In September a brutal murder occurred that could be related to the government ‘s stance on marking every residential dwelling in America with a GPS tracking device for the upcoming 2010 census. [A description of how the body was found is to follow. It is a little shocking so please only read on if you are interested, otherwise skip to the next paragraph.] The part-time, temporary census worker was found hanging from a tree in a rural Kentucky cemetery.  The body, identified as the remains of a 51 year old cancer survivor Bill Sparkman, was stripped naked by the murder(s) and his hands and feet were bound with duct tape. His eyes were also duct tapped and his mouth was gagged with something resembling red rag according to the person that reported finding the body.
According to coroner reports, the word “fed” was written on the deceased’s chest. His census bureau credentials were also taped to his forehead and shoulder area. These two clues clearly indicate that the murder(s) were either enraged to their despicable deed because he was working with the federal government or that they want the authorities to think that the murder because of his connections with the government.
But what is it about what Mr. Sparkman was doing with the government census bureau that would so fill a person with hate that they would consider murder?
From what I can tell, the deceased, Bill Sparkman, was involved in a push by the government to mark the front door of every residential dwelling in America. While many conservative conspiracy theorists are attacking the current administration over the use of ACORN to do the marking, the actual plan to do so dates back over 2.5 years to no later than July 2006, a time when the Bush administration was still in office.
The idea at the time was to send out temporary staff to gather the exact location of the front door of every residential home in America. This information would be useful to ensure that every household would be counted in the 2010 census, but I am sure that there were additional benefits that the government garner from this move. One of them would certainly be aiding them in identifying tax household that are not reporting information on their tax returns.
It is my guess that this GPS marking activity was what that sent Bill Sparkman out into the Kentucky countryside in September and would eventually lead to his death. I have no way of verifying this information and have not read any reports confirming it – it is simply my guess. If I am right, it might be the first government GPS tracking related death in American history.
My theory goes like this. The deceased was just doing his job going out and marking homes with his GPS tracking device. Part of his instruction was to be relatively extensive in his search of homes – identifying whether or not certain buildings on a property were residential in nature and if someone was living inside them. My guess is that someone took extreme offense at his presence and confronted him about his presences on their property and his use of the GPS tracking unit.
A brief exchange occurred where things got heated and the deceased was attacked. He was then killed for some reason and then his body was dumped in the cemetery as described above.
This would be very sad if true, but I think that just the idea of it warrants a closer look at the use of this GPS information by the government to see if there is any good that can come from it.
Good Government GPS Tracking
We have already discussed what good government GPS tracking implants can do in a previous post, but what about simpler GPS tracking data? Will non real time tracking data also be useful in the hands of the government? The following is a story from NPR from April of 2006 discussing the government’s planned use of GPS to mark all the residential areas in the US. It lists some interesting things that are certainly worthy of consideration.
If the player does not load you can listen or read the story here: Census Bureau Adopts GPS to Find American Homes
This is the flood map mentioned in the story that the GIS director created with the GPS data that her city had collected:
I had never thought of using GPS data in this way, but apparently there are a lot of smart people using this information who can see all the wonderful ways that governments can use this type of GPS to better inform their citizenry about natural disasters. Just think of all the good that would have come of this if it could be used during the wildfire season in Southern California, or in the hurricane season along the gulf coast, or when the Mississippi or one of its tributaries decides to flood. The government could reliably and efficiently notify its citizens about their impending danger, all thanks to the GPS information gathered by a government employee with a hand-held GPS tracking device.
Wouldn’t that be good?
Evil Government GPS Tracking
Then there is the bad that could be done with this type of tracking. One conservative website [Infowars.com] already mentioned one of them in a recent article from their site. They write:
The 2% of Americans, who have served military duty at some point in life, are very familiar with the most common use of GPS target painting. The other 98% of Americans might want to pick up a book on the subject, such as The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare
…
The idea is that the government would use the GPS information to wage war against their own citizens. While this is unlikely that they would fire missiles from planes at our homes (after all, that is a really expensive way to kill one family) it does mean that they can break down your door with some serious accuracy if ever a police state becomes the norm in America.
