Census Workers Being Attacked - Erick Erickson Say What?
Being a Census worker isn't so safe. It is in fact quite hazardous these days with over 350 reported incidents of threats and violence. Most of these incidents seem to be from those harboring disdain towards government.
WaPo:
While most homeowners have received census takers graciously, some say they have been surprised at the degree of anger exhibited by Americans who consider them the embodiment of intrusive government.
"I came across loads of hostility," said Douglas McDonald, who summoned police in Deltona, Fla., after a tug-of-war with an irate homeowner over a census form. The homeowner threw his ripped half in the toilet.
McDonald, 70, a District native who retired from the Labor Department after 30 years as an investigator, said he wasn't prepared for the level of anti-government fervor he encountered.
"There's so much anger and bitterness, with people losing their homes and their jobs," said McDonald, who eventually quit. "They're not too fond of the government. They don't want to talk to you."
Sherri Chesney, 46, said she was cursed and spat at during follow-up visits in Houston. One day, she encountered a woman working in her garden. Chesney showed her census badge, she said, prompting the woman to launch into a tirade: "I don't need the blankety-blank government snooping in my business." Then she threw a metal patio table at Chesney, who escaped injury by ducking.
"I was stunned, I really was, that America is so mad at the government," said Chesney, who no longer works for the census. "People don't know what it's like out there. It's scary and dangerous, and it's not worth my life."
Mad at the government. Taking it out on Census workers now where have I heard that before? Oh that's right! That guy from RedState & CNN Erick Erickson, now what were the eloquent words he used...I believe it was Shakespearean!
ERICKSON: This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying.
Now Erickson claims that this is simply Media Matters construing his words. That's his voice though. I can recognize empty rhetorical nonsense with a side of Freedom Fries and Skynard with the best of them, BUT of course he isn't to blame. NEVER! Nope it is the GOVERNMENT'S FAULT!!! How dare they have Census workers go door to door seeking information from the misinformed citizens who didn't fill out their Census forms. I mean it's the government's fault that they have been hyped up by pundits who spout opportunistic paranoia filled frenzies. It's the government's fault they have unmitigated rage toward innocent Census workers. It's the lame stream media, Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Oprah, the Donkey from Shrek, liberal whatchamacalits who make this country abhor the Census...
Oh wait, that's the wingnutosphere and Fox Fucking News.
I am Frank Chow and I approved this message
WaPo:
While most homeowners have received census takers graciously, some say they have been surprised at the degree of anger exhibited by Americans who consider them the embodiment of intrusive government.
"I came across loads of hostility," said Douglas McDonald, who summoned police in Deltona, Fla., after a tug-of-war with an irate homeowner over a census form. The homeowner threw his ripped half in the toilet.
McDonald, 70, a District native who retired from the Labor Department after 30 years as an investigator, said he wasn't prepared for the level of anti-government fervor he encountered.
"There's so much anger and bitterness, with people losing their homes and their jobs," said McDonald, who eventually quit. "They're not too fond of the government. They don't want to talk to you."
Sherri Chesney, 46, said she was cursed and spat at during follow-up visits in Houston. One day, she encountered a woman working in her garden. Chesney showed her census badge, she said, prompting the woman to launch into a tirade: "I don't need the blankety-blank government snooping in my business." Then she threw a metal patio table at Chesney, who escaped injury by ducking.
"I was stunned, I really was, that America is so mad at the government," said Chesney, who no longer works for the census. "People don't know what it's like out there. It's scary and dangerous, and it's not worth my life."
Mad at the government. Taking it out on Census workers now where have I heard that before? Oh that's right! That guy from RedState & CNN Erick Erickson, now what were the eloquent words he used...I believe it was Shakespearean!
ERICKSON: This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying.
Now Erickson claims that this is simply Media Matters construing his words. That's his voice though. I can recognize empty rhetorical nonsense with a side of Freedom Fries and Skynard with the best of them, BUT of course he isn't to blame. NEVER! Nope it is the GOVERNMENT'S FAULT!!! How dare they have Census workers go door to door seeking information from the misinformed citizens who didn't fill out their Census forms. I mean it's the government's fault that they have been hyped up by pundits who spout opportunistic paranoia filled frenzies. It's the government's fault they have unmitigated rage toward innocent Census workers. It's the lame stream media, Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Oprah, the Donkey from Shrek, liberal whatchamacalits who make this country abhor the Census...
Oh wait, that's the wingnutosphere and Fox Fucking News.
I am Frank Chow and I approved this message
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