New Details in Census Worker Hanging
There are new details in the case of the census worker found hanged in Kentucky.
I am not going to describe the details, and I am not going to link directly to the article (it’s in the New York Times, but it’s an Associated Press item). This is the link to the article from Memeorandum.
I feel I should warn all of you before you read the piece: The details are not just gruesome, but deeply upsetting. At least they were to me. I’m almost sorry I read the article, but I do think it’s important. It’s still not clear what the motive was, but it’s unquestionably a murder (as opposed to a suicide), and in my very firm and strong opinion, it is an act of terrorism. What was done to this man was done to warn and intimidate others, not just to kill or terrorize him.
25 Responses to “New Details in Census Worker Hanging”
Even LGF and it's commentators are treating this with some reasoned response. There is hope yet…
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/34757_U…
My best guess is the Censis guy stumbled into a Crystal Meth lab or something similar.
LGF is gradually shifting back to the center. Charles Johnson was a genuine centrist before 9/11 and went off the deep end into neoconservatism. Now he's inching back to sanity.
More Indicia that the Hanged Census Worker was Victim of Lynching; “Think Progress” Recaps Anti-Census Right-wing Hate Speech…
by bartleby the scrivener | I say “lynching” because it is incredibly difficult for one person to hang another. But that’s just my theory. Apparently one theory is that his death had some relationship to the local drug culture. Whatever. Whoever kil…
I've noticed that, too, about Charles Johnson. And he is getting the vilest backlash about it from many of his former compadres on the right.
I just looked at the LGF comments. Didn't read all of them (there are a lot), but I saw one with a line from the Kaddish (Jewish prayer for the dead) and below it a line in Latin with a similar meaning. I was moved by that. Very classy.
the story might turn out to be the incompetence and cowardice of law enforcement in that neck of the woods for the last many years. It appears that there was full knowledge of various goings on there, but no law enforcement seemed to want to tackle it and get it cleaned up. Which infers not taking care of duty, or else had something to lose in cleaning it up. I imagine investigative reporters will be moving in; it's exactly the kind of case they like, where long term crime with ineffective intervention often points to secondary payoffs going on.
just my .02
This is horrible. People should know that it's not uncommon for census workers to get threats. If someone doesn’t want to give any census information to a census worker, all they have to do is refuse and the census worker will leave.
If this was a politically motivated murder, I place the blood of this man SQUARELY on the heads of Rush Limbaugh, G.Gordon Liddy, conservative talk radio and Fox News.
I lived in that area of Kentucky for a couple of years on a work related project. You didn't go wandering around the country side because you did not want to run into the moonshiners and marijuana growers with their illegal operations. Not only would they shoot at you, their operations were surrounded by booby traps and IED's to keep people from pouching their crops/batches. They definitely did not like government agents as they represented either the law or the taxman. A couple of people were found dead in the woods during the time period I was there, likely poachers of the illegal products. It's possible they thought this census person was ATF or other federal law out to get them for their illegal operations. It's always been a dangerous place for outsiders in that part of the country.
Huh?
I was with you until that last comment. When you throw bombs, you should back up such acusations, don't ya think?
I'm with Leonidas. The guy most likely stumbled upon a meth lab or a guy with a huge patch of marijuana or a liquor business. It happens all of the time in that part of Kentucky. I know. I live less than an hour from that area. Great moonshine.
If someone doesn’t want to give any census information to a census worker, all they have to do is refuse and the census worker will leave.
According to the US Census site you can be fined up to $5000 for refusing to answer questions from census takers.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/What/What…
Leo, you are probably correct. The obvious most-likely explanation is a dope growing operation or a meth works. This stuff is all over exurban and rural America (including the national forests and related parts of Appalachia and the Ozarks, for example), as well as in the suburbs frequently.
We'll have to wait and see what eventually is learned. That someone could be murdered (or killed by booby traps) or injured is no surprise at all. No, it's not a vast far right militia-KKKonspiracy (how the public rejection of lib Dem misconduct is routinely mischaracterized these days by resentful children).
Could it be both…the guy stumbled across some good old boys and their moonshine/meth operation and they strung him up. If these drug dealers were also confederates…it would explain the extra joy they took in killing him and dressing him up to be found in that particular way. Why label him a “fed”? They were trying to send a message.
I fear it won't be long before we'll see another scumbag far-left propaganda cartoon incorporating not only the bogus “racist” charge theme, but also the Confederacy somehow, not to mention copies of the Bible and the Turner Diaries lying in plain view, depicting the lynching of Jonas Salk or (a raped) Florence Nightengale representing “Health Care” [sic], surrounded by pictures of angry white males, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and whoever else among righty talkers may be selected for slander, too.
“It happens all of the time in that part of Kentucky.”
Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas, too, as well as in Upstate New York and in Pennsylvania — and, of course, in California, where I grew up, for example. For decades it's been dangerous to go hiking in parts of California known to be dope growing areas — returning Vietnam vets and others with their guns, booby traps, dogs, etc., were far from the peaceful hippie stereotype. (As has been true with some of the “innocent” hikers looking to loot the dope growing sites…)
JD,
If you really want to stick to that “moonshine/pot farmer” theory, you kind of have an obligation to explain why Mr. Sparkman's death was “staged” the way it was. Although it's true we don't know who did this yet, or why, it is really not open to rational debate that the killer or killers *wanted* Sparkman's body to be found that way. Moonshiners and marijuana growers simply do not normally advertise themselves that way. This was more like an assassination or a gangland hit than a murder. The facts as we know them so far just are not consistent with the theory you advance.
I was a part-time census taker in the census previous to this one (2000), and I did not interview one single person. That's not how we did it. We had the census questionnaires and we either handed them to the resident if they were home, or slid it under their door or in some other safe and visible place (we were not allowed to put the forms in mailboxes — only employees of the U.S. Postal Service can legally do that; it's actually a federal offense for someone who isn't a postal worker to put anything into a mailbox).
My point is that I'm very puzzled by the idea or the fear, or whatever you would call it, of census takers asking personal questions at the door. As far as I know, that's just not the way it's done.
G.Gordon Liddy- “Shoot ATF agents in the head, because they wear body armor”. (Waco)
This is just one of thousands of violent evil comments made in absolute seriousness by conservative talk radio “Hosts”.
When are you going to catch up to the facts?
Yeah so? What is your point? If you refuse to give census information, the census worker is instructed to leave. That worker is no threat to you. If you kill them, you are more than likely killing your neighbor because census works are taken from their own home areas. As well, census worker supervisors know exactly what houses their workers are going to because they assign each house.
If you give incomplete census information, the likelihood of being fined is far less than if you blatantly refuse. there is absolutely no reason for animosity toward census workers or the census. But if you have “concerns” there are legal avenues to take.
Those that threaten or harm census workers are terrorists!
My point is that I'm very puzzled by the idea or the fear, or whatever you would call it, of census takers asking personal questions at the door. As far as I know, that's just not the way it's done.
A census worker visited my house a few months ago and asked some basic questions, so maybe they are doing things differently this time. Anyway of course there is no reason in the world to harm a census worker. The guy who came to my house was very nice and my wife and I answered his questions.
My point to Father Time was that according to the law you either answer questions or get fined. I provided a link and that was the way I read it. It's not so easy to just refuse to talk to them, according to the census site there are severe consequences if you don't.
My point was this:
It could have been meth lab types that did it to pin it on moonshiners.
or
It could have been more closely tied to moonshiners/growers who happen to be dissatisfied and angry with the way the government is heading. These types typically do not like liberals. So yes, it could have a tinge of political motive involved, but the underlying odds still weigh heavily on it being related to that “industry”. Okkhams razor, right?
“Shoot ATF agents in the head, because they wear body armor”
I'm no fan of G.Gordon Liddy, but that's actually great advice when FEMA and the ATF come to take away weapons during an “emergency” as deemed by the government – as they did during Katrina. If they come to my house under the same guise of “emergency”, they'll not succeed. Am I a right-wing extremist? Nope. Am I a law abiding man who believes in the Constitution and is willing to defend it to the death? Yep. In a heartbeat.
Waco. Good point. Now I'm no fan of David Karesh either, but he had the right to bear arms (arms that he never used against anyone prior to Janet Reno's raid). He also had the right to his religious beliefs, as did his followers. Is all that crap about his thinking he was Christ or pedophilia true about him? I don't know. But it is likely that the government put that info out to legitimize their assault. Wouldn't be the first time the government put out falsehoods to justify their ends. That happens on both sides, liberal and conservative.
I don't know, JD. It strikes me as unlikely, to say the least, that meth dealers would do a message killing to “pin it” on moonshiners. Why would anyone think moonshiners in the first place? Dragging his body to another place, hanging it from a tree, etc., etc., is going to make people think “moonshiners”?
And neither moonshiners or meth dealers are in the habit of drawing attention to themselves that way. To me, that's not Occam's Razor. That's the opposite of Occam's Razor.
“Shoot ATF agents in the head, because they wear body armor”
“that's actually great advice when FEMA and the ATF come to take away weapons”
–
I have sworn to defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies, Foreign and Domestic. You are an enemy of the United States and you have been reported.
I TOO have sworn to support and defend the United States CONSTITUTION (not the government). If the nation ever falls into dictatorship (it IS possible) then it is OUR duty to uphold the Constitution.
I would hope you agree with that statement.
The Constitution has been dumped on by Republicans and Democrats since the beginning of the 20th Century. I will try to change that politically.
I do not support violence against our government, brother. Never have.
However, I WILL not surrender my Constitutional rights (which you have sworn to defend) in an emergency, “crisis”, or any other reason – not to FEMA, not to the ATF, not to the Army. That very thing happened during Katrina in New Orleans. I simply stated that I will not hand over my weapons when asked. A battle will ensue if it's pushed.
It's the same if they try to keep me from voting, from worshipping as I see fit, or from speaking my mind. Nor will I allow them to quarter the Army in my house, search without a warrant, etc.. All these rights are worth standing up and fighting for.
If you wish to surrender your rights, go ahead. I will not.
“and you have been reported” doesn't bother me much. Tell “them” I said, “hi”.