Census Civil Disobedience

[bigmike]

So I come across this article on STR about people being upset about the census:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=17832

I get about two paragraphs into it and find myself a little pissed off. Not at the constitutional issues of the second paragraph itself but my subconscious realizes what the sub-headline of the article just said. So I re-read the sub header:

"Many choosing to pay $100 fine, not answer intrusive questions."

So the rest of the article goes on about how the census blahbatty, blah, blah, blah and i get to the last few paragraphs which state:

"Likewise, many WND readers have indicated their willingness to pay the fine as a trade for maintaining privacy.

"It's time for some polite, patriotic civil disobedience," said Dasbach. "If you care about privacy, genuine equality, and old-fashioned American liberty, the arrival of the Census form is your chance to literally stand up and be counted. Tell them how many people live in your home, and that's all."

"Maybe $100 is a small price to pay for making a principled stand for privacy and freedom," he concluded."

This is the director of the Libertarian party advocating civil disobedience by paying a fine and compliance with the State at the same time! I assume his argument for compliance would be the census is mentioned in the Constitution and we should be counted like the nice piece of paper says. But practice civil disobedience by paying the fine?

Normally I don't take the time to respond to someone's quote I read online but this really troubled me and I felt compelled to send this nice man a happy Saturday morning email. It wasn't until I tried tracking down an email address that I realized this was a re-post and the article was written in 2000. But it got me thinking.

I'm not taking the census. I'm not paying the fine. This for many readers is not a new concept. What I'm curious about is what happened? How far did the terrorcrats go to try to get you to comply. I didn't see anything about jail time for not paying the fine. Would there be a trial of some sort? In federal court? How many tax dollars would they spend on a trial and jail to get the $100 fine?

It is my goal to get as many census takers to quit their job when they come to try to get me to answer the questions. I'll have a few for them and hopefully get them to open their minds to the concepts of liberty. After all, they're mostly temporary workers not full time terrorcrats. Some may be receptive to the idea. I think after the third failed attempt they actually send out a census supervisor.

Anywho, happy Saturday

[Lloyd Danforth]

They only need to know how many people in the household.

[doobie]

I remember 10 years ago I was in college and some lady came by and insisted I fill out the form, saying that since I went to school there I had to fill it out there.  When I told her my dad included me in his already,s he went on saying how I am supposed to fill it out at school and that i should just fill it out again.  I said that would be double counting myself.  She said that it would be okay and I should do it since I was going to school there and should be counted as a resident.  I asked her if that was true how come I was paying the out of state tuition rates?  She ended with, "please just take it and if you can fill it out and leave it in the box downstairs so I can at least get my job done."

I took it and put it into my out box (the trash next to the door).  She said that she could have the police come up here and arrest me for destroying census documents.  I told her have 'em come here,it's not destroyed, it's just in a box.

[sandm000]

What do you have against the Census?

Forced unpaid labor required by law (ie slavery?)
Required dissemination of private data?

[Tom Sawyer]

I think they don't prosecute people for not complying because all it takes is one court ruling to destroy their system.
They will go to your neighbors to try and get the information to fill out the form. They will send out different people at different times to try and get you to comply.

It's fun to tell them they work for big brother and you don't go along with their attempt to "catalog america".

[Puke]

Were is the :facepalm: emoticon?

[bigmike]

What do you have against the Census?

Forced unpaid labor required by law (ie slavery?)
Required dissemination of private data?

It's both, but I think if we can't stand up to forced compliance to the census how could we possibly stand up to forced licensing, forced taxation or forced anything? I'm not talking about most of the readers here, I was thinking about most people that don't see a problem with the census. If I changed one census taker's paradigm about consent and forced compliance I'll be happy.

I know, Lloyd, that it's just a head count that they say they need but what if they showed up at a boarding house that rents rooms like one of the PorcManor houses. They have no idea how many people actually reside there. I wonder at what lengths will the terrorcrats go to find out.

Doobie (nice, today's the Hash Bash in Ann Arbor Michigan) I don't know about you but I would have sacrificed my freedom to do whatever little jail time they give out for the destroying census documents charge just to point out the waste of tax dollars for putting me in a cage to everyone in the court room and whoever watches the youtube vid.

Tom, nice heads-up on the neighbor aspect. I didn't think of it but it doesn't really surprise me now that you mention it.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I remember 10 years ago I was in college and some lady came by and insisted I fill out the form, saying that since I went to school there I had to fill it out there.  When I told her my dad included me in his already,s he went on saying how I am supposed to fill it out at school and that i should just fill it out again.  I said that would be double counting myself.  She said that it would be okay and I should do it since I was going to school there and should be counted as a resident.  I asked her if that was true how come I was paying the out of state tuition rates?  She ended with, "please just take it and if you can fill it out and leave it in the box downstairs so I can at least get my job done."

I took it and put it into my out box (the trash next to the door).  She said that she could have the police come up here and arrest me for destroying census documents.  I told her have 'em come here,it's not destroyed, it's just in a box.

I use past censuses in Genealogy research. Once in a while I find the same person enumerated in two different places.

[AntonLee]

it'll be fun to stand there and stare at them in my doorway.

[Tom Ploszaj]

My turn!  A census worker stopped by claiming I received a mailing, I asked her for a copy of what was sent but surprisingly she can't get me a copy to read but has all the questions on her laptop. 

I invited her back Monday, a training situation for me, to attempt to educate her and offer an alternative to her 1930's chant of "just following orders"  .   

After she threatened  informed me  that she will have to involve her supervisor since she can not accept my replies as given.  I will think of positive questions to submit to her to emphasize her initiation of violence against me.

[error]

The way the preparations for the census are going, it might be 2012 or later before you actually see people on the streets doing counts.

Nevertheless, the government already has a file on me. As far as I'm concerned, that's more than enough.

[antijingoist]

isnt the census supposed to be anonymous? How can they tell if you did it or not?

[John Edward Mercier]

The Census is no longer a true head count... it uses a statistical basis for its foundation.
So if you don't answer, enough others will that it won't have any effect.

[bigmike]

And that's where I was trying to go here to see how far they would take it to enforce the fine.

I got the impression with the census now being directed by the white house, it'll be easier to fudge the numbers and make the results say what they want anyway, regardless of how many answer.

[AntonLee]

The Census is no longer a true head count... it uses a statistical basis for its foundation.
So if you don't answer, enough others will that it won't have any effect.

in the case that only one person answers. . .then the government will deem that the number 1 is indeed enough