May 28th was the last I heard from Census Bureau New York Representative Edward Marcus. Today, after nearly 2 months, I decided to give the New York office a call after reading that you can find out whether your address has been selected for the American Community Survey.

After pressing zero to talk with an attendant I told the person that I wished to confirm that my address had been selected. I was told I’d be forwarded to another department and that I needed to ask for the supervisor. When the  other department picked up I told the person I needed to talk with the supervisor and was asked for my name. After a quarter second of contemplation I said, “no.” I’m sure it came off a little harsh. The guy seemed a little taken back and hesitated for at least a second and just said “OK” and put me on hold. Next time its “I’d rather not.”

The supervisor picked up after maybe 10 seconds and I repeated my request. She asked for my county, then my zip, and then my full address. It appeared that the address did not come up as after she had entered the information she asked when I had been contacted. I told her the last letter which I had received was the end of May. She looked up May and confirmed that I had been selected. I then asked her what was next. I hadn’t received anything since that time. I was told that since I was part of the May, 2008 sample and I’d not gotten back to the representative that it didn’t matter any more. I ask: “So that’s it?” and she said: “Yes, the data would no longer be useful.” Unfortunately I forgot to ask about the fine which USC Title 13 clearly says I am to receive for not participating. Her demeanor was such that it seems that the fine hadn’t even been considered by her. She didn’t mention it and when I got my answer she was ready to end the conversation. Perhaps she’s a cold hearted bitch and didn’t mention it because she likes the idea of me being broadsided with a max $5,000 fine and she’s going to contact our friend Edward to let him know I called.

Assuming that’s not the case it looks like the census isn’t so mandatory after all. You just need to wait them out. I originally was going to call Mr. Marcus to ask if the supposed obligation to respond to the ACS had been waived or if I should be expecting a fine. I’ve sort of gotten my answer though it’s not 100%. Perhaps I still will. I’d be nice to have a Census Bureau bureaucrat tell me that all the hubbub and wasted ink and paper threating to fine me was just that.

At 3:09PM today I receive a call from the head of the other family who lives above me in the building I rent. I’m informed that a representative of the Census Bureau had called them at 9:30PM Saturday night. Both on their cell phone and land line. The woman, apparently not our friend Edward Marcus, asked for them to provide her with information about me on my behalf. I had previously asked them that in case this were to occur not to even give them my name. I was told they hadn’t but will have to confirm this evening when I speak with them about the incident. I hope that not even my first name was given though it’s possible that it could have easily came out while discussing me. Worst case would be a last name.

My plan currently is to suggest that if a Census Bureau representative contacts them again to inform the rep  that they will not speak on my behalf and not to call back. The neighbor has the rep’s number so if they are told not to call back and do I will call and tell them to leave my neighbor alone.

I need to do some searching through the laws to see if what they are doing is legal. Not that they care I’m sure.

Find here: census_papers_2008-05-28.pdf

Today as I walked up to my home after work I noted the all too familiar U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau envelope taped to my door. Two in two days. I must be important for Mr. Marcus/the Census Bureau/the US taxpayers to be spending the money on gas to deliver this envelope. You’d think the USPS would be more efficient. In any case…

This envelope instead of “Important information from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce regarding your residence” being printed on the front [page 6] it has “Updated penalty information.” Inside it contains no trifold pamphlet [page 4,5] and no form letter explaining why I should need to participate [page 1]. What it does contain is another copy of the “Request for Appointment” note [page 3] with better centering of “Edward Marcus” and “201-927-4763″ and the same text in the remarks box. It also contains the print out of the law indicating the Title 18 US Code which overrides the Title 13 fine [page 2]. That’s it. However the print out is structured a bit differently. I’ll try to reproduce it below in HTML and you can compare it to yesterday’s. I’ll scan these tomorrow for archival purposes and true comparison.

Please cooperate in our survey which is helpful to determining the requirements of the households in your area.

Every resident of the United States is obligated to participate in this survey and there are penalties involved for not co-operating.

The American Community Survey is conducted under the authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 193, and response is mandatory. According to Section 221, persons who do not respond shall be fined not more than $100.

Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559, in effect amends Title 13 U.S.C. Section 221 by changing the fine for anyone over 18 years old who refuses or willfully neglects to complete the questionnaire or answer questions posed by census takers from a fine of not more than $100 to not more than $5,000.

The U.S. Census Bureau may use this information only for statistical purposes. We can assure you that your confidentiality is protected. Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential. Any Census Bureau employee who violates these provisions is subject to a fine of up to $250,000 or a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.

Wouldn’t “from a fine not more than $100 to not more than $5,000″ be worded better as “from a max fine of $100 to max $5,000.”

Today I came home to another personally delivered envelope from Mr. Marcus on behalf of the Census Bureau. It looks like it was placed in the second floor’s mailbox and they noticed it addressed to “Occupants of: APT 1.” The “APT 1″ written in pen. It was the same envelope Edward delivered the first time and that he failed to give me on when we had our face to face chat. It has the same US Census 2010 pamphlet as before [page 7 & 8] and the same general warning letter [page 3] but as you’d expect there are some differences. If you look at page 2 there is the Request for Appointment slip. On the one received today the top section is again blank, the Census Bureau Representative and Telephone number are the same but the remarks say:

I am following up on the survey you received in the mail and did not return. I have been to your home and you have refused to allow me to interview you either in person or on the phone. Title 13 of the US Code imposes Penalties for non response to this survey. It is a very brief interview you can do on the phone by calling me. If you do not reach me leave a phone number & a time to call back.

In addition there is a new page which reads:

Please cooperate in our survey which is helpful to determining the requirements of households in your area.

Every resident of the United States is obligated to participate in this survey and there are penalties involved for not co-operating.

The American Community Survey is conducted under the authority of Title 13, United States Code, Sections 141 and 193, and response is mandatory. According to Section 221, persons who do not respond shall be fined not more than $100. Title 18 U.S.C. Section 3571 and Section 3559, in effect amends Title 13 U.S.C. Section 221 by changing the fine for anyone over 18 years old who refuses or willfully neglects to complete the questionnaire or answer questions posed by census takers from a fine of not more than $100 to not more than $5,000. The U.S. Census Bureau may use this information only for statistical purposes. We can assure you that your confidentiality is protected. Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential. Any Census Bureau employee who violates these provisions is subject to a fine up to $250,000 or a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.

Tricksy they are. This is why the whole “ignorance of the law is no excuse” statement is absolutely ridiculous. They thugs in Washington DC obviously wanted to raise fines so instead of going through existing law and replacing values they go and add a new one that trumps the old values unless the law explicitly says it doesn’t. So this TITLE 18 > PART II > CHAPTER 227 > SUBCHAPTER C > § 3571 Sentence of fine reads:

(a) In General.- A defendant who has been found guilty of an offense may be sentenced to pay a fine.

(b) Fines for Individuals.- Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, an individual who has been found guilty of an offense may be fined not more than the greatest of-

(1) the amount specified in the law setting forth the offense;

(2) the applicable amount under subsection (d) of this section;

(3) for a felony, not more than $250,000;

(4) for a misdemeanor resulting in death, not more than $250,000;

(5) for a Class A misdemeanor that does not result in death, not more than $100,000;

(6) for a Class B or C misdemeanor that does not result in death, not more than $5,000; or

(7) for an infraction, not more than $5,000.

(e) Special Rule for Lower Fine Specified in Substantive Provision.- If a law setting forth an offense specifies no fine or a fine that is lower than the fine otherwise applicable under this section and such law, by specific reference, exempts the offense from the applicability of the fine otherwise applicable under this section, the defendant may not be fined more than the amount specified in the law setting forth the offense.

According to Section 3559 since in Title 13, Section 221 there is no classifying letter grade and no imprisonment is authorized, refusal or willfully neglecting to complete the questionnaire is an infraction. According to Section 3571 as shown above an infraction can carry a fine of not more than $5,000.

