D.O.E. Raids Stockton Man's House

A quick article I wrote for a website Streetgangs.com

          The Office of the Inspector General (O.I.G.), a semi-independent branch of the Department of Education (D.O.E.), raided a Stockton man’s house in the early morning hours Tuesday, June 7, 2011. The front door of the house was kicked in at 6:00 a.m. and O.I.G. officers spread throughout the house, while a Stockton Police officer, the official liaison between the two different agencies to oversee that the operation ran smoothly, waited in his police car at the curb. While wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and putting his hands in the air as instructed, the man was grabbed by his neck and thrown viciously to the lawn of his front yard with a knee in his back and a pistol at his head, as his children, ages three, seven, and eleven years old, watched in absolute terror.  The man, Kenneth Wright of Stockton, was then handcuffed; ripping his boxer shorts in the process, then placed into the back of a police cruiser with his children for the next six hours while D.O.E. agents searched his house for evidence of financial aid fraud. The officers repeatedly told Mr. Wright that they knew he had not done anything wrong and that they were looking for his wife, who was not there at the time.  He was never read his rights, but still forced to sign a waiver that he was not allowed to read.

          The purpose of the raid remains unclear and the search warrant is still sealed.  Mr. Wright gave News 10 his copy of the warrant, however, and it instructed officers to search “all rooms, annexes, attics, basements, porches, garages, carports, outside yard, cutilage, mailboxes, trash containers, debris boxes, storage lockers, locked containers, and safes, cabinets, rooms, outbuildings, sheds and outbuildings associated with subject premise and shall extend into desks, cabinets, safes, briefcases, backpacks, wallets, purses, trash receptacles, electronic storage devices, any vehicles or boats parked on the property or in the driveway specifically associated premise #1….”, while commanding that the raid be done during daylight hours, between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., on or before June 17, 2011.  The officer in charge wasted no time, executing the warrant as soon as it was received.  The Department of Education did issue a brief statement, saying that the raid was not because of unpaid student loans but because of criminal fraud.

          The Fourth Amendment protects American citizens from unlawful search and seizure; however, it seems that Law Enforcement does not agree and treats everyone as a criminal, even before there is evidence.  Unfortunately, there are bad men and woman in this world, so the police are sometimes needed to “serve and protect”, as it is labeled on the side of many patrol cars throughout California; one of these duties is to conduct raids into individuals' houses while looking for evidence of crimes.  It seems that many police officers cannot make a distinction between innocence and guilt or even violent and non-violent crimes.  If they were raiding a house of a suspected murderer or a drug kingpin, then the actions of the D.O.E. would be understandable.  Financial Aid fraud is a non-violent crime and there is absolutely no reason for the conduct of O.I.G.; battering in Mr. Wright’s front door and scaring the children so badly that they screamed for the police not to shoot their daddy.  It is a sad day when the Constitution cannot protect the rights of an American citizen.

 

 

 

Andrew N. Farrens

West Stockton, California

June 9, 2011