Census Bureau Warns Its Workers Of Violent Incidents

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/13514

Census workers are warned to be careful after a handful of violent threats. Jesse Russell explains.

The Census Bureau is warning workers who are going house-to-house to count the citizens of the United States to tread carefully after a number of incidents of violence have been reported since the head count began. To date the Census Bureau says 15 incidents of violence have been committed against workers who are trying to take an accurate count of how many people live in an area so the government can better provide funding, services, and representation to communities. An estimated 48 million Americans failed to return their Census forms, so 600,000 census takers have been hired to try and help get as accurate a count as possible. According to the bureau two incidents involved weapons being fired, two were sexual assaults, and two were carjacks. In one of the cases a worker was threatened with both a crossbow and a machine gun. Ways to identify Census workers are to keep an eye out for a black satchel with the Census logo on it and a white ID badge. The bureau says a Census worker will never ask to enter your home.

[Brickbat]

1. Not all of us carry the bags, either. They're a pain in the ass, IMO.

I felt unsafe at one house I went to two weeks ago, but have been back since. Stay safe, enumerators!

[amerikat]

6. Yes the bags are a pain in the ass for sure.

I leave mine in the car. I try to make sure I have one of everything
on a clipboard. I also place a NV form and a D-1 inside every EQ.
and a ECQ on the clipboard.

[Brickbat]

8. Me too. No reason to drag that thing along.

[amerikat]

7. The bag should have contained some dog biscuits.

I haven't needed any yet but I think my next binder will be even more rural so
i'll ad them to the bag.

[Brickbat]

9. Hee!

[napi21]

2. A census worker was in my ssub division today. She stopped at every house

on our street except MINE! I took the FIVE MINUTES when I received the form in the mail and mailed it the next day. That five mins included opening the envelope, filling out the form, puting it in the envelope, puting a stamp on it and walking to the mailbox. What is wrong with all these people who didn't want to take all of five mins to do the same?

[SheilaT]

3. My form didn't require a stamp.

I'm doing clerical work for the Census Bureau, in it's astonishing as I'm reading the forms the enumerators are filling out, how many assholes out there are refusing to participate.

Personally, I think we ought to take a hardline with those who won't participate and cut off their utilities, make sure they don't get their social security, or whatever.

We see comments from the field that people are claiming the census is illegal or unconstitutional. Jeez, it's IN the Constitution. We've been doing it every ten years since 1790.

[napi21]

4. I live in a stupid RED STATE so I hope there are lots of idiots

who refuse to participate. Maybe if there are enough of them, the counting will show our area to be BLUE!

[amerikat]

5. I haven't gotten a warning yet from my supervisor..

Most people are ok with with the census. I've only had a few
people that grumble about it. I'm in a rural area and most people have dogs,
big dogs, but all have been friendly so far.

I find some mistakes on the maps. I also find some houses with no mailbox or house number posted.

I was told in training if you feel threatened in anyway just leave.
I haven't had to do that yet.