07-10-2010, 10:59 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Frankie Stapleton
The census people are now going to residences where they had no response before. <--What does this have to do with our situation?
This is why census workers tried to get people to respond the first time around. <-- This does not pertain to us
Because other rounds of census workers were going to have to follow up if there was a known residence from which the bureau did not get a returned questionnaire. <--Again, what does this have to do with us?
And people in rural areas, particularly districts where previous census results were considered underreported (as Puna is considered) were NOT mailed census questionnaires; their residences were visited by census bureau workers. <-- This statement doesn't apply to us either because our census bag was tied to the driveway gate. (ie. we received the questionnaire)
Are you sure you mailed in your census form? (Yes, yes, I know....some people did get visited who had mailed in questionnaires, including myself. It's the slow train to the Hawaii census hdqtrs. in Waianae and the addresses they're getting from L.A. for followup are sadly behind the times. ) No Comment
Did she identify herself and offer to show you her badge? Did she give you a form regarding census privacy? If so, then she was legal; no need to call police. Did she ask you the questions on the form or give you the questionnaire to fill out, then sign? Did she take the questionnaire with her instead of leaving it with you to fill out and mail in? Then, that's supposedly the final round of census followup.
No, she could not have legally opened your door and entered your home without invitation, as in the case of a wheelchair-bound resident who was home alone. Are you sure she didn't call out? The workers now are having to follow up on the residences where workers left bags on gates and there was no response. They are looking for PLACES where people are living, and haven't been counted.
Do you think that woman liked having to go down a 600-ft driveway in Glenwood with no trespassing and beware signs? No way! But she is REQUIRED to try to seek out every potential residence, including cars, buses, caves, even bushes if it looks like someone may be living there. AND she is required to ask about any other potential living quarters in the vicinity, whether on your property or a neighboring one.
Yes, it is startling when you are not expecting someone. But think about who was the more vulnerable party. Because she did the job the Federal Government hired her to do, at least 3 more residents of Puna got counted...you, your wife and your baby.
Frankie, it sounds like you are a census worker but I won't assume. Let me make it clear that I had no opinion toward Census practices in the past. My wife and I have participated in previous head counts just as promptly as we did for this one. Reading some of your statements leads me to believe that you weren't listening because even your last sentence could be interpreted as if we didn't cooperate with the Census mail response process. And if that woman did count us yesterday then some of my tax dollars will have been spent to have us counted twice.
I feel my accounts were true the first time I wrote them and I really don't see any reason to repeat. There was a question that asked.... how a woman might feel about stepping over a chained gate and walking 600 feet down a strange wooded driveway loaded with warning signs because she was told to? Looking back on this question, I think it really makes the Census look bad because it looks like they're putting field employees into potentially dangerous and avoidable situations. Was she trained on "Approaching a Domicile when evoking the federal right to trespass" or is there no such census training? Because we heard nothing but the startling "hello" coming through the screen door. Ok, so my response to that question is I will not feel sorry about feeling invaded. There is just no reason or excuse for this sort of thing to happen to a family who cooperates with the Census's questions via U.S. mail and does so within the required time frame.
We had already cooperated with their questionnaire process the first time around. Therefore, we feel the Census had no grounds to justify trespassing on our property to obtain more information. If they had additional questions about us or questions about our neighbors, why couldn't they have used the same method of getting in touch with us that worked just a few months ago? OR Couldn't they have tied something to the gate like a "request for appointment" or something? I would think such an act of common sense would have given both parties a chance to arrange a time to meet, right?
After sleeping on it, I'm firm in my opinion that the Census abused its authority to trespass by exercising such a drastic level of authority without first exhausting other avenues to contact us. I'm a citizen and I think the census is an important service. But I do believe that this specific incident should not go untold and that it would be wrong to justify the actions of the census here. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it when I woke up this morning, but I'm certain now. I feel that if my family ever had any right to privacy, it was violated yesterday. In my mind, justifying the actions taken by the census on my property yesterday is the kind of stance a bully would take.
We (My family and I) are not the bad guys here. [
]*hope my grammar isn't too bad.*