In Stockton, California, Kenneth Wright was at home with his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11 when a SWAT team burst into his home at 6 a.m., dragged him out on the lawn, threw him to the ground, and put the family (including the kids) in squad cars. His alleged crime: default on student loans. On top of the overkill in using SWAT teams to target defaulting students, the city got it wrong. They were looking for Wright’s estranged wife. The D.O.E. now insists that it was not just about loans but part of a criminal investigation that it was carrying out.
There has been an expansion of SWAT teams with the infusion of federal funds, often connected to anti-terror programs. Departments appear to be searching for ways to use them, including as http://jonathanturley.org/2011/03/25/under-siege-steven-seagal-attacks-home-in-arizona-with-armored-cars-and-swat-members-to-arrest-man-accused-of-cockfighting/.
In this case, Apocalypse Now was unleashed by the Department of Education as it called in the police for a defaulted student. The Office of the Inspector General has a law enforcement branch of federal agents that carry out search warrants and investigations. However the Stockton Police Department said that it only provided one officer and one patrol car and did not participate in breaking Wright’s door, handcuffing him, or searching his home.
Does this mean that the Department of Education now has shock troops? The Department admitted that it issued the search warrant. That is pretty disturbing that the Department of Education now has authority to issue search warrants and trigger raids on homes.
Recently when the Education Department bought 27 shotguns it released the following statement:
Here’s a statement from the office in response to a question about why need 27 shotguns with a 14-inch barrels:
“The Office of Inspector General is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Education and is responsible for the detection of waste, fraud, abuse, and other criminal activity involving Federal education funds, programs, and operations. As such, OIG operates with full statutory law enforcement authority, which includes conducting search warrants, making arrests, and carrying firearms. The acquisition of these firearms is necessary to replace older and mechanically malfunctioning firearms, and in compliance with Federal procurement requirements. For more information on OIG’s law enforcement authority, please visit their Web site at : http://www.ed.gov/oig”
The D.O.E. issued the following statement in saying that it was carrying out its own raid but not over student loans. Here is the statements as found on Reason:
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.
Because this is an ongoing criminal investigation, we can’t comment on the specifics of the case. We can say that the OIG’s office conducts about 30-35 search warrants a year on issues such as bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds.
All further questions on this issue should be directed to the Department of Education’s Inspector General’s Office.
Source: NEWS 10 as first seen on Reddit.
Jonathan Turley
Kudos to Elaine for shotgun story.
DOE = DOH!
Is it go time yet?
Maybe some of our financial elite hasn’t paid off their student loans?
Here’s an interesting article I just found:
Education Department buying 27 shotguns
By Valerie Strauss
The Washington Post
3/11/2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/education-secretary-duncan/ed-department-buying-27-shotgu.html
Excerpt:
Why is the Education Department purchasing 27 Remington Brand Model 870 police 12-gauge shotguns (all new, no re-manufactured products, thank you)?
The guns are to replace old firearms used by Education’s Office of Inspector General, which is the law enforcement arm of the department.
Here’s a statement from the office in response to a question about why need 27 shotguns with a 14-inch barrels:
“The Office of Inspector General is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Education and is responsible for the detection of waste, fraud, abuse, and other criminal activity involving Federal education funds, programs, and operations. As such, OIG operates with full statutory law enforcement authority, which includes conducting search warrants, making arrests, and carrying firearms. The acquisition of these firearms is necessary to replace older and mechanically malfunctioning firearms, and in compliance with Federal procurement requirements. For more information on OIG’s law enforcement authority, please visit their Web site at : http://www.ed.gov/oig”
**********
You learn something new every day. I never knew the DOE had a law enforcement arm before.
Thanks Elaine. I will add that to the post.
Say WTF?
Questions you likely not hear a reporter ask:
Whose responsibility is it to review requests to use SWAT Team resources?
What criteria goes into making those decisions?
Are individual officers advised of the reason they are being deployed?
Are the responding officers offered an opportunity to question the use of SWAT resources?
Don’t forget, you elected them, you stupid liberal idiots.
Primigenius
1, June 8, 2011 at 9:42 am
Does it mildly bother anyone that a state’s police power was used over a FRIGGING CONTRACT DISPUTE? Default on Student loan = breach of contract, not Default on Student loan = terrorism. Talk about massively misguided overkill. Or are we getting the privatized debtor’s prisons ready for the 60 or 70 million Americans who are under water on various loans?
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where’s the fear? who’s the terrorist?
I second FFEO’s comment, Mr. Wright. You should sue them not just for yourself, but shine a light on a practice that is abhorrent.
Quoted from the link:
“All I want is an apology for me and my kids and for them to get me a new door,” Wright said. ”
___________
Please Mr. Wright, consider pursuing legal action to help prevent this type of egregious LE from happening to other innocent American citizens—whether Black, Caucasian, et cetera…
I guess debtors prison is back?
If you think that sending in SWAT over a contractual issue is overkill, just tear that tag off your mattress.
I dare you.
And what Mike S. said. Not only do the people responsible for this need to be fired, they need their pensions voided. Also a swift kick in the ass. Several times.
This so disgusts me … never in all the years that I spent protesting did I ever yell or say the following to any officer of the law but today, at the age of 66, I say this with complete sincerity and total disdain:
You SWAT team guys involved in raid in Stockton, California, on Kenneth Wright and his children are complete and total PIGS …
Does it mildly bother anyone that a state’s police power was used over a FRIGGING CONTRACT DISPUTE? Default on Student loan = breach of contract, not Default on Student loan = terrorism. Talk about massively misguided overkill. Or are we getting the privatized debtor’s prisons ready for the 60 or 70 million Americans who are under water on various loans?
Perhaps I am naive, but I thought thst in law defaulting on a debt called for civil rather than criminal remedies. The DOE officials responsible for this policy should not only be fired, but their pension and benefits witheld. Are we next heading for debtor’s prisons and/or forced work camps?
My god … this is beyond awful … grown men grabbing little kids out of their beds and throwing them into squad cars simply because they were ordered to do so … exactly where is their sense of right and wrong … humanity … protective instincts. Besides the assholes who ordered this raid, every one of those SWAT team members should be locked up … the cops have become as great a danger to society as the criminals they’re supposed to be pursuing … honestly … the thought of those monsters invading an innocent three year old’s bedroom makes me sick to my stomach.
Release these sub-humans names so that we may all know them for exactly who they are and treat them accordingly.
This is another example of the “we have it let’s use it” approach in law enforcement. The infusion of money (via Homeland Security) and police powers (via the PATRIOT Act) gives local jurisdictions the resources and power to perform these kinds of operations.
What it does not do is provide the expertise (aka “wisdom”) to use them properly.
I don’t know how to even begin to respond to this story. I just wish I could get the case.