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SWAT Team Raids Home To Recover Student Loan [Updated: Or Not]
from the pay-up dept
Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) was the first of a few of you to write in about the rather insane case of a SWAT team raiding a home over an unpaid student loan. Update: As lots of folks have been pointing out, the original story has now been updated to say it wasn't a student loan, but rather a larger criminal investigation... Still seems odd that it went down the way that it did, but we'll do a strikethrough on the post. There have been so many stories lately of misuse of SWAT teams, but this one takes it to a new level. In this case, it was even more ridiculous, because the woman who hadn't paid her loans had left her family and no longer even lived at the residence that the SWAT team kicked down the door and raided. But, really, let's take a step back and ask the basic question:
Why is a SWAT team involved in a student loan recovery effort?
It appears that the Department of Education was seeking the woman to get the loan repaid, and somewhere along the way someone (who?!?) thought that this required a SWAT team to break down the door of this guy's house at 6am in the morning, drag him into his yard, then shove him and his three kids into a police car for a few hours while they searched his house.
I tend to find claims that we're in "a police state" a bit overwrought and excessive, but when you hear stories like this, it really makes you wonder.
Why is a SWAT team involved in a student loan recovery effort?
It appears that the Department of Education was seeking the woman to get the loan repaid, and somewhere along the way someone (who?!?) thought that this required a SWAT team to break down the door of this guy's house at 6am in the morning, drag him into his yard, then shove him and his three kids into a police car for a few hours while they searched his house.
I tend to find claims that we're in "a police state" a bit overwrought and excessive, but when you hear stories like this, it really makes you wonder.
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Calling my broker . . .
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Re: Calling my broker . . .
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Re: Calling my broker . . .
I'm not sure who will be suing, but you can bet if any lawyers thought they could get away with it, they would...
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Re: Re: Calling my broker . . .
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Wait, What?
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Re: Wait, What?
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We'll Never know since the SWAT team are going to double tap you in the head and you can't file a lawsuit from 6 feet under.
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Re: Re: Re: Wait, What?
With the amount of home invasions going around, your gonna see more and more of this...
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/latest/105231338.html?showAll=y&c=y
or this one...
http://www.totalcriminaldefense.com/news/articles/unusual/no-drug-bust.aspx
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See, they don't need a "no knock" warrant. *starts pricing ram proof doors*
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> *starts pricing ram proof doors*
Won't work. I ran a warrant with the Houston Police once and the bad guy's house (and he really *was* a bad guy) was all done up with steel doors and iron bars on the windows just to make the house as police-proof as possible.
HPD rolled up with what is essentially an armored APC, hooked chains to the bars on one of the windows, and the other end to the tank, then drove it away to yank them off. Turns out the bars were stronger than the house itself and it pulled the entire wall of the house off. The drug dealers were sitting in their living room playing XBox and packaging their drugs and suddenly the entire wall disappeared and the house was swarming with cops.
Bad day for them.
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But that's at least a good sign that it really is the cops and not an intruder.
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Imagine if you pulled the wall off that house and grandma and grandpa came spilling out terrified...spewing ensure in all directions because you were an idiot and didn't verify the address and/or perps... lol...
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> and were 100 percent sure you had the correct
> house/perps.
I hear stories all the time of cops running warrants on the wrong house and busting in on innocent people, etc.
I honestly don't know how that happens. By the time I apply for a warrant, I've already spent countless hours surveilling my subject day and night and know both his neighborhood and the place he puts his head down at night almost as good as he does. The warrant is just the last step in the process. I can't imagine showing up at that point and going to the wrong house any more than I could imagine driving home from work tonight and instead of walking in my front door, walking into my neighbor's house by mistake.
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It happens because there is not adequate punishment, if any, for it.
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Re: Wait, What?
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The Jews are leaving? More Germany for the rest of us.
-- Adolph
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Update to the story
http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/08/dept-of-education-swat-team-up
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Re: Update to the story
It is a massive abusive of power either way.
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Re: Update to the story
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F*ck it !! I'm returning those overdue library books ASAP. The penalties are getting too damn stiff !!
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Re: Update to the story
Thanks. This had to happen the one day that I'd be away from my desk most of the afternoon, huh? I've now updated the post.
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Re: Re: Update to the story
Side note: the beauty of the internet is that you can make updates to stories with changing information. The local news station had to shut down the original story. This flexibility is why the old forms of news media are ill adept at bringing accurate and complete stories in a timely manner.
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"Yesterday, the Depart of Education's office of inspector general executed a search warrant at Stockton California residence with the presence of local law enforcement authorities.
While it was reported in local media that the search was related to a defaulted student loan, that is incorrect. This is related to a criminal investigation. The Inspector General's Office does not execute search warrants for late loan payments."
http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/08/dept-of-education-swat-team-up
interesting to see what comes out of this, still seems like overkill. Why SWAT? Its just a search warrant not an arrest warrant.
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Re:
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There has been an update to the story
http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/08/dept-of-education-swat-team-up
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Re: There has been an update to the story
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I still don't see how the DOE would be involved in a criminal investigation that involved a violent crime.
The "bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds" basically means you didn't repay and we think you lied to us to get the loan.
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Re: Re: Re: There has been an update to the story
Well the update is now updated, and it seems to lean even more in this direction. Same link as above update.
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Though one would think they would stop the illegal actions since they were there at the time.
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It may not be so simple
Noteworthy in this follow-up is the following comment:
This may be a case of there being more than meets the eye especially with the last sentence. We may want to wait a bit more before jumping to conclusions on this story.
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Re: It may not be so simple
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But does that mean that Masnick will remove this article and it's entirely incorrect headline?
This blog is such a complete joke.
