The Jack-Booted Thug(s) of the Week...

... this one's Keystone Kop-worthy on many levels, but we'll give this week's JBT award to the on-duty officers who responded to the following incident based on their unprofessional attitude towards someone who was a mere former member of their little brotherhood.

A Census worker (who himself ironically is a former New Jersey police officer) is arrested in Puna, Hawaii on a misdemeanor trespassing charge for attempting to give a Census form to an off-duty police officer at the cop's home on the Big Island:

"I handed [the responding officers] the Census and expected them to hand them to this guy and say, 'That's it,'" Haas said. 'They walked over and talked to him for a minute or two, then walked back to me ... and then stuffed it into my chest, and said, 'He doesn't have to enter your Census. He doesn't have to enter any Census. He doesn't have to fill out any of your forms or answer any of your questions. And if I were you, I'd get into my car and get the hell outta here, right now.'

'I turned to him and said, 'Or what?' And he said, 'I'll lock you up.'' And I turned back and said, 'So make your case.' They threw the cuffs on me, took me down to Keaau Police Station and I waited there until my daughter bailed me out.'   Haas' bail was $25."

One the one hand, the off-duty officer has private property rights and (theoretically) the ability to order any person off his lawn whenever he wishes.  On the other, the Federal government also has the Constitutionally-mandated duty to conduct a Census (although certainly not anywhere near their current level of intrusive probing).  Who wins?  Well, we're going to eventually find out:

"The U.S. Attorney's office filed papers Thursday in federal court in Honolulu to take the case of 57-year-old Russell Haas out of 3rd District Court. That will pit the feds against local prosecutors.

'I'm looking to have it kept in state court,' county Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Bridges said Friday."

It appears that even more of our precious tax money is now going to be wasted over this jurisdictional turf war.  Outstanding.

The two points we're taking away from this incident -

1.  Does anyone honestly think that the Census worker would have been the one hauled off to the pokey if the other party to this dispute had turned out to be anyone other than a brother officer?

2.  If multiple police officers somehow believe for whatever reason that they have no obligation to complete their Census form, why should anyone else feel compelled to do so?

Off topic but interesting, at least to me

We had the following (paraphrased) polite conversation this morning with a U.S. Census worker who came to our door:

Worker:  Good morning.  I'm assigned to this block of residences and am following up on households that didn't return their Census form.

Us:  Hello.  I did return the form, and within the time limit specified.

W:  Well, I don't know about any of that, I'm just doing what I'm told.  This will only take 3 or 4 minutes.

U:  Very well, I'll give you the information I supplied on the form.  My name is Douglas Hester and one person lives at this address.

W:  But there are other questions to answer, such as if you're Caucasian or not...

U:  I respectfully decline to answer those queries.  My ethnicity has nothing to do with enumerating the population and everything to do with the gerrymandering of legislative districts, and in any event is none of the Federal government's business.

W:  Um, OK, I just have to let you know that we will probably come back up to five times because of your refusal to participate...

U:  What refusal?  I answered all of the pertinent questions.  Just because I won't play the fishing for unnecessary information game doesn't mean I didn't comply with the Census.  You or your coworkers are free to come back, however I will not supply any other information than what I gave you just now.  Have a nice day.

W:  Goodbye.

Infuriating.  Answer any and all intrusive and probing questions (no matter how irrelevant to the task at hand) that our "betters" decide belong on the Census form, or else you're "refusing" to comply with the process?  Sorry, we're not going to play that game.

The Census Bureau is in possession of all the information they can lawfully require under the Constitution, and therefore have received all the data they're ever going to get from us.  If you've got a problem with that, Rahm Emanuel, White House hack in charge of politicizing a historically apolitical event, you can contact us directly.