SWAT Team? They have a SWAT TEAM? They seem to be as good as our High Schoolers do math, reading, and writing... - Granite Grok

SWAT Team? They have a SWAT TEAM? They seem to be as good as our High Schoolers do math, reading, and writing…

A LOT of people wondered "Why the heck is the US Department of Education buying 27 short barrel shotguns??" – me too.  Now, we know, but I’m not convinced that this is a good thing.  One of the stories that has gone viral today – that of a Federal SWAT Team (yet aGAIN!) breaking down some poor innocent’s door – the person they were looking for didn’t live there.

CIA  FBI  NCIS  Secret Service? Er, no. Your Federal Department of Education!  Our national test scores are near the bottom of the developed nations, but we got us a SWAT TEAM!  I can’t WAIT to see what the Libs are going to say about this (guns in the classrooms – eeeew!)  The reason for all this firepower? First report was a highly dangerous crime – sleeping in class  bullying    chewing gum in class  cheating via texting  student loan defaulter!*  

From News10/KXTV in Stockton, CA:

The resident, Kenneth Wright, does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe why what he thought was a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 in the morning.

"I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers," Wright said.

As Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts, he said the officers barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn….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…."They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said.

As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for – Wright’s estranged wife – was not there.

…U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton confirmed for News10 Wednesday morning federal agents with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), [Part of the Dept. of Ed  -Skip] not local S.W.A.T., served the search warrant. Hamilton would not say specifically why the raid took place except that it was part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Hamilton said the search was not related to student loans in default as reported in the local media. *

* = Department of Ed spokesweenie is refusing to say what it actually for what (probably fearful of violating the "zero tolerance" policy of "knowing what you are doing when pointing things that go bang")

Now, this is wrong on several different levels.  First, WHY does the DoE have a SWAT Team in the first place?  Have they even mastered THEIR basic mission – like turning out students that actually know their stuff?

Second, is this a simple case of gun envy of the "me too" type ("gee, everyone else has got one of these")?  People in military garb?  My gosh – they don’t fly into Columbine situations; the most they’d be going after is white collar crime!  And even if it was a bad situation, why NOT bring the FBI or local law enforcement special units in? 

Third – Who in the command level really thought that having one of these units was a perfectly great idea?  C’mon, really?  

Fourth – again, a SWAT TEAM for a loan defaulter?  Or even if the estranged wife was "other white collar crime", a SWAT Team? 

Fifth – who is going to be held truly accountable (vs being a fall guy)?  Of course, I’m open to the idea "guys on the team, do you REALLY know how freaking stupid this makes you all look?"

Sixth – WHEN did the Department of Education get the power to issue search warrants on its own?  And who the heck thought that was such a great idea?

Seventh – a SWAT Team for a simple collections matter?  E gads; are we going see this more often, now that Obama has nationalized student loans?

Eighth – Not everything is "military worthy"; when are the people in charge going to realize this?

Tonight I was at our local Selectmens’ meeting where US Senator Kelly Ayotte’s representative briefly spoke and asked if folks had questions – so I have asked about the Sixth one – I’ll let you know!

Oh yeah – here’s the group that does this ("Executes search warrants and services subpoenas").

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