One of the authors of the likely unconstitutional Bill To Make Black Lives Matter Pay The Cops' Bills took some time to scold DFLers about how, when thing are put in writing, "we can read them and show them to you later."
Sadly, when it comes to a proposal when it comes to North Minneapolis's Neighborhoods Organizing For Change (NOC) and Governor Mark Dayton's request,
"Mr. Speaker, Representative Metsa: yes, I'm very aware of it. And what I'm trying to figure out is how a caucus that supported a position saying we want to appropriate $15 million as approved by Black Lives Matter and ACORN--we want that to be a condition of a special session (Daudt gavels for order) which was put in a letter by Governor Dayton, to the members of the task force--again when things are put in writing, that's one of the benefits, we can read them and show them to you later, ok, that position is somehow acceptable.
"But when we offer legislation that you have voted in favor of and support, the sky is falling. We are genuinely confused by your response today. We do not understand what you are saying. Candidly, Rep. Metsa, I don't think you guys understand it."
Via The Uptake, here's the moment, starting with Metsa's question:
ACORN dissolved itself in the spring of 2010, months before Mark Dayton was elected in 2010 and took office in 2011. When we review letter to the Equities Task Force we see that Dayton references "a innovative workforce strategy" suggested by Black Lives Matters and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC).
We contacted NOC's communications director Becky Dernbach concerning the remark on the floor. She pointed out that while the recommendations came from Black Lives Matter and NOC members, the governor had not promised the funds to either group.
She was not aware of Garofalo's remark.
Here's the first page of Dayton's letter, which references NOC and Black Lives Matter in the last sentence:
What's Garofalo up to?
Bluestem thinks that the Farmington legislator is both trolling and dogwhistling in citing an organization that's been dead for six years. As City Pages' Hart Van Denburg pointed out in 2010:
Rep. Michele Bachmann, like many conservatives, has used the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now as a whipping boy. Now it's going out of business. It's broke. And it's broke because donors and the federal government quit financial support of the group after two conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute, shot secret videotape of ACORN workers offering them tax advice.
One of those activists, James O'Keefe, later went on to get arrested with Minnesota's own Joe Basel after they posed as telephone workers and were caught trying to tamper with the phones at U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. . . . .
Rep. Barney Frank wondered last year on CNN that if ACORN was such an evil empire, why it was funded without challenge throughout former President George W. Bush's eight years in the White House.
And recently, New York District Attorney for Brooklyn, Joe Hynes, cleared the group of any criminality after some of its staffers were secretly videotaped during O'Keefe's street theater.
Nonetheless--and despite the passage of time--the defunct organization remains a touchstone for conservatives hoping to dog whistle about supposedly corrupt community organization, especially those working in communities of color, as NOC does in North Minneapolis.
While NOC was founded by former ACORN staffer Steve Fletcher in 2010, Fletcher moved on to other projects in January 2013, including the now defunct liberal think tank MN2020.
In fact, after reviewing NOC personnel records, Dernbach confirmed our hunch that no one now working for NOC or serving on its board ever worked for or served on a board for ACORN. Director Anthony Newby, for instance, began his organizing efforts in the aftermath of North Minneapolis's tornado.
Although Garofalo enjoys a penchant for provocative speech, as we pointed out in our March 9, 2014 post, A troll too far: Minnesota ALEC co-chair Rep. Pat Garofalo berated for viral racist sports tweet, his mis-identification of NOC with ACORN is a deliberate gaffe.
It's even less cute in context, when he chides the opposing party about written documents. Dayton met with NOC. It's not been possible for him to meet with ACORN while governor, since the organization ceased to exist before he was sworn in.
As for Garofalo's views of Black Lives Matter, that's a subject for a future post, as is the emerging pattern on the part of some in the House of dog-whistling to the fears of some in the GOP base.
Photo: A still from Garofalo's "ACORN speech" on Tuesday.
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I wonder if the Minneapolis Police Department invoiced the U of M for the Gopher Hockey riots.
Posted by: Jonathan Marchand | Mar 14, 2016 at 08:41 AM