On tonight's edition of Hannity's America, Hanna Giles who is the girl that pretended to be a prostitute in an amateur undercover video sting at the Baltimore offices of ACORN found a sympathetic shoulder in Sean Hannity.
Giles and James O'Keefe who played her pimp managed to engage ACORN staffers into conversation about running an illegal brothel where girls as young as 13 would be imported from out of the country. The videotape clearly captures two ACORN workers suggesting suspicious tax advice while completely overlooking the fact that Giles and O'Keefe had verbalized their intent to force juveniles into prostitution.
Due to expectation of privacy laws in Maryland, Giles and O'Keffe are now being sued by ACORN and my even face criminal charges at the hands of the Maryland State Attorney as well as the Baltimore City Attorney. However, during the segment Hannity and Giles attempted to portray her legal troubles as some sort of government attack to stifle dissent and violate her first amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
There seems to be a common belief among the right-wing that the rule of law is just a guideline that can be ignored if the end result serves a greater purpose. Like how the Bush Administration concluded that waterboarding was okay as long as it resulted in getting vital information to serve some greater cause. The law is the law and either you follow it or you do not. Secondly, ingornace of the law is neither a defense or an excuse.
Maryland law strictly prohibit these types of hidden recordings without two party consent. However, there are plenty of ACORN offices in states where these expectation of privacy laws do not exist and would have been perfectly legal. You can assume that either O'Keefe and Giles honestly did not know that it was illegal or that they did know and simply didn't care. Either way they committed a crime and you cannot simply overlook that fact because they captured a bigger crime on videotape in the process.
That would be like someone going out and capturing a drug deal on videotape and then taking the dope and the video to the police and expecting a pat on the back. It just doesn't work that way and you would think that two people that appear to be as intelligent as Giles and O'Keefe would know that. Most of us learned very early on in life, as children perhaps, that you cannot take the law into your own hands.
Baltimore, MD – September 11, 2009 – We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation for acts allegedly committed at ACORN offices located in Baltimore. The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.
If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.
It seems that Giles and O'Keefe couldn't wait to get these videos out into the news cycle, I presume, hoping that they would be seen as heros and civic minded individuals. It's more likely then not that they never considered the legal trouble that they would bring upon themselves.
If the goal was to capture dishonest or illegal activity going on within ACORN, why not go directly to the District Attorney to try and seek ammunity while prompting the Public Integrity Unit of the District Attorney's Office to go out and conduct a similar sting, with a warrent of course, to gather evidence that could be used in a court of law.
Despite the long list of laws possibly broken by these ACORN representatives, the Baltimore city attorneys office is now looking into whether or not Giles and O'Keefe violated statutes concerning taping people without their consent. And why not since Giles and O'Keefe have only succeeded in assuring that no charges will be filed against the two women shown in the videotape because they have broken the law and commited a crime in the process of trying to document a bigger crime.
They have also significantly compromised any chance of shutting down ACORN once and for all and sending both of those women to prison.
Nevertheless, it is catagorically dishonest to even assert that the criminal and civial actions against Giles and O'Keefe are some sort of Government attempt to silence dissent or to deprive then of their civil rights under the First Amendment of The Constitution.
Is it unfair what is happening to Giles and O'Keefe? -YES!
Should we ever ignore violations of the law because it's unfair? - NO!
There are so many people out there saying that any criminal charges against Giles and O'Keefe would be an act retaliation. They blame the media for being unwilling to report the misdeeds of ACORN and that there is a conserted effort by the "authorities" to go after those that dare to uncover such acts.
People all over the country have turned whistle blower without violating the law in the process. And in those cases where laws would be broken to uncover these activities, law enforcement has always been willing to grant ammunity if it results in uncovering a more significant crime.
I mean come on! - How many murders did the FBI overlook at the hands of "Sammy The Bull" in order to put John Ghotti away for life? - I believe the answer is 14. But it seems that Giles and O'Keefe where more interested in 15 minutes of fame rather then actually bringing ACORN down in flames.
But you have to give Giles and O'Keefe credit for getting ACORN defunded. Eventhough ACORN will most likely not survive this event in the longrun, it might be a year or so before they succumb to the loss of funding.
Jon Stewert Thank You Boston
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