More SWAT team over-use
 

When SWAT Teams Attack Over Your Estranged Wife's Student Debt

At 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Kenneth Wright of Stockton, California had his house door busted down by a SWAT team, who dragged him out of his house, held him down and handcuffed him, searched the house, and then took Wright and his three kids to a police station. The interesting thing about this: He had done nothing wrong! The SWAT team was just acting on a search warrant from the Department of Education to find Wright's wife, who'd defaulted on her student loans. But they're estranged, and she doesn't live there.

Let me get this straight....They are sending in SWAT for defaulted student loans? WTF!?

Don't the SWAT guys at anytime just say, "WTF are we doing this for?".

Nope. More like "boo-yah!" and "git sum!"

The paramilitarization of every two-horse town PD in America is shocking and should be downright disturbing to every Constitutional liberties type out there. One of those "war on drugs" consequence things...

I think we're seeing a cycle of escalation.

* Police start buying bigger, badder spoons "because that's what the bad guys have."
* They break them out at every opportunity, "to keep their skills sharp" and "you never know what will happen." "If we don't use 'em, we lose 'em"
* The next fiscal year they say "Hey, we conducted umpteen raids last year, so we should upgrade our spoons again."
* Lather, rinse, repeat.

Nobody has the balls to say "no" to the cops, and the militarization continues.

They sent in a SWAT team (at Apple's behest) to recover a "stolen" iPhone

Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's house raided, computers seized (updated) | ZDNet

That is an amazing story. Unless that dude had a LONG rap sheet as a bad guy it was a total waste of time and money. You know there will be a lawsuit. More money wasted.

All for a student loan. Amazing.

It's more like, Nobody has the balls to say "no" to the lawyers directing the cops. That is, it is control freak lawyers all the way to the top. ...no 'common sense' people in that chain, other than, as some have hoped, the cops themselves.

So +1 to URY914

I suppose that in this sluggish economy, the SWAT guys will do anything they are told, else be out of a job and no high-perk early retirement pension plan.

In my home town even the motorcycle cops carry HK5 machine guns. In a two horse town with no murders in a decade.

There has got to be more to this story. I cannot believe a warrant was issued by a Federal Court to collect on a debt. Something is missing.

Please, let there be something missing.

dayum!!! how much $$ did she owe? :D

my brother said most of his SWAT call outs are military guys just back from the desert having a difficult time adjusting. something snaps and they think it is a great idea to hole up with the family with a gun.

then alot of time is chasing drug cartel types back over the border. one thing for sure, my brother is armed to the gills. my favorite piece is a custom silenced .22 rifle. super accurate, and i can throw rocks louder. i wanted to steal it.

i agree with burnin..there has to be more to this story. any beat cop would or should have the sense to know better. why not just sit it out, until you laid eyes on her?

my brother has a fun job.

The real reason.

You're right, it is disturbing.
What's I also find scary is that most people look at me like I'm some kind of whack job when I mention the constitution... like it's some kind of quaint anachronism that nobody should be expected to abide by these days.

Sounds to me like they're in spin mode now, with the "unspecified criminal investigation" explanation.

That was my POV with the Marine recently shot to pieces by SWAT. (people here were outraged by the thought than SWAT might have been justified).

How did that story shake out? -anyone know?

What is disturbing it that something gets posted that is not accurate and others gobble it up without thought because they WANT it to be true.

Others who are not as much driven by emotion see it and say, "huh. that doesn't seem right. I think I'll do a little research and find out what really happened before I knee-jerk into a conclusion."

Department Of Education: Raid Of California Man's Home Was Not Related To Defaulted Student Loans

Herein lies the problem... SWAT acted on a warrant issued by the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, not a judge or commissioner acting as a judge! The DOE issued the warrant, not the DOJ or a court in particular.

PD should have turned around and said "Needs a judge's signature, not an administrator's signature."

Mr. Wright was waiving a warrant issued by a Federal judge.

The Pima Sheriff's Dept. is still busily concocting a story while refusing to release any data for "fear of compromising an informant."

The outrage was because folks though the SWAT team took a guy down for an unpaid student loan.
Now it appears that is not the case and that the guy was not all innocent as he was pretending to be.
Now it appears it was a felony arrest and I expect more details to come out that will not reflect positively on the arrestee.

I'm not in that line of business but I was under the impression that local city police do not report to or take orders from a federal agency.
The federal agency can ASK for assistance and it's up to the local PD top decide if it is warranted or not.

Hopefully someone more familar with how that works can confirm or ..................

Thanks Blue. That is one to watch.
HOLEY CRAP - seriously?

Why does DOE (E for EDUCATION) have a military component?

The Answer Sheet - Education Department buying 27 shotguns

So, who really made this felony arrest? Was it local city SWAT team? Was it the law enforcement that answers to the inspector general?
Sounds to me like it WAS NOT the city SWAT team, it sounds like it was a bunch of officers working for the inspector general who were probably dressed in armor and other personal protective equipment similar to what SWAT team members wear.
Which leads to the next question, what was this bad guy doing that necessitated such a cautious approach?
I know many of you would like to believe that there is a group of renegade police officers out there making full-on SWAT-style attacks on innocent folks, why that is I have no idea. personal issues I guess.
But I simply do not believe that to be the case. Law enforcement generally does reasonably things.
THEY DON'T MAKE SWAT ARRESTS FOR UNPAID LOANS!

They make SWAT-style arrests against suspected armed felons when they believe there is a reasonable chance of gunfire from the suspect.
This is real life folks, it ain't TV.


BTW just in case anyone didn't know, one of the most powerful men in the United states when it comes to law enforcement is the postmaster general. Yup, the head post office guy is one powerful yahoo.

DOE has a law enforcement branch, and they are armed. The one I spoke to (he visited my office regarding a student scamming financial aid) said that he only qualifies w/ his side arm, and the most action he sees is when the BATFE, FBI, or ICE need extra man power to process an area after a raid

You hit the nail on the head, great.

Why the surprise? Did none of you read the link related to the killing of the land owner in Malibu over the suspicion he had marijuana on his 200 acres? (he did not). It was an interdepartmental taskforce of 32 officers... including the Park Service(!!!)

How A 32-man Assault Team Murdered Donald P. Scott At Trails End Ranch

Federal, state and local "authorities" often over-reach and then over-react. Ultimately, we as taxpayers contribute to multi-million dollar wrongful death payouts.

You mean it's not?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

:confused::confused::confused::confused: