WaPo reports on increase in “incidents involving assaults or threats” on census workers
Written by Karl Frisch
Published
Not sure how I missed this, but the Washington Post reported last week:
Since they began making follow-up house calls in early May, census takers have encountered vitriol, menace and flashes of violence. They have been shot at with pellet guns and hit by baseball bats. They have been confronted with pickaxes, crossbows, and hammers. They've had power lawn mowers pushed menacingly toward them, and patio tables thrown their way. They have been nibbled by a duck, bitten by pit bulls and chased by a pack of snarling dogs.
Some days, being cursed at seems part of the job description.
So far, the Census Bureau has tallied 379 incidents involving assaults or threats on the nation's 635,0000 census workers, more than double the 181 recorded during the 2000 census. Weapons were used or threatened in a third of the cases.
[...]
Among the more troubling were incidents that arose from a resident's seething resentment that anyone from the government would seek their personal information.
Some people pointedly mentioned President Obama.
While conducting follow-ups in an upscale Seattle neighborhood, Grover Ellis said he came across a woman who considered him an agent of Obama, not the U.S. government.
“The idea of the census just enraged her,” said Ellis, 64, stressing that the overwhelming majority of the people he met were welcoming and responsive. “They way she saw the census, she was required to help Obama. And she wasn't going to do anything to help out Obama.”
Now where could all this “hostility” be coming from?
Related:
- CNN's Erickson: I'll "[p]ull out my wife's shotgun" if they try to arrest me for not filling out the American Community Survey
- Yuba City census shooting echoes census threats of CNN's Erick Erickson
- O'Keefe cohort reruns year-old myth that Obama seized control of Census
- Beck to census workers: “Have a good time trying to get past the dogs in the gates”
- Beck and followers reportedly will cost U.S. taxpayers “significantly more” money by not answering census questions
- Beck questions the notion that conservatives leaders have urged a boycott of the census
- The very real threat of violence versus census workers
- Beck says he refuses to answer most of the Census questions because the government is “out of control”
- Conservative media campaign to thwart Census from gathering race data needed to enforce laws
- How to annoy Glenn Beck in five minutes or less
- Fox Nation calls Census workers “Obama's Army”
- Beck: 3/5ths compromise was a “good thing,” but answering Census question will increase “slavery” to Washington “master”
- Fox & Friends: “Jaw-dropping” that U.S. Census has always counted “illegals”
- Malkin on census: “indoctrination,” “Alinskyite,” “way to ensure a permanent [Dem] ruling majority”
- Malkin: Left promotes census because they see it as a “re-election fund” and opportunity to count “illegal alien” voters
- CNN's Roberts holds Bachmann's feet to the fire on “socialized medicine,” census claims
- Beck: “modern day slave state” being constructed out of ACORN, SEIU, student loans, census and service initiatives
- Fox Nation highlights op-ed claiming “Obama's Census Castrates Caucasians”
- Media conservatives target the 2010 census, encourage audience not to complete forms
- Beck asks Bachmann “the odds” the gov't will fine those who don't complete census, says he's “considered” not filling it out
- Rose on Census: “Acorn [is] being recruited by Obama for a mission that is so frightening”
- Hannity: "[T]he whole census moving to the Commerce Department, that's a power grab"
- Fox's Megyn Kelly asks ACORN spokesman: “You're going to send child rapists out to conduct the census?”
- The right's super-secret plan to end all plans