Did anyone else receive one of these? According to their web site, US Code Title 13, sections Section 141 and Section 193 your response is required by law.
In reality, those sections outline that The Secretary (who is presumably defined elsewhere) can take surveys as a part of their census process. It is Section 221 that requires you to respond:
Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided…
That’s just a crock.
Oh, sure, census information is useful and all that. It’s just the principal of it. I guess I’ll have to ask the nice lady who came to my door for some evidence that she is an authorized officer or employee of the Deparment of Commerce, or a bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of The Secretary.
Heck, I’d pay the $100 if it weren’t for Title 18, Section 3571 (allegedly Section 3559 as well, but that seems to deal with imprisonment and not monetary fines). With it on the books, the “not greater than $100” fine becomes “not greater than $5000” fine. That really blows.
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718 responses to “American Community Survey”
Thanks Cathy and to the rest of this board for your support. Couldn’t get through this without you.
Sorry bchbum,
You have a persistant one. 5 am is too early for any of these CB types and would violate most noise code laws. It is unusual that a rep would continue beyond the end of the month, althought I have read other posts where reps continued during 3 day weekends. The refusal specialist takes over when the first rep is unsucessful. For I week I had both reps working on me. You should be done today, since they have to move on to a new group of refusers. However, you might get another visit today. I think they try to get any response, even an angry one because they have made contact and can gleen info about you by talking to you.
Cameras are a handy tool. The 2010 census is comming and field rep are required to visit all nonresponding homes. I intend to only answer the enumeration question, so I expect another visit. I have 2 types of cameras; one which is connected to the computer and one connected to the TV. Both are available at electronics stores, computer stores and the internet.
I thought everything would be over now that the 3 months are up. This morning, at 5:30 am., they are ringing my apt. bell in the lobby, have gained entrance piggybacking in and started knocking and ringing my apt. door bell. I almost had a heart attack.. Anyone know where I can start looking for inexpensive hidden cameras. This isn’t funny anymore. If the only way I can shoot them is with a camera, then that’s what I’ll do.
I received the census form as well, 2 years ago. “Your response is required by law” was stated on the outer envelope, so my response was to throw it in the trash can. I received another. I kept it for amusement purposes as well as ‘evidence’. With that ‘evidence’ I informed the local Sheriffs dept. and pointed to the fact I had been threatened. I pointed to the fact the threat of extortion clearly indicated in the body of this parcel, and the fact that the US Postal Service had been used in the process of this Felony. They were stunned. I was assured the Census Bureau would have to get past them first! I understand some phone calls were made, that was the end of THAT!
The American Communist Survey can’t afford for this to become front page news. Remember this. Their only hope is that they can keep this quiet and divide the people in small numbers until it gradually becomes embedded into the mainstream.
If I recall correctly, 1 out of 4000 Americans receive this form each year.
Ron Paul has written an excellent article concerning this, available on the web. A simple search should take you to that article.
Hey folks, love the site. I was just telling my friends this week about the ACS form I recieved; most of them thought I was a little too tense about it, so I had to give them a much needed speech on where this world is going. I too will tell the ACS to get f-%^, but I’m going to have a little bit more fun with it:
1. A sign is going on the door in the morning – “man, 300#+ answers the door naked, knock at your own risk”. 2. I will greet them with my portable Tape Recorder and immediately inform them that “this conversation is being recorded”. 3. Before we begin, I will also ask them to turn thier head left, and say “hi” to my (two) security cameras less than 7 feet from the door (all of this while I’m standing there butt-naked). After all, this is my home, and I can run around in and on it as I see fit. If they feel uncomfortable, “take a valium”. This Government crap is getting worse every single day, and untill we all join – in telling them “NO” on (all) of thier silly little clandestine & nefarious ventures, we’ll never get it changed. I’m going to this new site (that went up recently)www.quacksrus.com in the morning, and I’m gonna “whack thier A$%^ in advance. I think the best defense is often a well placed shot across thier bow. God Bless us all for being proud enough, and wise enough to see this s___ clearly. Footnote: can’t you just see thier eyes when my naked derrier’ appears? Take Care my Brothers & Sisters.
