More Rightwing Violence

[prole]

 

Big surprise here. Sick fucks.

 

AP source: Hanged Census Worker Had 'Fed' On Chest

 

MANCHESTER, Ky. – A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

 

Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write "fed" on his chest.

 

The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending.

 

Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.

 

"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved — and that's part of the investigation — and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.

 

Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.

 

Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated Press her son was an Eagle scout who moved to the area to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. She said he later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County and supplemented that income as a Census worker.

 

She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death — they told her the body was decomposed — and haven't yet released his body for burial. "I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.

 

Henrie Sparkman said her son's death is a mystery to her.

 

"I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point," she said. "Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion."

 

Gilbert Acciardo, a retired Kentucky state trooper who directs an after-school program at the elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher, said he had warned Sparkman to be careful when he did his Census work.

 

"I told him on more than one occasion, based on my years in the state police, 'Mr. Sparkman, when you go into those counties, be careful because people are going to perceive you different than they do elsewhere,'" Acciardo said.

 

"Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there," Acciardo said.

 

Acciardo said he became suspicious when Sparkman didn't show up for work at the after-school program for two days and went to police. Authorities immediately initiated an investigation, he said.

 

"He was such an innocent person," Acciardo said. "I hate to say that he was naive, but he saw the world as all good, and there's a lot of bad in the world."

 

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.

 

Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a month.

 

Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.

 

Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said.

 

The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but it has thousands of field workers doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees to locate hard-to-find residents.

 

The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.

 

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."

 

Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."

 

Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in other parts of the country.

 

"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast Community College.

 

The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing, carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.

 

A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce environmental regulations, but the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't share data on instances of violence against employees.

 

From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent incidents against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service workers soared from 55 to 290.

 

Ruch said that after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, "we kept getting reports from employees that attacks and intimidation against federal employees had not diminished, and that's why we've been tracking them."

 

"Even as illustrated in town hall meetings today, there is a distinct hostility in a large segment of the population toward people who work for their government," Ruch said.

 

___

[JosephH]

Proof Glenn and Rush are right on target drumming the lowest common denominator beat...

[j_b]

Of course:

 

White supremacists to rally in Illinois town over bus attack

BELLEVILLE, Ill — Two rallies are planned Saturday in response to a recent attack on school bus -- one linked to several white supremacy groups and a counter protest hosted by a reverend.

 

Those calling the attack on a white student by two black students a hate crime are planning a protest for 11 a.m. Saturday at the St. Clair County Courthouse in Belleville.

 

In response, the Rev. John Curry, of Conqueror's Christian Center in Belleville, is organizing a silent peace rally across the street from the rally. Those participating expect to hold signs that say "We love you" and "no more us and them."

[tvashtarkatena]

You can buy a 12 gauge for $109.99 at Outdoor Emporium.

[Choada_Boy]

12 Sporks for a dollar at WalMart. I'm surprised Fairweather's cousin's don't shoot the mailman in KY.

[prole]

 

Min. 0:21 says it all.

 

[video:youtube]

[Fairweather]

Anyway, my point is that under some historical conditions, violence may gain legitimacy as a political tactic when it is widely accepted by a population as part of a broader movement to effect a particular change.

 

I am in agreement with you that Leftists assassinating individuals would, at this point, not be very effective and would do nothing to address underlying structures (from the Right may be a different story). This is not to say that violence of this kind wouldn't be (or isn't) catalytic under different conditions. Revolutions, slave revolts, anticolonial struggles, sabotage come to mind. Suggesting that violence is unacceptable under any conditions obfuscates historical processes by which things have come to be . . .

[Fairweather]

We need a bounty on Limbaugh's head.

Limbaugh is not my "opponent": He and his ilk are vermin worthy of extinction, and I mean that literally. Consider it a preemptive strike in the coming ignorance and stupidity fueled civil war. It would be like shooting Hitler in 1935.

[Fairweather]

I guess we don't really know, at this point, who killed this poor guy. But based on the commentary posted recently here by you and Choada, I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of you.

[prole]

I guess we don't really know, at this point, who killed this poor guy. But based on the commentary posted recently here by you and Choada, I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of you.

 

Yeah, keep yuckin' it up while your ideological brethren keep taking the country down the toilet. Hilarious.

[Fairweather]

Anyway, my point is that under some historical conditions, violence may gain legitimacy as a political tactic when it is widely accepted by a population as part of a broader movement to effect a particular change.

