With signs in hand, people with the group Project VERITAS posing as homeless set out to reveal the supposed hypocrisy of California legislators’ on their views homelessness but the media learned Thursday that their investigation turned out to be a bust.
In a YouTube video produced by Project VERITAS, the undercover report explains the group did the investigation to see how assembly member Roger Dickinson, author legislation known as the Homeless Bill of Rights, would react to the homeless being in front of his home.
The exchange with Paladin Private Security in the video showed the officer asking the undercover reporters with Project VERITAS to leave the neighborhood.
The Project VERITAS report also implied Dickinson called police on them.
“I saw them while I was still in the house eating breakfast. Did nothing about it. They’re standing outside. Not typical, they’re standing outside of the house. Then I left for work and I did not do anything about it,” Dickinson said.
Investigative reporters learned no one called police May 8. A private security company responded to the scene in front of Dickinson’s home.
“Assembly Member Dickinson is not the person who called us that morning. A good citizen – a Good Samaritan who was out walking his dog is actually is the one who made the call,” said Matthew Carroll, the V.P. of Operation for Paladin Private Security.
Dickinson had this to say about the undercover investigation that tried to nail him to the wall:
“We have lots of homeless that traverse our neighborhood because we are right off the American River Parkway so you know this is obviously an attempt to score some cheap points and the truth lost out in that effort.”
