What do you want our police to do, whisper politely though the mail slot while they have a shredding/flushing party in the back?
Nope. What I want them to do is investigate before unleashing a swat team. How hard is it to find out if the suspect is home... or even lives there? How hard is it to watch the house for awhile and see if and when the suspect leaves... or the dad and kids leave before smashing in the door?
If you look at the bottom of the story, it has already been retracted for being inaccurate. I called BS and I was right.
If you look at the link near the bottom of the story you will see that the inaccuracy was that the raid on the house was NOT because of a missed payment on the student loan as was first reported, but part of an ongoing investigation - and that it was originally reported that it was not a local SWAT that did the deed, but a team from OIG.
So you called BS on the fact that they don't excecute search warrants and bust down doors for default loan payments... knowing that is a relief. However, how come they bust down doors for a fraud investigation. And please, don't play the "They might be destroying evidence." card.
Isn't it SOP to actually investigate where evidence might actually be? Or even if there is any evidence.
I'm an old coot, and I have distinct memories of SOP being to knock on (not KNOCK DOWN!) a door, show a warrant, and ask for information about the particular investigation. Do you suppose today's citizen generation is so much like Spiderman, or some other super-hero that they can, with unbelievable speed, shred and flush in the back while the cops/agents are still in the doorway executing a warrant.
Hell, they didn't even wait for the guy who told them he was going to open his front door. If they really were executing a warrant, how can you possibly think that he, barely awake, in his underwear was gonna stop an armed team from coming in anyway. Or do you just believe that SOP for today's agents and cops is they gotta bust down doors, because they are slower, denser and more fearful than in years past, and have to act with shock and awe, isolate those dangerous super residents, and come in with a show of force in cases like this?
Yeah, fraud is "bad" as you say. So does that mean busting down doors and terrorizing citizens is "good"? Maybe in some peoples minds, but not in mine!
What defenders of this kind of action actually get in return is a growing lack of respect for government agents and LEOs. Is this what you want... 'cause that's what your getting.