“They haven’t hurt us like they think they did,” said Daniel Leary, a member who helps lead ACORN’s Foreclosure Fighters, a group that assists people facing eviction. “Our anger makes us more focused. Now we know the mission at hand.”

Critics charge that that adversarial mind-set, which helped make ACORN one of the most formidable community organizing groups in the country, may also prevent the group from conducting an honest reckoning with any flaws that the videotapes may have revealed.

“They have a very bunker mentality,” said Marcel Reid, a former national ACORN board member who left the organization because she had problems with its leadership. “They perceive everyone as a threat. You’re either with them or against them, and there’s no space in between.”