More details on the Federal Student-Loan SWAT assault team in Stockton:
In Stockton, California, Kenneth Wright was at home with his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11 when a SWAT team burst into his home at 6 a.m., dragged him out on the lawn, threw him to the ground, and put the family (including the kids) in squad cars. His alleged crime: default on student loans. [editor: according to the Feds, his wife’s alleged crime: student loan fraud.] On top of the overkill in using SWAT teams to target defaulting students, the city [editor: the Feds, actually] got it wrong. They were looking for Wright’s estranged wife.
Edits are mine.You know, in my youth I defaulted on a $1,200-or-so Sallie Mae loan. When I contacted them a few years later to pay up, they told me it’d been written off and not to worry about it. Yet it still shows up on my electronic Sallie Mae statements.
Perhaps I should up-armor that front door sooner rather than later.
Hat tip: pretty much everybody. Reason has the most details I’ve seen so far.
From what I understand and as Suzi Orman says, Student Loans are the one Loan-thing that you cannot default – they don’t let you, it’s not allowed. Not anymore at least. Which explains why recently the .Gov has horned itself into position as sole lender of said loans – now they own your student-ass. It’s a way for them to make “national service” that much more unavoidable. I paid off my $1,200 – and in 1980’s dollars that took a while.
They’re now saying ‘It wasn’t about a loan, it was something we’re investigating’, but won’t say what.
http://www.sondrakistan.com/?p=6057
Which doesn’t help: “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,†the statement continued. So can they explain why the HELL they need a SWAT team for these? Reminds me of the idiots in VA a couple of years back who decided to use the SWAT team to bust a guy for gambling; while a detective was talking to the guy and doing the “I have a warrant” thing(as it should be), one of the tactical clowns came running up with his sidearm drawn, FINGER ON THE TRIGGER, stumbled and shot the guy in the back of the head. And, making it even worse, “It was just a terrible accident, no action will be taken against the officer” as I recall.