 

I am in agreement with you that Leftists assassinating individuals would, at this point, not be very effective and would do nothing to address underlying structures (from the Right may be a different story). This is not to say that violence of this kind wouldn't be (or isn't) catalytic under different conditions. Revolutions, slave revolts, anticolonial struggles, sabotage come to mind. Suggesting that violence is unacceptable under any conditions obfuscates historical processes by which things have come to be . . .

[prole]

Yeah, I wrote it. Another one of your smoking guns? It simply states that violence under certain conditions can be a catalyst for social change and under certain historical conditions may gain legitimacy as a tactic. It's an objective statement. Can you deny it? Would I need to provide examples? 9/11, the French Resistance, the sinking of the Maine, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the Battle of the Bulge, firing on Ft. Sumter?

 

That I am not personally a pacifist (there are things that are worth fighting and dying for) precludes my capacity to condemn an idiotic, reactionary, brutal political lynching, mutilation, and murder of an innocent? How exactly do you make the leap? I am waiting.

[prole]

Still waiting, you pussified shitheel.

[billcoe]

Still waiting, you pussified shitheel.

 

At least he has the courage to use his real name.

________________________________________________________________

 

 

My thoughts are that anyone who does this kind of thing to a Census worker, obviously is an extreme dumbass and isn't aware that at the root of our political system, we need to determine who lives where for apportionment reasons. This kind of random violent thing is beyond stupidity, and is condemned by all in our society equally except for a few toothless goobers too stupid or mean to be a factor in the discussion.

[StevenSeagal]

I guess we don't really know, at this point, who killed this poor guy. But based on the commentary posted recently here by you and Choada, I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of you.

 

 

We really should withhold judgment, indeed, for it's just as likely the perps are Obama's agents trying to spark conflict with a modern day Krystallnacht!

[prole]

This kind of random violent thing is beyond stupidity

 

This is anything but "random". It's part of a larger context of increasing radicalization and use of violence on the part of the American Right and is being stoked by racial fearmongering and redbaiting through its "media" outlets.

[billcoe]

We really should withhold judgment, indeed, for it's just as likely the perps are Obama's agents trying to spark conflict with a modern day Krystallnacht!

At least you post under your real name.....

___________________________________________________________________

This is anything but "random". It's part of a larger context of increasing radicalization and use of violence on the part of the American Right and is being stoked by racial fearmongering and redbaiting through its "media" outlets.

 

I've been around long enough to know that this is the way the "Loyal opposition" works and always has. Republicans (maybe not Eisenhower) have similar critics and criticisms. Ask anyone named George Bush......

[tvashtarkatena]

Hey, uh, sorry guys...that census worker was a real tool. Before I knew it, my buddies were stringin him up...

Edited September 24, 2009 by tvashtarkatena

[StevenSeagal]

We really should withhold judgment, indeed, for it's just as likely the perps are Obama's agents trying to spark conflict with a modern day Krystallnacht!

At least you post under your real name.....

 

Thanks!

 

 

[archenemy]

I post under my real name too.

[billcoe]

Every democratic philosopher since the beginning has stressed the overwhelming need for an educated populace to make the system work. We're not fitting the bill. California's fucked for the simple reason that the population wants services, has voted for them through initiatives but doesn't want to pay taxes and has voted them down through the same process.

 

Here's something we can both agree on. The "we're not filling the bill" part.....maybe not full agreement as we can do better, but everything else, same page. It's one of the reasons I vote no on every measure which will change the state constitution, no matter how good it sounds. So I know that officially makes me a cranky old fuck...so what?

 

"Just say no", it's a screwy slogan that finally works in this application.

 

Bet we agree on this as well: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/910042/Climbing_Benediction#Post910042

[prole]

_

__________________________________________________________________

This is anything but "random". It's part of a larger context of increasing radicalization and use of violence on the part of the American Right and is being stoked by racial fearmongering and redbaiting through its "media" outlets.

 

I've been around long enough to know that this is the way the "Loyal opposition" works and always has. Republicans (maybe not Eisenhower) have similar critics and criticisms. Ask anyone named George Bush......

 

Huh?

Edited September 24, 2009 by prole

[billcoe]

Huh?

 

I'll try again. 2 short versions:

 

Same-same, but different.

 

-or-

 

 

Same as it ever was...

 

...better?

[billcoe]

.....the more things change the more they stay the same...?

[archenemy]

Now that fucking song is stuck in my head