ACORN and post-Katrina New Orleans (1 Viewer)

[KingBarkus]

A former lefty activist tells a disturbing account of life in rebuilding the 9th Ward in post-Katrina New Orleans.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/12...bi-informant-pulls-back-the-curtain-on-acorn/

 

[mister pc]

A former lefty activist tells a disturbing account of life in rebuilding the 9th Ward in post-Katrina New Orleans.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/12...bi-informant-pulls-back-the-curtain-on-acorn/

those who know him tell a disturbing account of brandon darby.

Malik Rahim now fervently believes that Darby was an informant for at least part of the time he worked for Common Ground, a conclusion he describes as heartbreaking. "Look, Brandon and Scott brought weapons to my house to help me defend my home," he says. "So my first feeling for both of them was love." But that love, Rahim laments, soon turned to blind defense of someone with whom many in the organization, including his own family members, had problems. "It came to the degree that my son just knew that there was something too wrong with Brandon, and he searched Brandon's possessions, because he said, 'This guy is an agent, or he is an informant,'" Rahim recalls. "And, let me tell you, it caused a rift between my son and I, so much so that eventually, he left. Because I believed Brandon. I defended him."

Rahim believes that something happened to Darby while he was in Venezuela and that it was then that he became an informant, because that is when Rahim now sees that Darby began to impede the group's progress. "I think that Brandon had a nervous breakdown in Venezuela and that when he came back he was messed up in the head," Rahim explains. "At the very beginning, he was helpful, but after Venezuela, he became harmful. ... He did everything he could to destroy St. Mary's, which was where we were housing the majority of our volunteers, by letting a bunch of crackheads move in there. And he also drove a wedge between me and Lisa Fithian and eventually caused her to leave, too. He was doing everything you're supposed to do as a government agent in that situation. Divide and conquer."

..........

Some people who worked with him are frankly suspicious that Darby's acknowledged collaboration with the FBI hints of something much larger and more sinister. Some Austin activists have formed the Austin Informant Working Group; currently focused on the McKay and Crowder cases, they are also considering the wider implications. The term "Green Scare" (by analogy to earlier anti-communist "Red Scares") refers to the federal government's growing interest in prosecuting environmental activist groups, particularly the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. Austin Informant Working Group member Simon Evans points to a report by former University of Texas law student Elizabeth Wag goner, who said that FBI agent Charles Rasner announced to her class that Food Not Bombs and Austin Indymedia were on the bureau's terror watch list. "It doesn't seem unreasonable to question," says Evans, "whether or not something larger is at play here."

"They're going after me and Scott and other organizers, but they nabbed the low-hanging fruit," said Fithian, who was also involved in the RNC protests in Minnesota. Fithian was not surprised at the news that Darby was an informant. "I always said at Common Ground: If he was not a cop or an agent of the state, he was doing their job for them, creating division and disrupting our work."

Crow initially came to Darby's defense, posting a strenuous denial, when a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press first fingered him as an informant, based on FBI documents. "It was more about defending the truth than it was about defending Brandon as a person," says Crow. "When I asked him, he told me it wasn't him, and I believed him. I've had to apologize to people like Lisa, because I gave him credibility with my initial statements. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't being maligned. Now, I didn't defend his misogyny or his antagonism; I defended him based on what he told me. It's still heartbreaking, you know." Darby eventually wrote an open letter coming out as an informant, but Crow first learned the truth by reading FBI documents furnished to him by McKay's defense team. Crow was hurt by the news, as this wasn't the first time he had found himself defending Darby.

.....

Sometimes, when Darby speaks of his old friend Crow, there's a catch in his voice – as when he says that they were close, once, but that Crow hasn't accepted his recent invitation to his home nor met his daughter. "I will always have a bond with him because of what we went through together, and no evil or anything that he would perceive as bad would come from my hand toward that person," he says, sounding sincere. Yet the documents reflect that during 2007, Darby secretly informed on Crow's whereabouts and actions. His defense is that he reported what he saw. "Wouldn't it be more frightening," he asks, "if the person in my position picked and chose what truth they told rather than say the facts?"

dude infiltrated leftist groups and snitched them out to the FBI. not surprising a guy like that would want to help the effort to discredit ACORN. never knew darby, but i worked a little with common ground in the 9th ward and it also involved working with ACORN. i did not notice a rivalry between workers in either organization as he describes it. once i accompanied a group of common ground folks to distribute info, which included stopping by the ACORN office and there wasnt animosity from what i could tell. maybe the ACORN leaders didnt like Darby on personal level because he's a d-bag.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

In other New Orleans (non-pimp related) ACORN news, the Louisiana AG is investigating ACORN's failure to pay $1.5 million in payroll and unemployment taxes.

Caldwell said the money for ACORN's state and federal withholding taxes "went somewhere, " and his office is trying to find out what happened.

ACORN officials in New Orleans could not be reached for comment Thursday.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/09/state_federal_officials_cut_of.html

Though I do not see ACORN as a threat to the Republic or anything, a total shutdown would seem to be in order at this point. It's like seeing the Jefferson machine operate on a nationwide scale.

 

[SaintWilson]

Mister P.C. there is no link to that story, where did it come from?

 

[mister pc]

Mister P.C. there is no link to that story, where did it come from?

my bad, here's the link to the quoted article

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:729400


and heres a link from local press

http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:49882