So it appears that ol’ Ed is trying to intimidate me. I had told him prior I was well aware of the Census law and knew my fine was not more than $100. Well it seems my criminal code knowledge was lacking. Not that this changes anything. In a similar case where two individuals, Russell Kanning and David Ridley, had been issued a fine from the federal government for distribution of handbills and refused to pay the fine they were imprisoned for a period of time. Dave for 4 days I believe and I’ve not yet tracked down Russell’s length though I’ve sent Dave an email asking for the numbers and any info he feels is relevant. You can find his story here, here, here and here.

I found TITLE 13 > CHAPTER 7 > SUBCHAPTER III > § 241 Evidence interesting:

When any request for information, made by the Secretary or other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof, is made by registered or certified mail or telegram, the return receipt therefor or other written receipt thereof shall be prima facie evidence of an official request in any prosecution under such section.

Does this mean that the hand delivered requests can not be prima facie evidence? Not that they need to worry as they sent me two booklets, a postcard and a letter which they likely have receipts for or could make up if need be.

Also interesting is I finally talked with the occupants of the other apartment in my building and found that they had been contacted by the Census Bureau separately and filled out theirs and returned it several weeks ago. They also informed me that they had been looking for me (our friend Edward Marcus I’m sure) but had forgotten to tell me. What are the odds that both apartment addresses would be chosen or are they just lazy?

I’ll provide a PDF of the new documents tomorrow.

At around 6:05PM today, May 17th 2008, Edward Marcus rang my door bell. I unfortunately wasn’t prepared and was unable to record the conversation.

He told me he was here because “the Census Bureau had sent me a booklet that was never returned” and now he just needed to come in and ask me some questions. I stood in the doorway holding open the secondary screen door with my right hand and placed my left hand up on the door frame so he wouldn’t have any opening for which he could walk in. The conversation was very repetitive. He kept telling me that I needed to provide the info and I refused.

He told me “you can have your libertarian beliefs or whatever but you’re obligated by law to answer these questions.” I told him I was well aware of the law and that I had no plans of providing him any of the desired information. Eventually he asked me just to give him my name so he could “close out the account.” After several attempts to get him to explain exactly what it meant by “closing it out” he told me that when asking questions the person can decline to answer particular questions. That the main office wanted to know why I wasn’t answering their questions. I pieced together what he wanted to do eventually which was to get my name so he could just fill out blanks in all questions. After realizing he was trying to deceive me… trying to trick me into answering the questions I became all the more stubborn.

He again told me I was obligated not only as a citizen (which I’m not since the courts have ruled the State has no obligation to protect me, therefore I’m by definition a subject) but as a person living within the United States to provide the requested information. That it was the law. That it’s necessary. That it’s only every 10 years. That it’d only take a few minutes. That it was constitutional. That it was anonymous. It wasn’t some Big Brother thing. It was used by my congressmen to help allocate money for the roads and schools.

He became agitated and started telling me there were consequences for not participating. Said that they could send more bureaucrats to my home at night to try to get me to answer. That they could request me to show up to the New York office to explain why I am refusing to participate. That they could fine me. It seemed Ed wasn’t very familiar with the legal consequences. He said they could fine me thousands of dollars and perhaps worse. I told him I was well versed in the law and that Title 13, Section 221 says that I could be fined upwards of $100 for refusing to participate and $500 for lying. He then admitted he wasn’t aware of the exact punishments and just knew that he could be fined $250,000 for misusing the census data which he collects. That’s actually not true. It’s “not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.” I knew that but I wasn’t interested in arguing with him about that too. I did notice however he was carrying the same hand delivered envelope which I received last weekend so I opened it and showed him where in the letter it said I was obligated and made sure he noticed that I had gotten the title and section correct.

After about 10 minutes Ed seemed to have had enough. I had made it abundantly clear that I was not going to provide him with the data he desired. I wasn’t going to give him my name and was fully aware of the consequences for doing so. He turned to leave and I thanked him making sure I knew my obligations and the consequences and wished him a good night. He didn’t seem to acknowledge my statements and just got into his SUV, put away his laptop, and drove off.

He didn’t leave me with the letter he had for me, didn’t say whether or not he would be coming back, if someone else would be visiting or if I’d be receiving a notice to appear in front of some bureaucrat at the regional office. I’m having fun with this whole situation… I hope they continue harassing me.