Fairbanks man accused of bulldozer threat to (Census) worker

[sabra]

Source: AP

FAIRBANKS - A Fairbanks man is facing a misdemeanor assault charge after he was accused of threatening a U.S. Census worker with a bulldozer.

The Census worker, identified only by his initials in charging documents, went to a home on June 2 looking for information from Carey William Bliss.

The worker told authorities that Bliss, 50, was uncooperative, grabbed Census forms, told the worker to get off his property, and then said, "I know how to get you off my property."

Bliss then went to a bulldozer in his yard and started it. The worker got into his car and backed out of the driveway with Bliss following in the bulldozer, according to the Fairbanks District Attorney's office.

Ruben Del Valle, a spokesman for the Census Bureau in Alaska, said there have been reports of violence toward Census workers in other parts of the country but this was the first such incident he had heard about in Alaska.

Read more: http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/062810/sta_662574499.shtml

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Fairbanks . . . . guess it wasn't Todd.

[proteus_lives]

2. What a psycho.

I'm a Census worker and I haven't run into anyone that bad.

[LiberalFighter]

3. For each person that uses or attempts to use violence against a census worker...

they should surround their home with cement barriers and disconnect all utility services from their homes.

[bulloney]

4. Like they say: Ignorance is Bliss.

[Frisbee]

5. I can't help but picture....

the guy being run over by a steam-roller in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095159/">"A Fish Called Wanda".

[bluedigger]

8. I thought of the Austin Powers scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLlUgilKqms

A bulldozer is intimidating, but avoidable enough for the average person.

:)

[tinymontgomery]

11. Or the one in Austin Powers

Stop, Stop smash.

[Ian David]

6. More Teabagger terrorism. Thanks, Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann! n/t

[obxhead]

7. Misdemeanor? Clearly a bulldozer is a deadly weapon in the same

class as using a car in an assault and should be a felony. wtf.

[GlennWRECK]

9. Makes no sense!

Did the census worker just stand there waiting for the guy to get into his bulldozer, turn it on, and drive towards him?
I'd have been gone as soon as the guy left the door.

Weird story...

[droidamus2]

12. Not necessarily

There is some paperwork to do even if the person refuses to cooperate. Now I usually chose to try and get of their property before doing the work especially if I was blocking their driveway, but if it was a large parking area I might complete my paperwork before continuing to my next stop. I only ran into a few belligerent people and in those cases I just left. You are trained to try a persuade the people to let you do the census as that is your and the census bureaus job but I always reserved the right to judge the person I was dealing with and if I thought they weren't willing to listen I just left. In some cases we sent somebody else out (I being male sometimes sending out a woman works) to see if they could get the information and most of the time it worked. People don't realize that census workers are federal employs and you can get in deep trouble for threatening or assaulting them. Personally I don't understand peoples problems with filling out a simple census form (the long form is another question all together)

[sandnsea]

13. I had an almost identical story, sans the bulldozer

To cut to the backing down the driveway part, it was dirt with a hill on one side and dead appliances on the other, ruts all down the middle. Do you think the old fart would even offer to help guide? No, he made me drive back up the hill so he could yell at me not to hit any of his precious junk. I could see someone just a bit crazier than him thinking it was funny to start up a bulldozer and chase the census taker. You would not believe some of the "homes" that are out there, YIKES.

[Dover]

10. Yeah, cuz he would hate for the government to find out about him...

Nothing like a little civil disobedience to get the governments attention.