I suppose one question that Carol Stream could have asked but didn’t (because scoring points against people is so important to that poster) is “are there circumstances where you would risk jail time/fines for yourself rather than let a crime go unreported?”
And the answer is yes - for example, if I saw someone in imminent danger of death I’d call 911 and damn the consequences. If someone was attacking me I’d call 911 because I’d rather be alive and in jail than dead in the gutter. I would like to believe that under such circumstances I would not be prosecuted, but I would be willing to accept the risk of that for a greater good.
It’s rather like the time when I landed an airplane in someone’s backyard - I risked fines, revocation of my flying privileges, and possibly even jail time back then, but I felt the circumstances warranted an exception to the rule about landing only at airports (which is the law in Illinois, where this occurred). As it happens, the authorities agreed with my decision and I suffered no penalty. That doesn’t mean the little “discussion” the next day with the authorities was pleasant - it wasn’t - and it’s certainly nothing I’d want to do again but if faced with the same or similar circumstances I’d make the same choice, knowing that next time the decision might now be in my favor. If I were to run into circumstances while doing Census work that would conflict with their confidentiality rules possible consequences would certainly weigh in my decision making process, but would not in all circumstances rule out alerting authorities. The circumstances, however, would have to be VERY severe - i.e. imminent danger of death type stuff.
The awareness that action Y has consequence X will not necessarily rule out action Y on my part given circumstances where I feel action Y is either the best course or the least bad choice on my part, though obviously the more severe X is the less likely I am to perform Y.
“Could” face prosecution is a world of difference from “would” face prosecution, as Auntie Broomie claimed. In fact, is there any evidence that a Census worker has been prosecuted for reporting an emergency situation in the course of her duties?
I didn’t bother with you because it’s obvious. Bricker often comes off as intelligent and cognizant of the world around him. You have always been a troll, and one of the stupidest form.
No, I’m just one of the many here who see you as who you are: a hate-filled person without much more than genetics to support your claim for humanity. I’d call you a monster, but that would be supportive of your evil insanity while not describing exactly how insignificant you really are. You are a nothing, both here and in real life. I’m only wasting a couple of minutes on you because I have been slow to fall asleep lately.
I can’t find anything on Google that isn’t about Sparkman.
I’m through arguing this with you, because at this point, you’re arguing to argue. My point was twofold: That Census workers can be prosecuted for reporting emergencies, and that the Census culture actively discourages doing so for fear of being prosecuted. That probably wouldn’t stop the average Census worker from reporting a fire or violent crime, but there are a lot who wouldn’t.
One other thing. Most of the Census work is conducted once every ten years by a very large number of people who work for a few weeks to a couple of months. It’s not like there are hordes of Census workers out on the street every day of every year. So you’re also looking at the odds of a Census worker being at the scene of a fire or violent crime, which are infinitesimal at best, so therefore all of this is just semantics.
Except, of course, that in post 161 I very clearly state that in matters of life or death I would report the problem and damn the consequences. In other words, you are lying about what I said. Not just distorting it, but outright lying about it.
Which proves you have a vendetta against me. It’s not simply that you disagree with me, but that you will resort to outright falsehood in order condemn me.
The irony is that most of the alarming thing Perry flags are more true of the previous administration than of the current one: the Constitution being trampled, a faltering economy increasingly dependent on foreign lenders, a “war” on the intelligence community, weakening American troop strength, multiple wars…
Fortunately I have a bit more faith in the military than I do in Perry’s right-wing wankery. An America in which the military stages a coup is not the America the military have sworn to protect. They don’t have to personally like Obama but they can wait him out. Presidents change; America perseveres.
