Knock knock!!

[djf]

OK so I'm making a pot of coffee and somebody knocks on my door.

So I open it up, and here's this chubby dude who has a badge hanging aorund his neck and quickly says "US Census Bureau".

He then uses the standard "Is this XXXX YYYY Street" or whatever, and I say no.

Furiously using a little handheld of some sort, he asks me "What is the address here?". So without really thinking, I reeled off my address quick, but it's kinda long and convoluted, so he starts playin with his handheld and asks "Can I get that again?"

Now I had just woke up from a short nap (that's why the coffee) and I was getting clearer by the minute so I ask him "Am I required by law to answer?".

He says "Yes", and hands me a flyer printed by the Census Bureau. I started reading it, and he asks again about the address.

My first inclination was to slam the door. But I resisted that one and looked a bit more at the flyer. Then I said to him "Look, I got a laptop sitting right there connected to the Internet, and I'm gonna look up these USC Citations listed on your flyer before I answer anything"

Dude wasn't happy, and keeps playing with his handheld, after a few minutes he says "I found it", and wanders off my porch.

Relevant sections of the flyer say: You are required by law to provide the information requested. These federal laws are found in the United States Code, Title 13 (Sections 9,141,193,214,and 221), and Title 44)Section 2108).

I went and read all the sections. There is only one that defines any penalties for people who ARE NOT employees of the census bureau. It is USC 13 Sec 221, which reads as follows:

(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100. (b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, no person shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body.

So.... bottom line... $100 fine for refusal.

Might be worth $100 to tell somebody from the government to bite me!

Anyways, he wandered off and harassed my neighbors. But I think I learned a good tactic. If somebody hands you a piece of paper and it starts rattling off all sorts of USC numbers, etc., you are TOTALLY ENTITLED to look those up before doing anything.

I guess if I had to do it again, I could have even said "Get back to me after I get a chance to go to the law library and look these up".

You can look up relevant US Code Sections here:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

[KarlInOhio]

That may have been the American Community Survey part of the census. After all the flak they got for the excessive nosiness of the long form, they decided to spread it out over the ten years between censuses so they didn't have to deal with one sixth of the population screaming about it at once. The legal ground it is based on is pretty shakey. I don't think the ACS has ever been in passed legislation. The Census Bureau just counted it as a part of their power to conduct the census every ten years. They have never taken anyone to court for not filling out the ACS because they fear they might lose. The last time they fined anyone for failure to file was for either the 1960 or 1970 census, and that was for a couple people who made a very public point of not answering the census.

http://www.survivalarts.com/archives/001095.html has a very long thread about the ACS.

They might have also been doing some GPS mapping of houses. I don't know the details of it, but they were planning to do it before the 2010 census to speed up its operation next year.

[RebelTXRose]

Yeah - I remember getting the forms in the mail. WHY are we (the tax-paying tax payers) having to PAY for people to knock on doors???

[tumblindice]

“I answer the door when I’m expecting someone.”

Telephone, same thing.
And if the Count’s counters won’t leave you alone, tell them: “It’s in the mail.”
That sounds better than “Kiss my arse.”

[Uncle Miltie]

A: They use the Census to make racist decisions. Civil Disobedience seems a proper response.

[mad_as_he$$]

The Constitution requires name, rank and serial number (so to speak) the modern census has all kinds of very personal questions. For example income - the IRS already knows go ask them. There are also education level, sexual preference questions (disguised as questions about who lives there and what are their roles), where do you send your kids to school and on and on and on. None of their F’in business. The Census was set up to determine Congressional representation not where I buy my groceries and what cut of meat I like.

[Mariner]

Commie bastards show up here today too, "verifying the dwelling still exists".

I made sure to ask "who employs you". The answer was "US Census Bureau".

I'm betting that was a lie and it was an ACORN employee...next time I'll ask for identification.

I don't think I'll tell them anything this year. Nothing.

It'll be worth the $100.

[caseinpoint]

Being a genealogist, I have looked at my share of past U.S. census data and I also help index them for databases. Generally speaking, the information gathered in times past included names, ages, sex, relationship to designated “head of household”, occupation, citizenship, state or nation of birth, state or nation of parents’ births, whether one owned or was renting their current residence and whether one was literate. The earliest census I have examined included only headcount within sex and age brackets, so obviously the information requests have crept up in detail.

Nowadays the information requested is ridiculous. I don’t care to tell them what we pay in utilities each year, what level of education we have, or what type of investments we make. They don’t need to know the number of bathrooms we have, or the income of each of the residents. Should I be so unlucky as to get the really detailed questionnaire, I will fill out the information of the older census but not personal financial information or other private information. I happen to be a very private person when I can be. I don’t have a Facebook or similar internet presence, I don’t have bumper stickers on my car, nor do I wear slogans on my chest or back. As far as I am concerned, the census people can stuff it if they want more about me.

[ThreePuttinDude]

Does this sound familiar?

LOL

[ynotjjr]

It’s true, an old guy thought she was going to report him for the grease stains on his driveway. The hand held computers mark the GPS location of your house so if they are looking for trouble makers, look out!

[richiep]

If you are to the right side of the fence and in a blue state it is preferable that you do not participate.

[classified]

OOOOUI! I’m scared!

[BipolarBob]

So, do they get paid less if people don't answer the questions or come to the door at all? Chill.

That's not the point. Treating people with disrespect for just doing their job shows no class.

[tumblindice]

The feds don’t seem to have a clue as to how many “undocumented immigrants” we have among us—demonstrating the generous label given to them by the open borders lunatics, who are now fully in charge of the institution—and more importantly, they don’t seem to care finding out. The illegals sure aren’t cooperating—sooooo, why should Americans care or cooperate?
Furthermore, any actions taken by this government since January, IMHO, are quite possibly invalid as beyond their authority and unenforceable (ultra vires and void ab initio) since the Pretender Obama is ignoring calls that he prove compliance with Article Two, so screw `em.

[BipolarBob]

Expect to deal with your customers as they see fit.

This isn't a service industry. This is a census. trying to discomfort/humiliate someone whom you perceive to be in a lower station in life than you shows no class.

[WestSylvanian]

The attitudes on this forum are absolutely asinine. If you don’t provide correct information about who is inhabiting your house, then you and your state will lose representation in the Congress and on the Electoral College and all those illegals who will pad the census in places like California and Arizona and Texas and New Mexico will effectively help those states gain more control. Is this what you morons want in old northeastern and mid-Atlantic states that are still predominately comprised of old stock legal citizens? This is one reason why Judd Gregg from New Hampshire was against sampling for the census—his states and others would lose representation.

My brother will take census enumerator training next week. He intends to do his job legally and ethically. He will not fudge the results of his data collection. He will not cooperate if he is instructed to do anything that is not on the up and up. There are plenty of other Americans who will do the same. If you do not give them legitimate data you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. Protest Obama in some other fashion. Refusing to cooperate is just plain stupid.

[mark3681]

“If a legitimate census taker asks, I will provide my address and number of people residing there. Nothing else.”

I agree 100%

Last census form I filled out came in the mail. I filled in the info on address, number of people living at that address, and, to make it more interesting, where it asks race I wrote in American Citizen.

Never heard back from anybody. So, I guess I gave them enough to satisfy them. I plan on doing the same this year.

[djf]

trying to discomfort/humiliate someone

I never did ANY of those things, and resent you implying I did. I was simply trying to find out if my answers were required by law.

As is my right.

Last time I checked, those census guys work for me. Not the other way around!

[1035rep]

“I asked him if he was from acorn and he looked at me with the blankest eyes and asked me what was acorn.”

Bttt

[BipolarBob]

"Might be worth $100 to tell somebody from the government to bite me! "

Yeah, you sound like you were just wanting to treat others like you want to be treated yourself.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] knock, knock / who’s there? / Hiram / Hiram who? / Hiram I doin’, hey, hey...