Census worker hanged

REWahoo

REWahoo

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
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Jun 30, 2002
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The face-to-face element of taking the census is scary. And in the backwoods, as an outsider, even more frightening.

It doesn't sound as if the authorities have ruled it a homicide yet, however, have they?
 
How awful!
I've often wondered about how safe it really is for these Census w*rkers, in any location, in any political climate.
There's a lot of crazies out there. :nonono:
 
tragic proof that government agencies and banjo music just don't mix...
 
That's just messed up. Even when my wife was looking for a job there was no way we would have considered that a possibility.
 
I am surprised. I thought the last naive person in Eastern KY was murdered many years ago. That Lil' Abner phrase flatland furriner was never a joke down there.

When I was 18 I took census for Thomas Directory, a reverse phone book and marketing outfit. They used to be in every public library, and many businesses that dealt with the public had them also, especially if they made credit decisions.

I wasn't exactly naive when I started, but I was a whole lot less so by the end of that summer. My education wasn't down in the mountains, but rather in the city slums that the same people had come to occupy looking for more opportunity. Plus in other rotten neighborhoods. The borderlands between slums of different ethnic groups were especially dicey.

Ha
 
What a tragic story.

It seems to me that most temporary census workers are, like the rest of us, just trying to make ends meet. One floor of the building where I work was rented to the Census Bureau back in 2000. Their temporary folks didn't seem like idiots or any tougher than anybody else.
 
REWahoo said:
I saw this on today's news...

Worries about this sort of thing is exactly why I wouldn't want one of these jobs - not that I'd want any type of job of course. :)
Click to expand...

When this thing kicked off, one of the guys at the Legion left a flyer for this job "opportunity" in my in-box at the Legion. He's a retired banker, in his mid-70's and has done the census thing for several cycles just because he enjoys it. (Even though he's a typical New England skinflint, I'm sure he could buy and sell me several times over.) He even suggested that with my background I could be a "supervisor."

I looked it up on the web and very quickly decided:
- I don't supervise anything anymore, least of all for the Federal Gummint;
- Too many hours;
- I don't need the money.

The thing about the census worker being hanged reinforces my good judgment.
 
I have seriously considered w**king for the census folks as a temp deal as it would be a new once in a lifetime experience, but have since changed my mind since they do not pay combat pay as I understand it.
 
Ditto to what others said.

I'm also unhappy to see that on top of being hanged, the poor guy's name will forever be linked to a J*b title.

Saw an obit the other day for someone who had been retired 30 years; still the obit read, "'j*b title' dies in 'city, state.'"
 
This is horrifying and so sad.

The site quoted below is pretty liberal [moderator edit]. I thought this might be significant:

And an ABC News report suggests there could be more in play than raw anti-government feeling:
ome people wonder if his death in the remote part of southeastern Kentucky known for its meth labs and hidden marijuana fields had less to do with his job than simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.​
If that speculation were accurate, the "Fed" that may have been scrawled on Sparkman's chest could be intended as a warning by criminals to law enforcement to stay away, rather than as a pure expression of opposition to government -- though it may be hard to separate those two motivations entirely.
Click to expand...
from
Census Worker Found Dead In Kentucky -- What Do We Know? | TPMMuckraker
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Early on in my fed career, I spent some time on wildfires in this area (Daniel Boone NF), and the locals would often start new fires on the slopes below us while we were working to suppress the first round of arson fires. Lots of marijuana growers in the area (and other issues).
 
Twarn't me. The murder of an innocent (as far as we know) census taker is evil. I recall all the nice people in the room when I took the census worker exam and we all chatted before and after. Just normal hard working, and intelligent, people trying to get a job for extra income. I doubt if your normal anti government hill billy did this (no offense to all the hill billies out there) - we don't have the whole story on this. I know one who carries a handgun in a fanny pack when he goes out. Not a bad idea.
 
When the census folks came by my house a couple months back, they were carry GPS devices. If he had one of those they (law enforcement) may be able to pin point where he was just before the incident.
Just a thought,
Steve
 
FEDS

I am living in KY temporarily.....It is like a 3rd world country in many respects......anxious to leave in 129 days.
 
A friend of mine took the census worker test many months ago when they were offering it. Finally got called for a job. That starts in April.
 
I'm seeing news reports that the census worker's wrists and ankles were duct-taped--so suicide probably has been ruled out.
 
I am living in KY temporarily.....It is like a 3rd world country in many respects......anxious to leave in 129 days.
Click to expand...

Certainly depends on what part of the state you are living in. The Eastern half of the state is very poor, but that is not representative of the entire state. Travel to Lexington and there are numerous mult-million dollar horse farms and new developments.
 
The 51-year-old Sparkman was found this month hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday,
Click to expand...

and then
Agents are trying to determine if foul play was involved . . .
Click to expand...

We wouldn't want to jump to any unwarranted conclusions, but . . .
 
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