Posted on 06/08/2011 6:02:05 AM PDT by markomalley
Gannett. Link only per FR posting rules. Link here.
This guy's estranged wife was in default on her student loans. So the US Department of Education sends a SWAT team to get her. They break into the guy's house, cuff him, put him and his three kids in the back of a cop car for hours while they toss the house.
The questions raised by this include:
So what do we hear from the ACLU on this incident? ((crickets))
So.... on the bright side, they didn’t shoot him 60 times...
When do we start shooting back? Where do we FINALLY draw the line on these bastards?
since when is a civil default on a loan a criminal matter?
there needs to be some more investigative reporting of this story
Mike
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Sick! Tyranny and police state fascism: “The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife’s defaulted student loans.”
The article is 5 hours old at this point, hopefully there will be other reports.
I’m curious what a search warrant in a collections case would specify as “the persons or things to be seized.”
Per the 4th Amendment.
We don’t have debtor’s prison anymore, except possibly for the infamous “deadbeat dads.” And, AFAIK, they don’t seize property in student loan cases.
Well, for one thing, I sure wouldn’t be shooting back with this kind of firepower coming at me. So my question is this:
When will SWAT teams start asking questions like “why are we participating in a Collection Agency action?”
The Office of the Inspector General has a law enforcement branch of federal agents that carry out search warrants and investigations.Stockton Police Department said it was asked by federal agents to provide one officer and one patrol car just for a police presence when carrying out the search warrant.
Stockton police did not participate in breaking Wright's door, handcuffing him, or searching his home.
bump for later
Pretty sweet deal. Force students who aren't Eric Holder's people to take out loans by overcharging them to fund "scholarships" for students who are Eric Holder's people, then send the non-Eric Holder people to the Gulags when they don't pay up.
This was a well thought-out plan.
WTF?
I'd want much more than that. I'd want justice!
The average debt burden taken on by students and parents to get a collage education in 2010 is $34,400.
A lot of recent graduates simply can not find decent jobs and are earning under $30K a year. Starting salaries for college graduates dropped 5% between 2002 and 2007 (inflation adjusted), and are likely to have fallen MUCH further since the economic distress of the last three years.
Today about 70% of college graduates graduate in debt. One in seven student loan holders have defaulted and are in collections. Many are in garnishment, and up to 25% of disposable income may be garnished — although anecdotal reports are heard that claim higher garnishments. The law limits it to 25% but some collectors are aggressive, and the persons in default are shy and beaten.
There are nearly two million young folks who have borrowed for college. One in four is delinquent, but not yet in default.
An graduate in default, is in default because they have a poor paying job. Say $12 an hour — that’s typical. Take home is $10, take away 25% garnishment, and those debt trapped youths are taking home $300 a week.
See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2731549/posts?page=21#21 for sources.
Sending a SWAT team for a defaulted student loan??? WTF???
I guess they were hoping to employ the death penalty on the scofflaw.
I am sitting here trying to figure out exactly what merited this Show-Of-Lethal-Force. Did they expect to get in a prolonged gun battle over a school loan? That the victim was going to flush the loan payment stubs down the commode? Did some CI inform the Department of Education that he saw armed men coming in and out at all hours of the night as this was the head quarters for a nation-wide gang of school loan deadbeats?
Or was it much more likely that these goons saw a photo of the woman and hoped that by breaking in at that hour they would find her naked in the bed or shower?
Six hours to ransack the home over a school loan? What on earth were they looking for? Was this a daylight robbery and they were seizing jewelry, cash and electronics to pawn or did they discover a stash of porn and decided to inventory all of it, over and over again?
In case you hadn't noticed, this was one of "Eric Holder's people", i.e., a black man. Let's see if Zero steps up the plate for him, too.
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