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/

[Grizzled Bear]

The video clip is funnier. You should be able to find it on You Tube.

SNL used to get it right, once in a while.

[NucSubs]

That was my understanding as well, but extensive searching online has failed to produce proof of that.

[Free Vulcan]

I believe that would be ‘priceless’.

[freekitty]

Good for you and thanks for the information.

[TheBattman]

The attitudes on this forum are absolutely asinine.

Not quite sure I would use that terminology, but I agree that simply treating someone doing their job badly because they are doing their job... that is wrong.

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

Exactly what does household income, and the other very imposing questions NOT related to the number of people living in your household is necessary to maintain proper representation (not like most of us are actually represented anyway)?

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.

I applaud your brother, but does he have the legal training and background to know what is "on the up-and-up? The census, when established, was simply a formal head-count to help split up and assign representation. The numbers are now used for divvying up the federal pork pie that flows like a river out of Washington, and now is including personal and sensitive data - much of which the majority of smart and Identity-conscious people would generally not give out to just anyone.

I also take it your brother isn't a member of ACORN...

[ExTexasRedhead]

How about answering all the questions wrong and blow it off as an Obama joke? Example 10 living in the house; one Hispanic, one black, one white, three Chinese, etc.

[allmendream]

The U.S. Constitution calls for an ACTUAL ENUMERATION that takes the form of the national census.

If you support the Constitution, please comply with the reasonable requests of the Census that would establish an ACTUAL ENUMERATION.

I know they plan on doing a statistical extrapolation, showing the contempt that 0bama has for the actual words of the U.S. Constitution.

Let us, as conservatives, respect the words of the U.S. Constitution and comply with the census in allowing for an actual enumeration.

[BipolarBob]

She was rude, pushy and adversarial in an assumed authoritarian way.

So, you were rude back. Do you think she will change? Change her outlook? Change her attitude? Change her political party? There was a carpenter that lived a long time ago in a remote setting in an impoverished nation under the Roman empire and He thought to change the world by treating others better than they treated Him. What do you think about that? Whose way works best for change?