PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

ACORN protests Liberty Tax
by Abie Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 at 8:55 AM

Acorn protests Liberty Tax for draining money from low-income communities.

Last week, ACORN (THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS FOR REFORM NOW) protested the practices of the tax preparation company LIBERTY TAX. ACORN members charged the tax preparer with taking hundreds of millions of dollars from low-income communities through their "Refund Anticipation Loans".

THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY ACORN CHAPTER reports that their protest at the LIBERTY TAX office in the Bellevue suburb of Pittsburgh was a success. Protesters briefly occupied the store, chanting "Liberty Tax Charges a Fee- ACORN Will Do it for Free". The action ended with no arrests and one citation.

ACORN has been campaigning against the practices of tax preparation companies for over a year. In January, the group reached an agreement with the largest tax-preparer, H&R BLOCK to eliminate some administrative fees, improve disclosures, and offer customers the lowest cost option first. ACORN is currently in negotiations with JACKSON HEWITT, the second largest tax-preparer.

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by me Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005 at 11:56 AM

From : Maryellen Hayden <emmyhayden@yahoo.com>
AlleghenyCountyACORN@yahoogroups.com
Subject : ACORN ACTION!

Date : Sat, 05 Feb 2005

Allegheny County ACORN had a great action at the Liberty Tax in
sleepy Bellevue, a working class suburb of Pittsburgh. Liberty Tax
is one of those rip-off loan shark tax preparers that we have been
fighting to try and get them to stop charging such high interest and
high fees to low income people. You can get your taxes done for free
at ACORN. Just call 412-441-6551 and ask for Vallie Still!

So here's the story: Rasheeda went inside with a big manila envelope
and asked about getting her taxes done.

We waited until the rip off artists had her settled cozily at a
desk, filling out a form, and then we sprung into action. Nowell
went in first, going straight to Rasheeda and telling her that
Liberty Tax was just about to rip her off, and that ACORN was here
to save her a big heartache and a lot of money.

The door was open, and a neon open sign was blazing away, so we took
that to mean that they wanted a lot of people to come on in! So we
did! There were about twenty of us, and we filled the room, chanting
as loud as we could-Liberty Tax Charges a Fee- ACORN Will Do it for
Free! We flyered the whole place, using "Mean Corporations Suck"
stickers to paste up the flyers everywhere, and the one lady was
grabbing our arms and telling us to get out, to get our hands off
her customer. to get out, get out, get out!!! She grabbed my arm so
hard that there are bruises on it today. She had a real conniption
fit! We just kept on chanting until Rasheeda agreed to come with us
to get her taxes filed with ACORN for free, and then we all left
together. We stayed outside until the cops came, passing out flyers
and chanting at cars, "Who Are We? ACORN!"

The cops came with sirens blazing, six cruisers in all, one from
another township even! The Liberty Tax people came out screaming and
pointing, "They broke into our store!" and, "I identify her- I
identify him! And this one, and this one- look here's the girl that
set us up! She's in the car! I identify her!" We were trying so hard
not to laugh when Mikhail said to her, in his quiet and dry
voice, "Why, Ma'am, you sure are quick- you must have gone to
college! What are you doing working for these rip-off artists,
ma'am?" And she said, "You just shut up!" so he said, "Yes
Ma'am!"
And it was so funny, the cops couldn't help it- they bust out
laughing! Then the head cop cam over and said real seriously that we
should not have caused such a disturbance, and we told them our
story.

We explained that we were an organization of low and moderate-income
people, the same people that are targeted by Liberty Tax, and so we
felt that we had every right to protest. The cop agreed, but said
that we defaced their property with the stickers, and that was
against the law in Bellevue. So we allowed that he was right, and we
said that we were sorry for the stickers, and if he liked, we
promised that we would remove them right now. He said okay! I was
trying so hard not to laugh!

So we all marched over there and began busily scraping the stickers
off the windows, and some of us went inside to get them off the
walls and the counters, and the mean little woman snarled and threw
herself onto Ruthisha, while her boss hollered No, no, and grabbed
her and carried her away, and we were all laughing and scraping off
stickers. The cop went inside to talk to them, and then came out and
informed us that the business people just wanted us to go away. He
said that we were all getting citations, and asked for all our id's
and some of us didn't have any. I knew that he was dying to get us
out of there, so I whipped out my id, and said, "Officer, I will
take full responsibility for this, here is my id. Does a citation
mean I have to go to jail?"...a little hopeful note was in my voice
at the last...he cracked up laughing, and assured us that no one was
getting arrested.

So now I have a citation that says, "Lead a group of protesters into
the tax office and put stickers all over the premises."

"To be, or not to be, THAT is the question!"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlleghenyCountyACORN/
http://www.acorn.org/

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