A little over a year ago, the US Department of Education posted an order for 27 Remington shotguns (details of their order here). And now we know why… They are apparently using SWAT tactics to try to collect unpaid student loans. And, as happens when you send a SWAT team onto a non-violent offender’s property, things go FUBAR pretty darn quickly. In the case here (ht: Guffaw in AZ), they did a knock-in-the-door raid, cuffed and dragged off a guy while executing a search warrant on the guy’s ex-wife. Please to note that said ex-wife does not live at the domicile of the guy they detained for SIX hours and whom they hauled off in handcuffs in front of his kids.
It was originally reported that this travesty was for unpaid student loans, but the Dept. of Ed. said that their Inspector General authorized the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION’S SWAT TEAM to execute a knock-down-the-door search warrant for issues regarding “bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds”. As far as I know, bribery, fraud, and embezzlement are pretty much non-violent crimes–why would a SWAT team be needed to execute a search warrant? This is so egregious that even the Stockton police department has been at great pains to publically note that they didn’t do this–they were asked to provide a police car and an officer at the scene, but the DoE was the force that kicked in this guy’s door at 6:00 am.
What we have here is clearly government run amok. When the US Department of Frickin’ Education has its own SWAT team and is sending them out to bust down the (wrong) doors of citizens, there is an issue. If there is a federal crime, it should be turned over to the FBI. Why on God’s Green Earth was the Department of Education allowed to create and arm its own SWAT team?? Seriously….
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