Census worker lynched in KY

Yet another act of right wing political violence?

On September 12th, the body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year old part-time Census worker and teacher was found in a remote area of the Daniel Boone National Forest, in Clay County, in rural southeast Kentucky. Sparkman reportedly had died on the morning of the day before.

According to an AP report published yesterday, the FBI is working with state police to determine whether this was a homicide, as is believed, and if so, whether it was motivated by anti-government sentiment. An anonymous law enforcement official told the AP that the man was found hanging from a tree with the word “fed” written on his chest. (The source didn’t specify the instrument that had been used to write the word. MSNBC has said several times today that it was scrawled in marker, but has not sourced that information.) It’s a federal crime to attack a federal worker because of his job, or while he’s carrying it out.

The leak to the AP about the word “Fed” has sparked fevered speculation that Sparkman may have been murdered as an expression of anti-government — and even specifically anti-Census — sentiment, of the kind ginned up by conservatives of late. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) said earlier this year that she would not fill fully out her census form, which is a crime.

The cops are also entertaining an alternative theory that Mr. Sparkman accidentally stumbled on a meth lab or pot field, and the guys running it decided not to take the chance that he was really just a poll taker.  

Developing.