view the issue so calously.

I agree, I am talking to my NEA rep.  I found out that the NEA is giving these folks money!  The National Education Association sponsoring child prostitution! Ugh!  If this doesn't change ASAP, I'll go to one of the alternatives and pay less too.

This is why they fail to convince me that it was an operation to stop human trafficking. This is also why I am concerned about how our country responded to it to help victims of human trafficking. 

1) If the sting operation was sincere: There should be a police investigation to save all human trafficking victims first, a government funding question last.

Why did all of this go to Fox News before the police? What if there are actual victims of human trafficking that the Acorn employees know of?  It would be too late. Where are the investigators who could save the trafficking victims and the police to arrest the real criminals?

Why are we fine with replacing that process with news stations, guilt by association, and government decisions on funding?

Because the sting operation's goal was not to help victims of human trafficking.  It was to find the corruption in a target organization.  I listened to an interview with Giles. She did not mention that helping the victims of underage prostitution as a motivation for the creation of this project. She has a very strong belief that Acorn is "corrupt"

2)  We just handed the government unprecended power withourt due process that they can aim at any organization.

Instead of acting pro-actively for human trafficking in the ways the sting operation failed to, our country grabs power.

I worry about a country voting to move massive funds around and making those decisions without any of these: investigation, judge, interrogation, jury or trial. This is now a wild card that can be turned on conservative and liberal organizations alike. Do we want our country to move large sums based on edited evidence and without a legal process? If this happened to a conservative organization, they would be correctly stating "due process" under the constitution.

I would agree with them.

If you watched the interviews with the people who did the filming, you'd know the answers to your questions. It was never intended to take a turn into being a 'human trafficking' issue. This is why this vids were so appauling. I'm sure that the police were involved. An investigation is being made on the last guy in the 5th video. His identity is not shown for a reason.This whole article is to justify the means of ACORN not being a support of 'human trafficking'. The message is poorly defended and executed.

The gov't funding needs to stop first. An investigation will be made shortly following. I'm definite that there will be a due process just no one would investigate or try to see what ACORN really was except these 2 amatuers. Apparently, the staff at ACORN thinks the tapes were edited and doctored yet, didn't hesitate to fire the employees who were involved. It's a contradicting move. There is a timer ticker on the vids to prove that they were real and original. Wise move for the guy who filmed it. There were some edits done later for fitting the news slots but, the original is unaltered.

It took two young, concerned citizens, $1300, and an unlikely story that just kept growing in illegal activity to bring down a billion dollar, gov't funded organization. Incredible. Someone should have done this a LONG time ago. Kudos to the brave pair that stood up for exposing corruption of magnificent proportions. I encourage you to watch the interviews with the pair who did this.

I also believe that ACORN was a great organization or what 'intended' to be a helpful program for low income families. I am not looking forward to hearing about the damage that this unaccounted gov't spending allowed this organization to do. I think a lot of this is why our housing market was hit.

Lastly, the reason it was only aired on FOX NEWS is because CNN, NBC, and ABC wouldn't air it. They are part of the Obama support network. They could have reported it but were too busy airing things like, 'The Naked Cowboy'. They are losing ratings daily. Especially, with the TIME article on Glenn Beck. www.drudgereport.com has tv ratings. You can see that FOX NEWS is almost triple in viewership now because of the lack of coverage on ACORN and many other issues.

There is a real problem here.  Fox News rarely sidesteps the opportunity to distort - that is their trademark:  "Fox 'news'" is widely viewed as an oxymoron.  However, there is a story here, if distorted and sensationalized, and someone long ago established the measure of 'Caesar's wife' for those around a political figure.  The idea is that nothing must exist which can be twisted into an ugly story - or it will be used, sort of a Murphy's Law for politics (as a rule about inevitable negative outcomes).

I was bothered by the unfinished nature of the article and the fact that it examined Fox and airbrushed ACORN - and I am a strong ACORN supporter, but I now definitely have a question mark in my thoughts - that I wish was not there.

To be honest, I have always wondered if the woman talking about the tin box knew that she was on camera - that was quite a performance for a very small audience, otherwise.  Because she was strutting.  And why wouldn't ACORN have detected that personality flaw?  The person who wants to be a big frog in a small pond is very well-known and should always be kept from supervisory or public contact positions.  That is my concern, that such off-message behavior was found, found in more than one place, and after more than sufficient warning. 

The real issue isn't that ACORN could be burned (although that is a very real concern) but that the public conversation could be diverted, contested, and perverted, to prevent effective change which has been so delayed and so needed.  This is just a policy-level example of 'divide and conquer.'  Will we acquiesce?  Or will we unite enough to make necessary change and put it into effect?

I agree. I just don't understand how as a country, we can give so much money without watching how it's spent. ALL non-profits are supposed to account for their spending. Anyone could have requested an expenditure account from ACORN to see where they were using this money. If someone investigated/audited them early on, maybe ACORN would be a great organization. Now it's too late. 

It's time to start a new organization without all the 'anti-conservative vs anti-liberal' stuff. It needs to not have 'political ties'. It's sad that the people who really need help may not get it now. Shame on ACORN. Shame on us for not checking into it.

The actions of ACORN are reprehensible.  It needs to be shut down now!  Say no to children in prostitution!

Their actions are understandable, what do we expect from a group called "A PORN"...what? Oh! ACORN...never mind....

So sad how ACORN encourages Trafficking under aged girls. In the video they totally ignored the young lady when she said " I can end up dead". EVERYONE who received assistance from ACORN should be investigated! Wonder how many Government Assisted housing grants are being used to support Prostitution? Wow OUR TAX DOLLARS ARE NOT GOING TO FAMILIES WHO REALLY NEEDS HELP SAD!

Why aren't we seeing ACORN going down in flames?  How much proof do we need.  This should provide the authorities with plenty of leads for years of shutting down prostitution and human sex trafficking rings. 

We should demand it!