None of us are going to be fined. When the congressional subcommittee allowed the CB to conduct the survey as “manditory”, it was done with the stipulation that noone would be fined. The “manditory” had to be added to increase returns to save money on follow-ups. Already the CB is concerned because many people in the 2010 census practice areas blew off the the CB. Inspite of the CB’s efforts to keep the ACS below the radar, the word is getting out. Keep up the good work of resisting, it does get better after the 90 day cycle.
The CB is trying to count illegals and wants the raids to stop until after the 2010 census is taken. I know that my state was in danger of losing a house seat untill the illegals were added to the tally. Open-border groups have a vested interest in supporting the work that the CB does and has contributed proposals for ACS questions.
The laws which mandate that this info be collected are for those APPLYING for gov programs. The CB has highjacked those laws to go trolling for individuals who qualify for programs and who haven’t applied.
The ACS also is used for screening individuals for other types of surveys. For example, those with college degrees are needed for a new study by the National Science Foundation. They want to identify those who have degrees in on area but working in another and individuals with degrees in math and sciences.
Deb.
It’s kind of ridiculous that you can throw away something that is clearly BS and then find that it is actually your own government threatening you, isn’t it? The fact that you think this is all nuts is the normal response.
Don’t worry, they have no power that you don’t allow them to have. They are not going to do anything and the threat of a fine is carefully worded to say that it’s “mandatory” All that means is that there IS a law on the books that says it’s possible you could be fined. It is also possible that I might become the next King of France. But it is highly unlikely.
It is absolutly IMPOSSIBLE that any field agent will be able to convince their boss to do such a thing as fine you. It has never been approved to fine anyone, except 50 years ago and that case involved the ten year census and other political issues regarding the person who refused.
Stay polite and stay mad. And when your ordeal is over, remember that this is happening to isolated homes every month, all year long.
I too am now being HOUNDED by the ACS people. It started a few months ago when I threw away the ridiculous survey. I was sent a second one, threw it away then the phone calls started. They told me it was required by Congress, I explained that I found this to be a personal dossier on myself and those that live at my address. The woman was not happy and said they would continue to call, well now they are knocking at my door. I refuse to answer the door the other day they knocked and rang my bell for 15 minutes then left me a note with a field representatives name. This is crazy can they really fine me? I wont tell friends the amount I pay for bills why would I tell the gov, and how I get to work in the morning. This is nuts!
So much for the every new 5 year plan, instead of the constitutional 10 year census. Here it is 2008. Why in the hell do they need to do it now? Funny to think back a month when I was nice enough to answer the postal survey. I suppose it was the precursor to the ACS survey. Big mistake on my part.
It sure looks to me that the survey is geared to really reach out to the Hispanic community – i.e. Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Argentinean, Columbian, Costa Rican, Dominican, Ecuadorean, Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, Peruvian, Salvadoran, from OTHER Spanish-Speaking countries of the Caribbean or Central or South America, or from Spain.
I can see why they need to know what services they will need to increase due to the soon to explode population of legal and illegal aliens that are already overloading our hospitals, police dept., roads, water supply, schools, etc. Don’t want to make them wait too long to have their anchor baby and get on the welfare gravy-train. Bad enough I live in a sanctuary state in Maryland, with a governor who wants to give them free college educations. They will have to take reading classes first. Most of them cannot even read Spanish. When one of them is working on your house and looks like he doesn’t have a clue when his boss is gone, hand him the instructions out of the Home Depot box and tell him to read to Spanish section. See what a blank stare you will get. Sure you saved money, but at what cost? Don’t believe the crap that they are doing jobs that Americans do not want to do. N0 – they are willing to work for less and live with 10 to 20 people in a 2 bedroom house. They need to add a few more pages to the survey for that many, but again many can’t read in the first place. Do the reps provide translators?
bchbum,
I never talked to them. I had 1 message on my answering machine. After that, I disconnected the answering machine. Never called them back. I almost got caught coming home, but I was in the door before I was seen. The rep probably knew I was home. I had set up a camera to watch the the reps outside. It was great fun. I wanted to have the least amount of info gathered on me and the most amount of CB money wasted trying. The CB reps are suppose to gather info in why individuals refuse to answer, so new strategies can be developed to counter act the refusals.
2 months later I received a mail survey from the US Postal Service. Didn’t answer that either.