Breaking: Why Send A SWAT Team?

When folks think of SWAT teams, most people think of well-intentioned officers who are risking their lives by apprehending vicious murderers, drug dealers, and other such dastardly criminals. The no-knock approach is justified because of the danger posed by the assumed criminals in the dwelling being searched.

That's what most people think. How to explain, then, what happened yesterday morning in Stockton, California?

Around 6:00 AM, the homeowner noticed 15 officers on his lawn. They broke down his door, threw him into a squad car for hours (in his underwear), and traumatized his three children while they searched the house. No, they weren't looking for drugs or a murderer.

The SWAT team had been ordered by the Department of EDUCATION, in order to apprehend the homeowner's estranged wife for the violent and horrible crime of... defaulting on her student loans.
http://www.news10.net/news/article/141072/2/Dept-of-Education-breaks-down-Stockton-mans-door

According to the Department of Education's Office of the Inspector General, the case can't be discussed publicly until it is closed, but a spokesperson did confirm that the department did issue the search warrant at Wright's home.

The Office of the Inspector General has a law enforcement branch of federal agents that carry out search warrants and investigations.

Did you catch that? I'll repeat it, because it sounds vaguely important. Our Federal Government is sending out SWAT teams to get people who owe them money. If this catches on and isn't stopped, the IRS is going to LOVE this method of... increasing tax collection successes.

Note that there was no indication (that we're aware of) that the woman was violent or anything, no danger to the arresting cops, she merely owed the government money. So danger to the arresting officers isn't needed anymore to justify a military-style invasion of your home, complete with knees in the back and guns in the face. If you owe them money, apparently you're a target. Suspected terrorists have to be read miranda rights, but if you default on a student loan, you and everyone around you get a gun in the face.

Libertarians argue that all government power is essentially forcing our behavior at gun point, and we are often ridiculed because it sounds paranoid to many people. But this case seems to make our point. If you owe the government money, especially the Department of Education, they can AND WILL send armed officers to smash down your door, invade your home, and shove guns in your face.

It's not paranoid to see a pattern of abuse and comment on it, and this trend of no-knock abuses is long and growing longer. This isn't a new or unique occurrence, it's the latest in a long string of abuses.

The government wants you to pay back your student loan. The penalties for defaulting have been, until now, confined to civil court and bad news for your credit score. HOWEVER, if you'll recall, Obama nationalized all student loans not too long ago, to the almost unamious approval of the majority of American citizens. This is the direct result of that nationalization. The government can and will send SWAT teams to your door if you cannot repay those loans.

Yet ANOTHER example of why government shouldn't have as much power as it currently has. Remember that a government big enough to give you anything you need is big enough to take away everything you have. In this case, if they have the power to invade your privacy and perform military operations to catch really bad guys, they have the power to do exactly the same to innocent citizens... as they did yesterday morning. This is a really good reason to shrink the size and scope of the Federal Government.

This is a Federal issue, so I want to ask this... What do our Alabama Congressmen think about this egregious abuse of power by our Department of Education, and what do they plan to do about it?

UPDATE: The Department of Education has issued a semi-formal response to allegations that this SWAT raid was in response to defaulted student loans:
http://reason.com/blog/2011/06/08/dept-of-education-swat-team-up

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.

Even if they're correct, what about "bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds" justifies a military assault force to serve an arrest warrant? Surely the local police are more than capable of handling an embezzler, right?

UPDATE: It is my considered opinion that every agent on that SWAT team should be charged with aggravated assault on that innocent family. And every person who enabled them, including the DoE official(s) who authorized the assault and the judge who approved it, should be charged as accessories to aggravated assault. Somebody, somewhere along the way, should have stood up and said "Wait, this is not an appropriate use of a military assault force." Absent any elevated potential for harm to the arresting officers, SWAT assault teams should NOT be used. And in this case, there doesn't seem to be any justification. So arrest them, charge them, and indict them all. Let's go, guys... Either the laws apply to everyone, or we're living in a police state.