[Vision2020] 2010 Census

Fri Jan 22 17:09:37 PST 2010

Here is an idea, cut their power. When they call to get it restored, send in the Census takers, :P. Either that or send in some lawyers to knock on the doors first. If they get shot or bitten, it isn't really all that big of a deal. :)

Your Friend,

Donovan Arnold

--- On Fri, 1/22/10, Ron Force <rforce2003 at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Ron Force <rforce2003 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] 2010 Census
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Friday, January 22, 2010, 7:49 PM

Google "census takers trespass" for an eyefull-there's some real nutters out there. I'd think twice about signing up to be a "gum'ent snooper".
The Boundary County Commissioners discussed this, here's their minutes:

Commissioners discussed census takers and the issue of trespassing. Boundary County has received one complaint on the issue of census takers and trespassing. Attorney Robinson said Bonner County has had numerous complaints on this topic. Bonner County's Sheriff and Board of Commissioners initially said if the property owners had "no trespassing" signs, the Sheriff could have had those visitors cited and Attorney Robinson said you can't do that as there is a federal statute that people shall cooperate with census workers.. The Census Act doesn't say that people have the right to trespass. Attorney Robinson said he conducted some research and there are two cases in Idaho and he sent the information to Prosecutor Jack Douglas. Attorney Robinson said there is no trespass even if there is a "no trespassing" sign when you approach a person's place, whether it is a respectful visitor or someone with other legitimate purposes. These are legitimate approaches by
 such people as mail carriers, newspapers carriers, census workers, utility workers, and neighbors or friends. If someone comes to the driveway of a house just as a friend would, by law that is not a trespass. Attorney Robinson said he has heard stories of people jumping over fences, checking out outbuildings, etc. Commissioner Dinning questioned if a census taker comes to his house and knocks on his door and he tells them to go away yet they continue to stay, is that a violation. It was said that people are getting upset about the census GIS workers. It was said that these workers are pre-census workers. Attorney Robinson said if someone says to go away they may be violating the federal statute as it says you will cooperate. Attorney Robinson informed Chief Deputy Prosecutor Sarah Jane Hallock that he sent Prosecutor Douglas some Idaho cases. Attorney Robinson relayed the case numbers to her. Attorney Robinson said one of the cases includes the language
 and the various people that someone could anticipate coming onto properties. Having a GIS reader shouldn't make a difference. These census takers have no business running through someone's back field or buildings, but they can approach the house. Commissioner Dinning said since the census is next year, how can this be a census worker. Attorney Robinson said these people are census workers and his office has checked on that. They are clearly there on behalf of the census takers, according to Attorney Robinson. 

Ron Force
Moscow ID USA

From: Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at verizon.net>
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 11:00:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] 2010 Census

On Friday 22 January 2010 09:42:17 Art Deco wrote:
> press.docOur property is posted to keep out a number of pests
> including hunters, salespeople, missionaries, religious
> psychopaths, criminals, nosey parkers/porkers, etc.
>
> Can a criminal trespass action be brought against census takers who
> violate the trespassing laws?

I suppose some windmill-tilting lawyer could file such a case, but I 
would not hold much hope for it going very far. Remember that the 
authority for the federal census specified in the US constitution, 
and there are additional federal statutes requiring citizens to 
participate in the census. So a trespassing case against a census 
worker carrying out census taking duties would seem to have a low 
probability of success given the strong federal mandate for the 
census.

On the other hand, if the federal administrative rules under which the 
census is conducted extend guidelines to census workers about which 
practical situations may be excused from that particular census 
worker's visit, that's another matter. In other words, if the feds 
say "We won't push this particular case," that's OK, because it's the 
fed's initiative. But if some citizen decides the feds don't need to 
count anyone at that residence, and the feds do want to count in that 
residence, then the citizen is at a considerable disadvantage.

It may be that there are some citizens who might need, in fact, might 
foolishly prefer, that the individual civilian census worker driving 
a hybrid be replaced by a fully-armored Humvee with half a dozen 
fully-armed special forces personnel, just to get the point across 
that the census data will be collected, whether or not the citizen 
happens to be having a bad-hair day. Fortunately for all of us, there 
are statistically more accurate census estimating techniques that do 
not require such military participation in census-taking, or give the 
opportunity for foolish bravado given such stronger data requests.

Ken

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