Census Civil Disobedience

[littlehawk]

Politley ask them if they saw your NO TRESPASSING signs.

If they say yes, ask them to see their warrant papers. If they do not have a warrant (which of course they won't) kindly ask them for their name and address and inform them you will be filing trespassing charges at $10k per day, per person. If they say no they did not see your signs, strut that back to your signs and ask them to read it. The ask them if they understand it? 

I have signage on my property that lists the actual article of law, the fines and that all violators will be prosecuted. In 12 years no one has invaded my property. I have 3 signs posted.

Littlehawk

[Raineyrocks]

First, I'd like to say that this post in NO way at all is putting anyone down for however they want to deal with a census worker coming on their property, these are just my personal thoughts on how I'm going to deal with the situation.

I've been thinking alot about what I'm going to say when the census worker comes back to my house and at first it was probably going to be something like 'I refuse to participate'.    However, upon further thinking I've decided to go out and talk to her/him and ask some questions of my own, just maybe it will give them something to reflect upon.

I thought how often does an opportunity to get to discuss, (if they're reasonable of course), certain issues with someone that is doing a govt. job without understanding the whole scope of what they're doing.  So I'm going to use this as an opportunity to try to teach someone something about the infringements that the govt. imposes upon it's citizens, (I hate that word because I consider myself, "me", but it's the only one I can think of for now).

I'm still not going to comply but I am going to explain to this census worker why I'm not going to comply.  I'm going to ask them if they really know why they are performing this job in the first place, are they just doing it for the money or do they really see any usefulness of what they're doing.  I'm going to ask them more questions too, nicely, but first I'm going to read more about the census so I will be better prepared for any typical bullcrap responses they may have been trained to dish out. 

I've personally decided to take this as a blessing and try to help educate somebody that may not have a clue about what they are doing instead of just ignoring the benefits that may possibly get someone else to think about stuff instead of just doing it.

I will let you know, what happens whenever the census worker comes out.

I'd like to share a little something that I think might pertain to my decision:  Years ago I actually thought about becoming a foster care parent and I was thinking at the time that I would be helping abused children; my thoughts on the matter went no further than that.  However, I began looking into the social services and I found out how many children were being taken away from their families for no reason at all, I found out that the states make x amount of dollars for every child placed in foster care annually.   I was digusted and decided that I wanted NO part of such a cruel, greedy, corrupt, heartless system so obviously I did not go ahead with my plans to become a foster care parent. 

Yes, unfortunately there are kids being abused in their homes in this world but there are also terrible abuses that occur in foster care homes also.   So I felt like how did I have the right to be part of any of that, how would I really know that kid was being abused at home or was he/she just removed for a statistical dollar to the state.  It made me think alot about the 'census worker'.  If I hadn't looked further into social services I very well may have become a part of that corrupt system so if I don't at least try to talk to the census worker I could be doing another fellow human being a disservice of gaining some possible insight.

I refuse to serve on jury duty because I don't know if the supposed perpetrator is really guilty or not and I feel I have no right to judge another human being.  Do you see what I mean?  In addition to that I think the so called "justice system" is a total sham.  If I see somebody beating the crap out of their kid I would go over and say something but that's an entirely different matter than putting faith in what this social service person or anyone in govt. is going to "present" to me as evidence.  I don't trust the govt. enough to stamp 'guilty' on anyone's head.

[Friday]

Los Federales left a love letter on my door today. It says they're sorry they missed me, and they'll stop back in the next day or two.  Gosh, that was thoughtful!      

[thinkliberty]

A Census worker knocked on my door today. I was sleeping off a headache and fever. I felt really nauseous as well.

She yelled through the door at me that she wanted me to answer some questions. I didn't feel well enough to get up but I told her I was not interested, (without getting up from the couch.)

She persisted and said that I had to answer her questions and I told her I was sick. 

She yelled through the door  that there was a "law" and that I had to answer their questions. (they don't believe in the right to remain silent or their 5th amendment I guess)

I told her I didn't care

She said she was going to leave a note on my door and left.

[KBCraig]

For the 2000 census, I was divorced and living alone (with my cat). I returned the form with no information other than "1".

A census worker came around and said she needed to get more information. I said, "One." She said she had other questions that I "needed to answer". I said, "One", and closed the door.

For 2010, I kept intending to mail back the form and answer "4" (married, step-daughter, son), but it wasn't foremost in my mind. So, I forgot about it. Mary and I are pretty much of like mind on these issues, although we never talked about the census, other than reminding one another (and Sarah) about the news reports of fake and actual census workers committing home invasions and rape.

So, a couple of days ago she told me the census folks had been by, while I was at work. There was a younger woman, obviously the trainer, and an older woman, obviously the trainee, who told her that "We need this information from you."

Well. That went over like a fart in a diving helmet. She lit into them about their "need", and how little that meant to her, especially since she was busy with something else at the time. The older trainee was apologetic and embarrassed, while the younger trainer tried to pull some bluff and kept asking questions.

Mary finally told her to shut up and hand over the clipboard, because she was busy and could fill out the form faster than the woman could ask the questions. I don't know how completely (or accurately) she answered the form, but they went quickly on their way.

I've been doing some genealogy, and I appreciate the information that I can get from the census reports back to about 1850 (1840 and earlier only reported the name of the head of the household, and the numbers for free and slave females and males in various age brackets). At the same time, I'm shocked that people gave up so much information so freely, including income, net worth, and value of their homes. On the other other hand, much of what is officially recorded is inaccurate: my maternal grandfather, whose name was Benjamin Wilburn Ross, is recorded variously as "B.W.", "Bud", "Buddy", and "Budie". On my paternal side, all the men tended to be known by their middle names: "William Robert" was "Bob", "Robert Arthur" was "Art", etc. The census wasn't helpful at all in tracking down those lines.

Sorry, ramble over. And I still have that cat; Cisco is about 12 now.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I agree.  If there were no census and they wanted to start one, I would be against it, but as it is, the census is a great genealogy tool.
Don't ignore the pre 1850 censuses.  For one thing, the indexing that has been done by outfits like Ancestry.com tells  you where the head of household lived.
And, say you had an ancester, Sarah Coombs whose marriage record (1821)says she is 'of' Harpswell, ME., a town with several Coombs families.
Her gravestone gives her birth at around June of 1799. If in the 1800 census there is only one Coombs family with a female under 5, you have likely found her family. One problem with this is a second female could be born to a coombs family the day before the enumerator showed up, possibly even Sarah's sister.
As it turned out, there were too many Coombs families with females around the right age for this to help me:)

[AntonLee]

how was it living in the 1800's 

[Lloyd Danforth]

Watch out, or Ill run you over with my horse and carriage!

[littlehawk]

Beware: They shot this lady in cold blood:

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/family-95100-city-woman.html

[littlehawk]

IRS workers are well trained to immediately report "hostile" people. They are informed that they are "federal worlkrs" and have federal law on their side and protection (pigs). They are trained that they can "legally trespass" although we all know that is not accurate. How do I know this? I know 2 people who applied for the jobs, underwent the 4 day training but decided to not take the jobs.

IMO its best to just fill out the form by entering 0 and nothing more, no signature either.

BTW, the lady census worker(snitch-bitch) from the above post was knocking on doors after dark. Not cool.

[Russell Kanning]

they came by here and someone told them we didnt want to participate

[wolf]

Census takers have been to my house 9 times so far; twice in 1 day last Thursday. They are getting more persistent and annoying. They are banging hard on the front door for about 5 minutes and then went to the back door. I was tempted to chase them off my property but thought it better not to interact with them in any way. Interacting with them at all is still giving them some information and the opportunity to make threats. It runs the risk that the situation could escalate. Let them bang away and go away frustrated and without any information at all.

[Russell Kanning]

good idea

[Tom Sawyer]

Census takers have been to my house 9 times so far; twice in 1 day last Thursday. They are getting more persistent and annoying. They are banging hard on the front door for about 5 minutes and then went to the back door. I was tempted to chase them off my property but thought it better not to interact with them in any way. Interacting with them at all is still giving them some information and the opportunity to make threats. It runs the risk that the situation could escalate. Let them bang away and go away frustrated and without any information at all.

Good man Wolf... don't let the situation agitate you... laughing at them feels good. 

[Jim Johnson]

Tell them you don't think anyone was living in the house April 1st.