Posted on 08/11/2022 8:23:45 AM PDT by george76
Add the U.S. Department of Education to the list of federal agencies that can invade your home at gunpoint and hold you and your family in custody for hours. Kenneth Wright learned this the hard way last week, when federal "education" agents busted down the front door of his Stockton, Calif., home at 6 in the morning.
"They surrounded the house; it was like a task force or SWAT team," a neighbor told a national news affiliate. "They all had guns. They dragged him out in his boxer shorts, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him."
Wright's terrified children -- ages 3, 9 and 11 -- were forced to sit in a patrol car for two hours. Wright himself was in custody for six hours. "I felt really bad for those kids," a neighbor said.
Federal agents for the Education Department's inspector general executed a very broad search warrant and seized paperwork and a personal computer. Wright says the law enforcement agents -- who reportedly included 13 with the Education Department and one or two Stockton police officers -- told him they were investigating his estranged wife's use of federal aid for students. But she doesn't even live in his house.
A federal spokesman tried to distance the Education Department from the raid by emphasizing that the IG runs a "semi-independent office." But that begs the question of why a federal agency overseeing education policy should have an IG who can send agents armed with guns into Americans' homes. Or why the department has SWAT-style teams of agents to begin with.
In yet another Orwellian development, the Education Department IG provides an anonymous tip line encouraging Americans to inform on each other. This is reminiscent of the Obama White House asking Americans in 2010 to report on friends and neighbors who said anything "fishy" about Obamacare in private conversations.
The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center says that it trains agents for "over 80 federal agencies." These include the Secret Service, Bureau of Prisons, and similar agencies that one would expect.
But the list includes dozens of federal agencies with no business training and fielding armed officers. Who wants early-morning armed break-ins by the Department of Agriculture, Railroad Retirement Board, Bureau of Land Management, Tennessee Valley Authority, Office of Personnel Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?
If these agencies occasionally have a legitimate need for force to execute a warrant, they should be required to call a real law enforcement agency, one that has a better sense of perspective. The FBI, for example, can draw upon its vast experience to determine whether there is an actual need for a dozen SWAT agents.
Too many federal agencies with overlapping jurisdictions and authorizing statutes are intent on "solving" problems through criminal investigation, prosecution and punishment.
And too many of those same agencies have the ability to create criminal liability through regulations. A 6 a.m. raid could happen to anyone whom the federal government targets.
The use of SWAT teams is part of a troubling national trend. Peter Kraska, in a Cato Institute report, estimates that SWAT teams now make 40,000 raids on citizens each year. Paramilitary raids by out-of-control federal agencies against ordinary citizens, who may not have violated any law, are a growing threat to our safety.
The fact that the Department of Education conducted a SWAT-style raid should outrage. Giving the federal government too many laws, too many regulations and too many armed agents is a formula for disaster for our individual rights and freedom.
This line was hilarious:
“The FBI, for example, can draw upon its vast experience to determine whether there is an actual need for a dozen SWAT agents.”
It looks like eventually everyone in this country will either be a law enforcement agent or be under investigation by a law enforcement agent. Sort of like being in the old Soviet Union.
Will any of this change if the GOP takes Congress this fall? One can hope so, but I doubt it. Too many of those guys are ‘go along to get along’ types.
Real change would take the right president. Trump, DeSantis, or Rand Paul. Any of those three would do. Anything less would not.
I now have a winning campaign plank for the Republicans:
“If elected I will introduce / sponsor / lobby for bills to De-Militarize Federal agencies. Only the FBI, Secret Service, and the US Marshals Service will be allowed to bear arms as part of their duties.”
And I have my doubts about the FBI.
Mollie Hemingway: FBI chief Wray ‘does not seem like he is that upset’ over FISA abuse / lying under oath to Federal Judges..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3802844/posts
Better throw Customs/ Border Patrol in the mix.
Just wait until the US Department of Agriculture starts SWAT raids on home gardeners for using fertilizer.
Their experience consists of who you vote for. If R then extreme force is needed, else do not even bother.
Yes. Border Patrol, too.
Dunno ‘bout Customs - aren’t they supposed to be bean counters? If they need guns they can call the Coasties, Marshals, or locals.
NOAA has one also. When they say you will comply, they mean it.
If I remember the NOAA excuse correctly, they wanted the arms for the NOAA uniformed services group that man their ocean survey ships. The rationale was they go in areas where piracy, drug & other smuggling is active (e.g., Somali pirates!). It was needed for self-defense.
FYI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Commissioned_Officer_Corps
Of course, it could be a lie!
My impressions of Customs are formed by their presence at Homestead AFB in the ‘80s. They were pretty much at war.
If the IRS can do it so can the teechurs.
IF they want armed personnel they should be required to borrow some Coast Guard.
now have a winning campaign plank for the Republicans:
“If elected I will introduce / sponsor / lobby for bills to De-Militarize Federal agencies. Only the FBI, Secret Service, and the US Marshals Service will be allowed to bear arms as part of their duties.”
And I have my doubts about the FBI.
The FBI should not exist.
All of the other agencies should be required to go to a judge and get a warrant to be served by local cops or the sheriff, depending on the jurisdiction.The more often sheriffs are involved, the better it would be because in most cases the sheriffs are tuned to the needs of the local public.
Agree!
However, the counterclaims will be the following:
1. That’s a military service; countries who are hostile to the US won’t allow a US military service in their home waters.
2. With the presence of a US military service on board it will undermine the claim that a NOAA vessel is there simply for scientific reasons.
3. If weapons are used on a local it’s a potential act of war by the US.
In the world of international relations those answers do have some merit.
What president said that all power grows out of the barrel of a gun?
I didn’t know the Coasties were military. I thought they something “in between” like the Merchant Marine. Sort of a law enforcement organization with artillery.
If it isn’t a military ship, then most countries are not going to allow it in the port with weapons anyway. They’ll have to hire contractors when at sea and remove them before entering territorial waters.
I wouldn’t believe a NOAA vessel was “simply scientific” anyway, whether or not there was military personnel aboard.
Using a weapon on a local will be a criminal act since most countries are not quite as enthusiastic about self-defense as the US is. I would rather them be confronting the might of the US Armed Forces that persecuting some seaman or officer who was protecting the ship.
The joke I always heard about the “Coasties” being one of the armed services was “armed but not dangerous!”.
It’s my understanding that NOAA vessels are allowed to go pretty much wherever they need to go as far as state actors are concerned. All sides benefit from NOAA’s work. It’s the nonstate actors - pirates, etc. that are the problem.
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