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11-24-2009, 11:46 PM
Already under fire for employees in offices across the nation offering to facilitate child prostitution, ACORN decided to get rid of 20,000 sensitive documents to avoid disclosing them during litigation or an investigation. So, how did they get rid of them? Shredding? Fire? Dumping them into deep waters? Nope. That would have been too much work. ACORN just carried the documents to the nearest dumpster and made a large deposit.
Unfortunately, a private investigator employed by Andrew Breitbart just happened upon ACORN's trash stash. Breitbart has been sued by ACORN for his part in exposing the criminal nature of ACORN's housing subsidiary. Now, he has begun publishing the discarded documents on his web site.
Is there any reason that ACORN should ever receive another dime of taxpayer funding? I think not.
[INDENT]ACORN Document Dump: California Voters, Prepare to Be ACORNed
Dumping 20k sensitive documents in a public dumpster isnât anyoneâs idea of smart. Even though the Attorneyâs General office was about to visit the ACORN San Diego office, ACORN employees should have taken some steps to protect the information they were dumping. There are extensive federal and state laws in play here, with very serious civil and criminal penalties.
But, one shouldnât take this to mean that ACORN is always and everywhere incompetent. You donât build an international organization with offices in hundreds of US cities through incompetence. Part of ACORNâs secret is that it is really shrewd politically. Below is a plan for a 2-year ACORN campaign to repeal Californiaâs Prop 13. That initiative, passed in 1979, restricts governmentâs power to increase taxes. One of its toughest provisions requires a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to raise taxes. ACORN, naturally, wants to scrap that.[/INDENT]
Unfortunately, a private investigator employed by Andrew Breitbart just happened upon ACORN's trash stash. Breitbart has been sued by ACORN for his part in exposing the criminal nature of ACORN's housing subsidiary. Now, he has begun publishing the discarded documents on his web site.
Is there any reason that ACORN should ever receive another dime of taxpayer funding? I think not.
[INDENT]ACORN Document Dump: California Voters, Prepare to Be ACORNed
Dumping 20k sensitive documents in a public dumpster isnât anyoneâs idea of smart. Even though the Attorneyâs General office was about to visit the ACORN San Diego office, ACORN employees should have taken some steps to protect the information they were dumping. There are extensive federal and state laws in play here, with very serious civil and criminal penalties.
But, one shouldnât take this to mean that ACORN is always and everywhere incompetent. You donât build an international organization with offices in hundreds of US cities through incompetence. Part of ACORNâs secret is that it is really shrewd politically. Below is a plan for a 2-year ACORN campaign to repeal Californiaâs Prop 13. That initiative, passed in 1979, restricts governmentâs power to increase taxes. One of its toughest provisions requires a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to raise taxes. ACORN, naturally, wants to scrap that.[/INDENT]
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11-25-2009, 12:10 AM
This is a no win situation for ACORN. Even if it gets its original trash back, Breitbart by now has copied the documents and will know if ACORN fails to produce any relevant documents during discovery. Disposing documents to avoid discovery during litigation - even if the documents have not yet been subpoenaed is a serious crime.
[INDENT]Acorn Office Seeks Return of Documents Taken From Trash
Acornâs lead organizer in California, Amy Schur, said that the confidential papers had been carelessly included in the trash and that there had been no intent to dump rather than shred them.
âWe want to get our property back so that we can properly secure it,â she said.
An Acorn employee filed a report on Monday with the police in National City, a San Diego suburb that has a law forbidding scavenging of trash, Ms. Schur said.
She also contacted the county district attorneyâs office asking for help in retrieving documents that contain personal or confidential information. The district attorneyâs office said it was looking into the matter.
Mr. Roach said he was not concerned. âTheyâre not going to get the documents back,â he said.
Mr. Roach said he was shielded by a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that said there was no privacy expectation for garbage. He also said he had contacted the district attorneyâs office and sent copies of some documents because he believed Acorn might have broken privacy laws by failing to shred those papers containing personal information.[/INDENT]
[INDENT]Acorn Office Seeks Return of Documents Taken From Trash
Acornâs lead organizer in California, Amy Schur, said that the confidential papers had been carelessly included in the trash and that there had been no intent to dump rather than shred them.
âWe want to get our property back so that we can properly secure it,â she said.
An Acorn employee filed a report on Monday with the police in National City, a San Diego suburb that has a law forbidding scavenging of trash, Ms. Schur said.
She also contacted the county district attorneyâs office asking for help in retrieving documents that contain personal or confidential information. The district attorneyâs office said it was looking into the matter.
Mr. Roach said he was not concerned. âTheyâre not going to get the documents back,â he said.
Mr. Roach said he was shielded by a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that said there was no privacy expectation for garbage. He also said he had contacted the district attorneyâs office and sent copies of some documents because he believed Acorn might have broken privacy laws by failing to shred those papers containing personal information.[/INDENT]
11-25-2009, 11:52 AM
Hoot Gibson Wrote:This is a no win situation for ACORN. Even if it gets its original trash back, Breitbart by now has copied the documents and will know if ACORN fails to produce any relevant documents during discovery. Disposing documents to avoid discovery during litigation - even if the documents have not yet been subpoenaed is a serious crime.
[INDENT]Acorn Office Seeks Return of Documents Taken From Trash
Acornâs lead organizer in California, Amy Schur, said that the confidential papers had been carelessly included in the trash and that there had been no intent to dump rather than shred them.
âWe want to get our property back so that we can properly secure it,â she said.
An Acorn employee filed a report on Monday with the police in National City, a San Diego suburb that has a law forbidding scavenging of trash, Ms. Schur said.
She also contacted the county district attorneyâs office asking for help in retrieving documents that contain personal or confidential information. The district attorneyâs office said it was looking into the matter.
Mr. Roach said he was not concerned. âTheyâre not going to get the documents back,â he said.
Mr. Roach said he was shielded by a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that said there was no privacy expectation for garbage. He also said he had contacted the district attorneyâs office and sent copies of some documents because he believed Acorn might have broken privacy laws by failing to shred those papers containing personal information.
[/INDENT]
Regardless if was their intent or not, once the documents had been discarded and are placed in the trash bin they are no longer private property.
If Acorn broke privacy laws by discarding private papers, while trying to get their documents back, is about like a drunk reporting to the police that someone stole his liquor.
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