[Vision2020] Census Worker Hanged With 'Fed' on Body

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Associated Press at:

http://tinyurl.com/mfxpyw

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AP source: Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body
By DEVLIN BARRETT and JEFFREY McMURRAY (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky
cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement
official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a
victim of anti-government sentiment.

The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case
and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to
write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time
Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch
of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County,
where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An
autopsy report is pending.

Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer
said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or
discuss any details about the crime scene.

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved — and that's part
of the investigation — and if there was foul play involved, whether that
is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.

Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a
federal crime.

Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated
Press her son was an Eagle scout who moved to the area to be a local
director for the Boy Scouts of America. She said he later became a
substitute teacher in Laurel County and supplemented that income as a
Census worker.

She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death —
they told her the body was decomposed — and haven't yet released his body
for burial. "I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she
said.

Henrie Sparkman said her son's death is a mystery to her.

"I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point,"
she said. "Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come
to some conclusion."

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's
southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have
told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.

Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a
computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked
part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a
month.

Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in
the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County,
officials said.

Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a
resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said.

The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010
head count, but it has thousands of field workers doing smaller surveys on
various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the
Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees to
locate hard-to-find residents.

The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary
Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William
Sparkman's son, other family and friends."

Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women
employed by the Census Bureau."

Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan
County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government
sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in
other parts of the country.

"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than
anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at
Southeast Community College.

The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal
building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and
injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing,
carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.

A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce
environmental regulations, but the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch,
said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't
share data on instances of violence against employees.

>From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent
incidents against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service
workers soared from 55 to 290.

Ruch said that after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma
City, "we kept getting reports from employees that attacks and
intimidation against federal employees had not diminished, and that's why
we've been tracking them."

"Even as illustrated in town hall meetings today, there is a distinct
hostility in a large segment of the population toward people who work for
their government," Ruch said.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown