US Census worker found hung, 'fed' scrawled on body

[Col. Quisp]

x

[StarmanSkye]

From the Michael Steele e-mail Battleshipkropotkin cited:


--quote--
The trend illustrates that urban strongholds, which favor Democrats, continue to lose population to more decentralized areas in states more likely to lean Republican.

If the Democrats and their friends at ACORN have their way, the Census will only "estimate" state populations and therefore be subject to political calculations. And surely their estimate will be far higher than the actual number of people, and voters, present.

We must not let the Democrats and their radical leftist allies falsify the U.S. Census and manipulate elections in their favor. Our democracy, and the principle of "One Person, One Vote" are in jeopardy.

Please help the Republican Party's effort to spread the word about the Obama Democrats' misuse of power and plans to end free and fair elections. Support our effort to get the word out about this threat and ensure an accurate, non-partisan Census (by donating etc.)
--end--

Abso-
Fucking-
Lutely-

idiotic!

I mean, especially for the GOP to be pointing fingers about suggested Demo vote fraud when the evidence for outright, massive coordinated election fraud that grossly manipulated at least 3 major election cycles notably skewing electronic tabulation results for Bush, TWICE ...

It boggles.
The.
Mind.

I sorta wish the Dems & Repubs would destroy each other already, to clear the stage and allow transition to an authentic multi-party & inclusive participatory democracy.

This current contrived left-right/liberal-conservative divide is corrosive and dysfunctional, serving the PTB just fine.

And I'm SO disgustingly embarrassed when Obama is confused as somehow being a leftist.
Like, Whaaa?????

The quickest way to demoralize and disenfranchise Progressives is to equate them with Prez 'Change' Obama.

Is there no SHAME????

[beeline]

Going on memory and google maps, I'd say it was someplace on either I-64 or I-65, we were heading north back to PA from Memphis and Graceland....also on that trip, right outside Memphis, we stopped at a Subway to get lunch. We ordered, and when the girl that took our order turned around, my African-American girlfriend pointed out the swastika tattooed on the back of her neck! She was surprisingly friendly however, and we no evidence of expectoration in our food.

[lightningBugout]

Going on memory and google maps, I'd say it was someplace on either I-64 or I-65, we were heading north back to PA from Memphis and Graceland....also on that trip, right outside Memphis, we stopped at a Subway to get lunch. We ordered, and when the girl that took our order turned around, my African-American girlfriend pointed out the swastika tattooed on the back of her neck! She was surprisingly friendly however, and we no evidence of expectoration in our food.

There's an underling white mechanic at my latino-owned motorcycle shop who has the following tattooed on the back of his head (plus white power crap on his leg):

"hate is a gift"

[marshwren]

Perhaps it's just in the name (this from Georgia, via AJC); must be something in the red dirt...

http://www.ajc.com/news/clayton/felony- ... 44818.html

Felony charges for Cracker Barrel assault suspectBy Megan Matteucci
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A man charged with attacking an Army reservist outside a Clayton County Cracker Barrel is back in jail and facing felony charges.

Enlarge photo Morrow Police Morrow police arrested Troy Dale West of Poulan after reviewing a video surveillance tape and talking to customers. He was charged with battery, disorderly conduct and cruelty to children.
Troy Dale West Jr., 47, was indicted Wednesday on charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, first degree cruelty to children, two counts of battery and two counts of disorderly conduct, Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said.

Clayton County Superior Court Judge Geronda V. Carter issued a warrant for West Wednesday morning and then denied him bond.

West is charged with beating and kicking Tashawnea Hill as she walked out of the Morrow restaurant on Sept. 9. Hill's 7-year-old daughter watched as West assaulted her mother while yelling racial slurs, police said.
According to the indictment, West used his "shoe-clad foot and hands" to cause serious bodily injury to Hill.
West also maliciously caused "cruel and excessive mental pain" to the child by assaulting and battering her mother in front of her while "using profane and vulgar language," the indictment reads.

About 150 people, including NAACP members and other civil rights activists, rallied at the courthouse Wednesday, urging the judge to deny bond for West.

Earlier this month, a Magistrate Court judge dismissed the only felony charge West faced and released him from jail.
That's when Lawson stepped in and launched an investigation into the crime, saying that it appeared to be more severe.
"Based upon a review of witness statements and the video, an indictment was presented to the grand jury and they rendered a true bill," Lawson said Wednesday.
The result means if convicted, West could face a decade in prison.

Cracker Barrel issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, saying the business is "pleased" the grand jury returned the indictment and will continue to work with the district attorney. Cracker Barrel is encouraged to know that its cooperation with authorities helped secure these indictments because Cracker Barrel wants to see justice served," the statement reads. "The company has provided the district attorney with surveillance video as part of this case. The video shows how Cracker Barrel came to the victim’s aid, and that a Cracker Barrel manager put himself in harm’s way to provide aid to the victim."

Cracker Barrel said company policy prohibits the release of the video to anyone but law enforcement. The district attorney said she is not releasing the surveillance video, which could be used as evidence in West's trial.

The attack occurred as Hill and her daughter were leaving the restaurant and West was walking inside. Hill told West to be careful after the door almost hit her child, police said.
West became enraged and then attacked the woman, Morrow police Capt. James Callaway said.
"She kept saying, ‘Sir, I'm a United States soldier, don't do this, ‘ " he said.
The FBI is also investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
West runs Troy's Paint & Body & Auto Savage in Poulan in south Georgia, where he also lives.

[Jeff]

Hanged Census Worker Found Naked, Bound

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 25, 2009

Filed at 9:20 p.m. ET

BIG CREEK, Ky. (AP) -- A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago.

Authorities have also said the word ''fed'' was scrawled with a felt-tip pen across 51-year-old Bill Sparkman's chest, but they have released very few details about the case and said investigators have not determined if it was a homicide, suicide or an accident.

Federal, state and local authorities have refused to say if Sparkman was at work going to door-to-door for census surveys in the time before his death, but his Census identification tag was found taped to his body.

Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who made the gruesome discovery on Sept. 12.

''The only thing he had on was a pair of socks,'' Weaver said. ''And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something.''

''And they even had duct tape around his neck. And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder.''

...

The scene left Weaver without a doubt how Sparkman died.

''He was murdered,'' he said. ''There's no doubt.''

Weaver said the body was about 50 yards from a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. He said Sparkman's clothes were in the bed of the truck.

''His tailgate was down,'' Weaver said. ''I thought he could have been killed somewhere else and brought there and hanged up for display, or they actually could have killed him right there. It was a bad, bad scene.''

...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09 ... ml?_r=2&hp

[Percival]

Hanged Census Worker Found Naked, Bound

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 25, 2009

Filed at 9:20 p.m. ET

BIG CREEK, Ky. (AP) -- A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago.

Authorities have also said the word ''fed'' was scrawled with a felt-tip pen across 51-year-old Bill Sparkman's chest, but they have released very few details about the case and said investigators have not determined if it was a homicide, suicide or an accident.

Federal, state and local authorities have refused to say if Sparkman was at work going to door-to-door for census surveys in the time before his death, but his Census identification tag was found taped to his body.

Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who made the gruesome discovery on Sept. 12.

''The only thing he had on was a pair of socks,'' Weaver said. ''And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something.''

''And they even had duct tape around his neck. And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder.''

...

The scene left Weaver without a doubt how Sparkman died.

''He was murdered,'' he said. ''There's no doubt.''

Weaver said the body was about 50 yards from a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. He said Sparkman's clothes were in the bed of the truck.

''His tailgate was down,'' Weaver said. ''I thought he could have been killed somewhere else and brought there and hanged up for display, or they actually could have killed him right there. It was a bad, bad scene.''

...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09 ... ml?_r=2&hp

Yea because these sort of things happen by accident all the time.

[pepsified thinker]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1001/p02s13-usju.html

Why police are keeping quiet on Census worker Sparkman death

Just because Census worker Bill Sparkman was found hanging from a tree with the word 'fed' written on his chest doesn't mean he was murdered in an antigovernment act. Sparkman died in an insular county of moonshiners and pot-growers, and police are wary of taking a wrong step.

ATLANTA - Three weeks after part-time Census worker Bill Sparkman's body was found hung from a Kentucky tree, the word "fed" scrawled across his chest with a red felt-tip pen, law-enforcement authorities have yet to announce any leads, suspects, or potential motives.

For a public already inundated with broken-up terror plots, antigovernment sentiment, and partisan pundits ready to use the case for their own ideological ends, the lack of any word from police has led to rampant speculation about why he died.

Mr. Sparkman's son, Josh, can't understand why police are reluctant to call it a homicide.

But the peculiarities of the case appear to be making it difficult for police to find a quick answer to the riddle of Sparkman's death.

Most obviously, Kentucky police may still be unearthing clues. But it is also possible that they are taking a page straight out of a Henning Mankell police procedural: letting the mystery loosen lips in tight-knit and secretive Clay County, an old moonshiner's haunt and a prime pot-growing area currently in the midst of harvest season.

The stakes are high, especially since FBI special agent David Beyer says cases of Census workers being killed in the line of duty are "very, very infrequent." Office of Personnel Management director John Berry says, "We will come down on these perpetrators as hell hath no fury."

Despite the "fed" clue, many who study Kentucky's rural backroads are loath to make a direct connection between the death and current anti-government – and even anti-Obama – sentiments.

"There's a combination of possible factors: marijuana, moonshine, meth, public corruption investigations, plus all the heated rhetoric about big government," says Al Cross, a former reporter who now directs the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in Lexington, Ky.

"Obama could have been a contributing factor or a tipping point, but I would be surprised," he adds. "There are just too many other elements in local history that indicate otherwise. For one, this would be the first killing of an outsider in Clay County."

Investigators seem to think that something at the crime scene doesn't seem quite right.

For example: Though Mr. Sparkman was hung from the neck and asphyxiation was the official cause of death, his feet were touching the ground when he was found.

"We're not responding to any of the speculation, the innuendo, or the rumors that are floating around," says Don Trosper, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police, reflecting the views of Det. Donald Wilson, the lead investigator in the case. "The Kentucky State Police concerns itself with facts."

Yet Mr. Trosper agrees that the case is "perplexing" in that police haven't been able to rule out any of the three possibilities: suicide, accidental death or homicide.

For some observers, the lynching image, combined with a summer of Tea Parties founded on a state's rights tradition deeply rooted in the South makes it hard to rule out an antigovernment motive. With US officials reporting an uptick in homegrown radical activity, some of it violent, they say the link appears even more likely.

"This was such a symbolic and personal anger that I'm led to lean towards someone who has severe antigovernment feelings, perhaps someone seeking revenge," domestic terrorism expert Brian Levin told CNN's "AC360."

But it's clear that law enforcement hasn't yet endorsed the notion of Appalachian bogeymen threatening government workers. In fact, the appearance of antigovernment bias in the death could be a smokescreen to cover up what really happened, says Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox.

Moreover, the Times-Tribune in Corbin, Ky., quoted a local law-enforcement source who urged reporters to look into the circumstances of the death of actor David Carradine, who died of apparent auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Coworkers and a retired State Police officer who knew Sparkman say they find it difficult to believe that the mild-mannered Eagle Scout could have committed suicide or been involved in something that led to an accidental death.

Sparkman, a 50-something substitute teacher, moved to southeast Kentucky to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. He recently served as a substitute teacher in Laurel County and earned extra money as a Census field worker, according to the Associated Press

He had been a part-time Census worker since 2003 and had been working in the area on routine surveys the Census bureau conducts for various government agencies, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

One concern is that the official silence could mean that the trail has grown cold. Secrets can be well-kept among the the close-knit clans in rural parts of Appalachia, where even an outwardly harmless man like Sparkman could have been perceived as a threat, or even a Drug Enforcement Admininstration informant.

But the silence could also be a strategy to control the investigation, says Mr. Cross of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

"I almost always sympathize with investigators in these circumstances," he says. "I'll go back to the [former Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld quote: 'There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns,' and any sort of information [given out] that points in one direction or another might compromise the investigation."

[Jeff]

Sources: Suicide probed in census worker case

Kentucky state police commander says cause of death still undetermined

updated 2:34 p.m. PT, Thurs., Nov . 5, 2009

WASHINGTON - Investigators probing the death of a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest increasingly doubt he was killed because of his government job and are pursuing the possibility he committed suicide, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said no final conclusions have been made in the case. In recent weeks, however, investigators have grown more skeptical that 51-year-old Bill Sparkman died at the hands of someone angry at the federal government.

The officials said investigators continue to look closely at suicide as a possible cause of Sparkman's death for a number of reasons. There were no defensive wounds on Sparkman's body, and while his hands were bound with duct-tape, they were still somewhat mobile, suggesting he could have manipulated the rope, the officials said.

...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33685125/ns/us_news-life/

[barracuda]

But then how'd he do the duct tape around his hands if... oh, forget it.

[Col. Quisp]

x

[Jeff]

Probe Into Ky. Census Worker's Death Concludes

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 24, 2009

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Authorities are about to release findings from an investigation into the death of a census worker found hanging from a tree with the word ''fed'' scrawled on his chest.

Kentucky State Police Lt. David Jude says a news conference is set for 2 p.m. EST at the agency's crime lab in Frankfort.

Federal and state investigators who have been working the case since September haven't yet announced whether Bill Sparkman's death was a homicide, suicide or accident.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11 ... anged.html

[Col. Quisp]

x

[Jeff]

Census Worker Hanged Self, Police Say

Josh Sparkman said he was convinced his father was killed, in part because there were several items missing and apparently stolen from his car. Police have declined to comment about any of the items removed from the car except for a census computer, which was not found although its case was.

"If it's deemed suicide, there's no point in even looking at insurance," the son said. "There's no such thing as suicide insurance. The money is not the concern. I just want to know what happened to my dad."

[Wombaticus Rex]

Fascinating. I wonder who was sending that particular message, and why it has to be scrubbed off the wall so thoroughly.

I feel terrible for his son, standing in the middle of such an obvious whitewash.