Bank of America May Be Screwing Up Foreclosures, But At Least They Did Not Send in a SWAT Team
I am sure everyone is resting easier now that the government has taken over all student loan activity. Now we won't see any of that abusive behavior by private lenders. Ha ha, just kidding. Don't get behind on your government student loans! Via Radley Balko (Updates: Still bizarre the DOE has this kind of firepower, but DOE says its a criminal / fraud case, not a payment issue.)
Kenneth Wright does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.
"I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers," Wright said.
Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts as the officers team barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn.
"He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there," Wright said.
According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11, and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him. Officers then searched his house.
As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for was not there - Wright's estranged wife.
"They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said.
Wright said he later went to the mayor and Stockton Police Department, but the City of Stockton had nothing to do with Wright's search warrant.
The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife's defaulted student loans.
Roy:
If the story above got the facts, Wright could soon become richer. *Only* that response will restrain. Especially if Wright pierces the veil of immunity and gets money from officials involved.
June 8, 2011, 9:18 amRoy:
ps: Link has more; say's Wright only wants apology, new door. Hope he changes his mind, asks for plenty of money to assuage damage to him, especially needs for his traumatized kids....
As a special added feature, just below the story of the link there was an ad about becoming a police officer. My ironyOmeter wrapped its needle around the max pin.
June 8, 2011, 9:25 amSteve:
Not quite....READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE NOT THE BLOG POST. She was/is under investigation for a crime pertaining to student loans, not that she was in default of her loans:
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=141072
June 8, 2011, 9:39 amJon:
The link to news 10 doesn't exist anymore. Hmmm, I wonder why.
June 8, 2011, 10:25 amL Nettles:
http://m.news10.net/localnews/article?a=141108&f=1286
June 8, 2011, 10:41 amL Nettles:
The story says the Office of the Inspector General and the Feds executed the warrent not a local Swat team
June 8, 2011, 10:45 amDrTorch:
Story getting more confused
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110608/us_yblog_thelookout/education-department-says-it-doesnt-send-swat-teams-after-loan-defaulters
And yet, even if it's embezzlement, isn't this extreme for a woman who doesn't live there?
June 8, 2011, 11:39 amCTD:
Yeah, it wasn't for default, but a "criminal investigation," which means fraud or embezzlement, presumably. Not that makes it in any way "better."
June 8, 2011, 11:45 amJohn David Galt:
Did you see the guy who foreclosed on Bank of America?
June 8, 2011, 11:55 amhttp://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/06/homeowners-foreclose-on-bank.html
Brian Dunbar:
The story says the Office of the Inspector General and the Feds executed the warrent not a local Swat team
The IG has SWAT teams. They may not call them that, but they have helmets, armor, guns, and attitude. And they kick down doors.
It has been said elsewhere, that the problem is not that the guys with badges have guns, that is a given. The problem is so many guys have badges.
The Inspector General needs cops to do .. what, exactly? And this can't be done by the local police or sheriff ... why?
June 8, 2011, 12:09 pmKTWO:
I regard the warrant itself as the key to understanding the raid.
What exactly does the warrant say? And what did OIG allege to the judge who issued it?
The media seems, so far, uninterested in the warrant. The OIG just wants the whole story buried.
June 8, 2011, 2:15 pmme:
?! Ok, question for y'all: what would be too much? What would be the trigger points at which you'd personally choose to leave the US? The founding fathers were pretty precise about how people ought to feel safe in their houses and not live in fear...
June 8, 2011, 7:22 pmNeo:
They said this would happen if I voted for John McCain
June 8, 2011, 8:26 pmbob sykes:
Our slide into a full-blown fascist police state continues unabated. At what point is the slide irreversible?
June 9, 2011, 4:00 amjeff:
Why do you need 15 police officers with machine guns to serve a warrent for a white-collar crime? I'm continually amazed that law enforcement agencies plan these raids on private residences to cause the maximum amount of surprise, confusion, and fear. And then, blame the victim when it goes wrong.
Shouldn't they have an obligation to NOT escalate the violence during an encounter?
June 9, 2011, 6:58 amel coronado:
nothing more than a case of our jackbooted masters conducting an experiment. looking at 2 things: 1) how much of their police-state BS will the american public put up with? answer: quite a bit more, it seems. i didn't read any reports of friends & neighbors throwing rocks/molotov cocktails at the cops as the (innocent) man sat handcuffed in the cop car for 6 hours - did you? 2) just how far will their jackbooted thugs go in carrying out "orders" to fight the "terrorists" who haven't paid back their school loans? answer: "whatever it TAKES, sir!!" gotta keep those *pensions* safe, right, boys? the miracle was they didn't shoot the guy's dog in front of his kids - maybe he just doesn't have one.
vicki weaver was unavailable for comment.
June 9, 2011, 7:08 amElamBend:
Here is the warrant:
http://www.news10.net/news/pdf/Ed-dept-Wright-warrant-060711.pdf
Again, even though this is for financial crimes (getting school loans but not using them for school) it use of a swat team is over-kill. Read the warrant to see how sweeping it is. I've heard law enforcement defend such raids as to prevent the defendant from destroying evidence; a lame explanation that gained favor in the drug war.
June 9, 2011, 7:48 amIgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society:
>> What would be the trigger points at which you’d personally choose to leave the US?
John Malkovich gets elected PotUS.
June 10, 2011, 12:02 amRoy:
Go read that warrant linked by ElamBend. Wow. My naivete just got shocked.
I stand by my post opening the comments thread. *Only* getting money directly from (or, jailing) people personally involved, including those who requested and those who authorized the warrant, will stop more similar warrants.
June 10, 2011, 8:27 amGoneWithTheWind:
Your naivete is that you seem to think felony theft of government revenues is OK. I think anyone committing a felony needs to expect officers at their front door with a search warrant in hand.
June 10, 2011, 11:00 amel coronado:
that's a very....obedient....notion of citizenship you got there, GWTW. tell you what: I'll be *right there with you*, providing we start with SWATting the executive scum at Fannie & Freddie & Goldman, Countryside, et al, whose "felony theft of gevernment revenues" is....what....about 100 million times greater than joe or jane delinquent-student-loan. How's zat sound?
June 11, 2011, 2:47 amRoy:
GWTW, you (mistakenly) assume that I condone theft. I don't. Not from gov't (nor, btw, by gov't), not from or by individuals, not from or by grocery stores, not from or by corporations, not from or by...(I hope you get the drift).
Further, I concur with your (perhaps reflexive on your part) position that theft should incur penalties (specifically, I have in mind restitution of not just that which is taken, but costs involved in finding and prosecuting the thief). Which might involve the use of that upon which the gov't has a (mostly legitimate) monopoly: force.
But a SWAT response? How about a SWAT response for, say, an overdue unpaid parking ticket? Or a late payment of a utility bill? OK, so these might be misdemeanors (if I have the terminology correct) rather than felonies. Do you want to argue that every potential felony deserves (or that gov't, meaning your taxes, can afford) a SWAT response?
June 11, 2011, 11:45 am