The government could also sell your information on the open market, a notion that we discussed when examining the bad governments can do with GPS tracking implants. While this does seem terrible, it almost seems inevitable since the citizens have a right to all the intellectual property that the government creates. As long as the information isn’t correlated with other information about you that the government has also compiled than that seems less evil than if they did sell the GPS information in that way.
What’s the Verdict?
Is this death GPS tracking related or not? I certainly don’t know, but it sure seems like it could be. I personally cannot dream of being so outraged by a census worker’s activity that I would kill them. Smash up their GPS tracking device – yes. Intimidate them and scare them off – yes. Murder them – hell no. That is just plain wrong and is just as evil as anything that you could think the government would do with your GPS information. And that is truth you can take to the bank.
GPS tracking devices are used by employees doing 1210 Census and by companies doing “reassessments” in many counties of every state, They are also used by a million people driving around in their cars and/or using a cell phone. If you have a cell phone with GPS, the police can use this technology to find a missing person, and employer to find a employee. Many of us use them every day in our day to day travels – and LOVE THEM!!! It is definitely no big deal that the Government is using a GPS device or anyone else, for that matter, to find or pinpoint a location. They could do that by just buying a GPS unit, so get real!!
People use GPS devices every day to go from one location to another, find a lost person, etc. So why are we making it appear as if it is something new or dangerous OR that it had anything to do with someone being murdered doing their job – someone, by the way, who didnt even have such a device?
If you own a GPS device you know how fantastic it is to plug in a location and go right to it versus wondering around trying to find your way with a map? This GPS device takes you right to the doorstep of most places ( homes ) you want to visit. Do you think this is just by chance it can find your exact location? Would you want to give up your GPS and all that convenience cause you are worried someone can zoom in on you?
Anyone, anywhere, can do that by picking up a map, going onto the internet, or in numerous other ways. Go to Google or Bing and map a person. Then do a “birds eye” view. You can look right down at most houses or businesses, zooming in so closely you can see someone standing on a deck. This “pinpointing” is available to anyone owning a computer hooked to the internet.
So if you are worried about privacy, worry about the NET! The government protects are info so closely that noone can get what they have – but it is what your credit card companies and other sources have that you should be worrying about, cause they are selling it to everyone — obviously – as is noted by how easily it can be found on the net.
So if you want to take up a cause — try tightening the privacies laws where “real” personal and identifying information is sold and broadcast everywhere to anyone, versus this imaginary GPS threat by your government. If you do not care that your birth date, old social security number, unpublished phone number, and map location is being broadcast, then you surely shouldn’t be worrying about GPS’s.
Our privacy laws will stop you from finding a person “put away” in a hospital, nursing home, or mental institute but allows all this other illegal selling and broadcasting of your personal info unless you OPT OUT. It is next to impossible to get this stuff off the net, when someone is broadcasting your name, age, birth date, address – and other personal info you want to keep private – and rightfully so, due to identify thief. But a person could be committed or hospitalized and easily lost to you and me by a disreputable relative or POA, and we do nothing to stop this nonsense.
NO ONE should be broadcasting personal info if a person wants to keep it private — like what you are sick from, age, phone numbers, et cetera – but our privacy laws are not protecting us and might even be helping the criminal element ( like that POA or relative trying to keep you from a friend who is in trouble ). Try sending your Rep a message, some even ask for your SS # to do this! Talk about Invasion!!
So let’s worry about real things and forget this nonsense about GPS’s and government. They are just using a technology that has been around a long time.
As explained in the above comment GPS is already tracking us. I just have one question, since it is already tracking us it seems this attempt by the government is simply redundant, why are they doing it? Years ago I wouldn’t give something like this a second thought but today and especially under this present administration it surly deserves a second look. It’s this administration that employs communists, anarchist, and socialists as advisers to the President. It’s this administration that refers to its’ citizens that question it and returning soldiers as terrorists. I am not in a position to know if there is anything nefarious going on but it sure deserves our vigilance and hope that someone in authority will investigate.
I believe this theory is ridiculous… whoever killed him probably was selling dope or something and couldn’t possibly distinguish the difference in routine census and the ‘FEDS’ raiding them for illegal activity.
Hi Carlton,
You seem to be pretty spot on with your spidey sense there Carlton. According to the authorities this guy killed himself and staged the whole thing. It didn’t have anything to with GPS tracking or his role as a census worker. He was just trying to end his own life.
-Joe