The case between census workers and residents has reached a peak in the state of Hawaii. In an attempt to get a resident to fill out a cenus form, census worker Russell Haas was arrested.
The case has made it to federal court and is the latest example of conflicts between census workers and residents who don’t want to be bothered. Haas, a 57 year old former New Jersey Police officer claims that he was just doing his job. “I was trained to encourage everybody to be in the Census,” said Haas.
Census workers have been facing much more hostility this year than they have in previous times. It has been reported that there were 436 incidents involving assaults or threats against its 635,000 enumerators through June 29, more than double the incidents in 2000.
It has been speculated that the increase in hostility is due to the rise of the anti-government outlook that Americans have adopted in the past year.
Celeste Jiminez, a worker at the Los Angeles Regional Census Center is optimistic about the outlook on the Census and claims that they intend to finish their count by the end of August.
