Yet it is. The 2010 Census is currently ongoing with workers now going door to door.
There are about 635,000 U.S. Census workers currently going door to door counting Americans who did not return their surveys.
One thing many people did not expect was a lack of screening and fingerprinting for potential Census Workers. One Census Worker managed to get hired using an alias despite being a registered sex offender.
A census official told the Inquirer that a “Jamie Shepard” had been hired in late April after passing the name check, but was fired May 5, as he failed the fingerprint check.
He was hired before a full check was completed.
Another incident involved rape and burglary. This census worker was using his job to stake out potential victims.
One of the victims was a 21 year-old physically handicapped woman.
He got caught and in a very stupid manner.
The attacker left his blue jeans, T-shirt, underwear, boots and wallet with his driver’s license in the woman’s bedroom, authorities said.
The same article tells of a completely different incident, still involving Census Workers in Texas. Three men posing as census workers broke into a home, tied three of the victims up and ambushed the fourth when he got home, killing him in the process.
All of these incidents combined indicate how lost our government is and the amazing number of sheep who believe things like the following will help.
How do I know that census takers aren’t criminals? What was the screening process for job applicants?
The U.S. Census Bureau has made the screening process for employees more rigorous than in any previous census. Each applicant is required to accurately disclose information about any conviction, imprisonment, probation, or parole in the last 10 years. All census takers must undergo both an FBI name check and an FBI fingerprint check. We disqualify any applicant whose screening indicates prior convictions or a pending charge for certain categories of crimes, such as murder, sex offenses, robbery, voter fraud, or other crimes that suggest a threat to safety or the integrity of census data.
Obviously the law, in this case, doesn’t stop criminals. Also, they only disqualify applicants based on their background check, but what do they do for those who lied about their background? This seems to be just more lip service, like the TSA, to make people feel safe.
A final note on dealing with the census in particular (but a good habit when dealing with people claiming to be government officials):
If a census worker comes to the door, be sure to be in Condition Orange during the entire visit. Do not allow them into your home. If they asked to come in, notify the authorities immediately. Also, watch out for anyone else that maybe around helping the worker and presume the worker and anyone else to be a potential threat unless you actually know them. Give them only the constitutionally required information
(i.e. how many live there). Do not provide names, birth dates, races, etc for those in residence.
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that no one is out to get you, better alert than dead.
~TMW~