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Re: Re: Re: It may not be so simple
Use the thingy in your browser called the address bar... Just type "www.ILoveDisney.com" in it, hit the return key and go to the happiest place on the net. Then you can close your ears and eyes to the coming zombie apocalypse.
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Update
Question, does the SWAT ever do recon before they bust down doors? Or do they just go into a potentially dangerous environment blind?
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Re: Update
Think of them as the Marines.
Be efficient.
Be "polite".
Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
With all of the physical training that they do, I highly doubt they take negotiation tactics as an elective.
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(not that I agree with it)
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In Mother Amerika...
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Re: In Mother Amerika...
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Re: Re: In Mother Amerika...
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This didn't happen.
It was 1 cop who provided the "police presence" while someone from the OIG (Office of Inspector General) served a warrant.
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Re:
2) #1 has already been covered in previous comments
3) DID happen, it just so happens DOE OIG was the one playing SWAT.
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"He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there," Wright said.
"I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers," Wright said.
No record, no accusation of a violent crime, but he was met with violent force. THIS IS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE!
15 not one.
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who?
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> authorized to bust down a door?
Any agency empowered by the appropriate legislative body to enforce criminal laws can "bust down a door" if given the go ahead by a judge.
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debtor's prison
This makes me wonder about how that applies EXCEPT when you owe the gov't money. You can quite literally go to jail for A PARKING TICKET. How does THAT make any sense?
No surprise, then, that we have SWAT collection agecies.
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Re: debtor's prison
> EXCEPT when you owe the gov't money. You can
> quite literally go to jail for A PARKING TICKET.
> How does THAT make any sense?
You're not going to jail for owing money. You're going to jail for committing the offense they fined you for in the first place.
However, I'm not sure which jurisdiction you live in where parking violations are jailable offenses. Certainly isn't the case where I live.
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to the dogs
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swat teams
WACO
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Well, it probably was a swat team. And now it's all CYA
Don't worry folks. The gov't is only out to help you.
And at least this time they didn't murder a war vet.
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Traditional Media
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About Time!
I hope she gets several years in jail when they find her.
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Re: About Time!
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Re: About Time!
"This is how law enforcement should look like" - Yeah in China.
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Re: About Time!
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PoliceState
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If you would learn to read, you would know that this is a blog and not a news site.
Fail on both counts. Go back to elementary school.
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You got took, TD.
The DOE has already denied it was related to loans. SWAT wouldn't be called in for a civil matter, so there are more unanswered questions than useful information.
Don't be so reactionary. Give a story time to breath, so you can smell the ones that stink.
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Re: You got took, TD.
Dont hold your breath !
This is EXACTLY what I expect from TD and Masnick
It just would not be the same if Mikes rants were accurate, informative, or made a valid point !
Someone said "why would you even come here if you dont agree with Masnick, we'll it's the same reason why the people who DO agree with Mansnick.
Except you come here to reaffirm your belief system, and we come here to question your belief system.
(that is why you 'types', are so agressive when Mikes word is questioned).
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56530.html
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Odd... the warrant includes seizing "Fruits"... multiple times
So, I guess the lesson to learn today is don't hide your ill-gotten gains in fruits, be smart and place them in vegetables instead and you should be ok... unless the DoE gets wise and adds that to the next warrant.
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Fruits?
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Re: Fruits?
If they were "Fruit of the Loom" brand, I wonder if the were seized too?
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I bet the MPAA/RIAA can't wait for the DoCS (Department of Copyright Security) to be formed and get the kind of powers DoE has...
http://hypervocal.com/news/2011/dept-of-education-sends-s-w-a-t-for-defaulted-student-lo ans-target-isnt-wright/
(in the comments section)
Mark Reichel says:
June 8, 2011 at 7:32 pm
I am the attorney for Kenneth Wright and his young children and will be filing suit on their behalf.
Mr. Wright, who is divorced from Mrs. Wright, was at home at 6 a.m. with his 3 children, a daughter aged 3 and two boys just slightly older. Their door was kicked down, Kenneth was dragged wearing only boxer shorts (which ripped during the dragging) to his front lawn and a knee was placed against his neck for 45 minutes. He was not shown a copy of any warrant, nor told much of what was going on. When he saw a patrol car by stretching his neck off the grass, he was pleased to find out it wasn’t some organized crime hit on his family, or a crime gang at the wrong address. His children were then marched downstairs with their hands up at gunpoint. Yes, that happened.
6 hours later, when their tiny house had been thoroughly searched by the 15 SWAT team members, they were told they were looking for Mrs. Wright, who appears to be a suspect for low level student loan fraud. This was news to the Wrights, who would have kindly allowed such a search and would have helped them to find Mrs. Wright, if they could. If they could have the knee off their neck. The 15 armed federal SWAT members were ready just in case Mrs. Wright started throwing phony loan documents at them, some with staples.
Mrs. Wright is not related to Osama Bin Laden. Financial executives who did more harm to this country than the Japanese at Pearl Harbor or Al Qaeda did in New York get charged with stealing billions of dollars and are courteously summoned to appear in court when charged. They are in essence “asked” to appear, on their own, in their best suit, in a limo. She hasn’t been charged, is just under investigation.
Hamilton, Madison, Washington and Jefferson are indeed crying somewhere as they watch what has happened to the people in this country.
Mark Reichel
http://www.reichelplesser.com
If all that turns out to be true, and the woman hasn't been declared "armed and dangerous" (she is a "known stapler"), then this is a clear case of excessive force being used. Sounds like somebody trying to justify their job, or get a new promotion, to me.
I wonder if the "agents" will come up with some story and say they heard "flushing sounds from inside the house" or "possible paper shuffling" and thought "important documents were being destroyed" which would make their expedient and violent entry into the house necessary for this alleged white collar crime.
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