Former Marine Arrested For Patriotic Posts On Facebook

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-former-marine-arrested-patriotic-posts-facebook

First the establishment started going after current serving military men for their outspoken political views on Facebook and other web venues, men like Marine Sergeant Gary Stein.  Now, it seems the government is going after veterans as well.  This is the classic pattern of a burgeoning totalitarian state; attack a small group first (outspoken serving military) which the public ignores because it affects them little personally, then slowly expand out to eventually include everyone else.  To all those insipid bottom feeders out there who refused to defend Gary Stein's right to free speech, here is what you have wrought.  Because of your ignorance, the government has been able to set a social precedent which they now plan to apply to a whole new group of people, starting with former Marine Brandon Raub.  The common statist slave will give the typical coward's response, which would sound a little something like this:

"...When are people going to learn that Facebook isn't private?  You would have to be stupid to express such views where everyone can see..."

"They didn't arrest him, they just 'detained' him..."

"He's former military and should be 'ashamed' of his comments against the government., blah blah blah, etc..."

The bottom line is, the 1st Amendment is NOT conditional.  ALL speech must be protected, no matter who you are, or where you happen to be speaking.  Just because our current criminal government decides 1st Amendment protections do not apply to Facebook does not mean they have the authority to make such distinctions.  In fact, the Constitution explicitly outlines how they are restricted from making such distinctions.  If a government entity, ANY government entity, attempts to violate Constitutional restrictions, it must be removed by any means necessary.

Take note that the FBI used the accusation of "terrorist threats" by Brandon Raub as an excuse for the arrest even though there is no indication that any actual threats were present on his Facebook page..

(Brandon's comments included observations that 9-11 was done by the government (even going to such length, and an interestingly detailed thesis, of providing evidence to augment this), the War on Terror is a lie, Americans are killing innocent people in the ME, the current federal banking system is corrupt and unfeasible to Americans, and that the George Bush's family rapes little children)

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august192012/marine-fakcebook-arrest-t.php

I would say that all of these claims have enough circumstantial evidence behind them to warrant a serious independent investigation, and even if they didn't, there is no law against "conspiracy theory", at least not yet...

The police and FBI also failed to read Raub his Miranda Rights. Could this be one of the first public instances of the enforcement of NDAA detainment provisions against a U.S. citizen as a so called "domestic terrorist"?  You know, those detainment provisions that Neo-Cons and Neo-Libs alike claim "don't exist"?

My question for the statist slaves is, how soon will it be before they get to you?  Do you really believe your complacency and apathy will save you?  Has that kind of philosophy saved any slave under any other tyranny of the past?  This is NOT a free country anymore, and if we do not act to defend each individual who suffers under the weight of bureaucratic oppression, then everyone will lose everything.  It is time to pick a side.

[Jim Johnson]

What do we do with this, play 'Obfuscation and Equivocation'?

[Jim Johnson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaE5zChbC5w&feature=g-logo-xit

[Free libertarian]

What do we do with this, play 'Obfuscation and Equivocation'?

Can't we just equivocate ?  Why does it have to be obfuscation too?  That's what I wanna know!

[Jim Johnson]

What do we do with this, play 'Obfuscation and Equivocation'?

Can't we just equivocate ?  Why does it have to be obfuscation too?  That's what I wanna know!

No, it's a biathlon.

[Jim Johnson]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/20/outcry-after-military-veteran-detained-for-anti-government-facebook-posts/?intcmp

FOX reports "outpouring of support".

[Silent_Bob]

Former Marine Brandon Raub Sentenced To Up To 30 Days In Psych Ward Over Facebook Posts

http://www.businessinsider.com/former-marine-brandon-raub-is-being-held-in-a-psychiatric-ward-over-facebook-posts-about-911-2012-8

The former Marine who was detained in connection with Facebook posts critical of the government is being held in a psychiatric ward, Peter Bacqué of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

"I'm currently in John Randolph in the psychiatric ward being held against my will," Brandon Raub, 26, said in a telephone interview with the Times-Dispatch. "They were concerned about me calling for the arrest of government officials."

Raub accused the government of lying about 9/11 and spoke of "starting a Revolution."

Lawyers from The Rutherford Institute represented Brandon Raub during the three-hour hearing today at the John Randolph Medical Center and released a statement, saying Raub has been sentenced to "up to 30 days' further confinement in a VA psych ward" after "government officials again pointed to Raub's Facebook posts as the sole reason for their concern and for his continued incarceration."

According to Raub's mother, authorities from the FBI, Secret Service and Chesterfield County PD came to their door on Thursday evening, questioned Raub about his Facebook posts, then handcuffed him and placed him in a Chesterfield PD squad car before taking him to John Randolph Psychiatric Hospital in Hopewell, Va.

Both the FBI and Secret Service said Raub was not arrested or charged, but the Rutherford Institute statement points out that "if the police have put handcuffs on you and you're being held against your will, that qualifies as an arrest."

When asked about why Raub was placed in a psychiatric ward, FBI Richmond spokeswoman told us that the FBI "had nothing to do with that" and that the FBI typically doesn't "make determinations such as that."

"We went out to interview him because of complaints that our office had received about people coming across his posts and perceiving them as threatening so our office along with Chesterfield County Police Department on Thursday," Rybiski told us. "When we left we had not arrested him, we had not placed our hands on him, we did not detain him and we did not charge him."

Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said: "The Secret Service assisted the FBI with the interview. He was not arrested by the Secret Service. The Secret Service will continue to monitor the situation. We have no further comment at this time."

The Chesterfield PD – who had previously said the situation "was an FBI matter and we were just there to assist them" – released this statement (emphasis ours):

Chesterfield Police assisted federal authorities in their efforts to interview Brandon J. Raub on Thursday, Aug. 16. After speaking to Raub, officers believed him to be in need of further evaluation.

Chesterfield officers at the scene contacted Chesterfield Mental Health Crisis Intervention. Crisis workers recommended that police take Raub into custody and bring him in for evaluation.

Chesterfield police took Raub into custody for evaluation in accordance with Virginia State Code § 37.2-808 Emergency custody.

Raub was placed in handcuffs after he resisted officers' attempts to take him into custody.

Raub was evaluated by a Chesterfield mental health official, who determined that he should be held under a temporary [detention] order and transported to John Randolph Medical Center for additional evaluation.

Raub was not arrested and he faces no criminal charges in Chesterfield.

The Virginia statute states that a magistrate "shall issue, upon the sworn petition of any responsible person, treating physician, or upon his own motion, an emergency custody order when he has probable cause to believe that any person (i) has a mental illness and that there exists a substantial likelihood that, as a result of mental illness, the person will, in the near future, (a) cause serious physical harm to himself or others as evidenced by recent behavior causing, attempting, or threatening harm and other relevant information, if any, or (b) suffer serious harm due to his lack of capacity to protect himself from harm or to provide for his basic human needs, (ii) is in need of hospitalization or treatment, and (iii) is unwilling to volunteer or incapable of volunteering for hospitalization or treatment."

It should be noted that the authority on whether or not Raub displayed signs of mental illness lies with the trained Chesterfield mental health official or officials who evaluated him in person.

"I really love America, and I think that idea that you can be detained and sent somewhere without due process and a lawyer ... is crazy," Raub said.

Raub said he served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2011, was a combat engineer sergeant and does not own a gun. His mother said he returned from Afghanistan about a year ago and does not have PTSD or violent tendencies.

Raub wrote five articles about economics and the Richmond Liberty Movement for the website Don't Tread On Me and his Linked-In profile says he owns a small coin business through the Numis Network.

John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, said the following: "For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon. This should be a wake-up call to Americans that the police state is here."

[doobie]

Does this mean he has now been involuntarily committed and loses his 2nd Amendment Rights?

[Jim Johnson]

http://www.businessinsider.com/former-marine-brandon-raub-is-being-held-in-a-psychiatric-ward-over-facebook-posts-about-911-2012-8

Lawyers from The Rutherford Institute represented Brandon Raub during the three-hour hearing today at the John Randolph Medical Center and released a statement, saying Raub has been sentenced to "up to 30 days' further confinement in a VA psych ward" after "government officials again pointed to Raub's Facebook posts as the sole reason for their concern and for his continued incarceration."

That is some damn blasphemous crap that the government is doing there.

[Jim Johnson]

Does this mean he has now been involuntarily committed and loses his 2nd Amendment Rights?

Sure.

What's he going to say on every application that asks, "Have you ever had to see a shrink?" 

'Well, yea, but only because the Secret Service and the FBI made me.'   

[KBCraig]

Does this mean he has now been involuntarily committed and loses his 2nd Amendment Rights?

No. He has been ordered held for a 30 day study, to determine if he should be committed.

After listening to his telephone interview with Adam Kokesh, I have to say he's much calmer than I would be, and much less angry than he has every right to be.

[KBCraig]

What I want to know is, how did that hilltop hippie former Marine ever escape the clutches of the Virginia system? 

http://www.businessinsider.com/lawyer-for-detained-marine-says-he-is-being-held-illegally-2012-8

UPDATE:  A circuit court judge has ordered that the Marine veteran detained over anti-government Facebook posts be released from a state psychiatric hospital because the original petition contained no facts, Catie Beck of CBS 6 News reports.

ORIGINAL: Brandon Raub's attorneys have filed a motion to suspend the August 20 ruling that ordered Raub to be involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric ward.

On August 20 the 26-year-old Marine veteran was sentenced to up to 30 days in a psych ward after he was detained on August 16 in connection to Facebook posts that are critical of the official story regarding 9/11 and refer to "starting a revolution."

Raub's lead attorney, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, told BI that the August 20 order was "rubber-stamped" and indicative of the corrupt system in Virginia.

"The special justice is very old," Whitehead said. "He had trouble hearing Brandon. He brought into the courtroom a personal cassette player – we tried to listen to it and you can hardly hear what's being said. This is the so-called judge – he's a lawyer, not a real judge – it's like what you would see in a bad movie."

Whitehead said that every year in Virginia more than 20,000 people are committed under similar circumstances and "that means a lot of people are disappearing" under the pretext of mental illness.

"I'm friends with the local police; I could call them right now and probably get you committed if you were in Virginia," Whitehead said. "They can arrive at your door based on somebody's testimony or your Facebook page and take you away to a mental hospital... There's a system here that is corrupt. And this guy is caught in it."

In the motion Raub's lawyers argue that since the initial orders to detain Raub did not follow the Virginia law that the Chesterfield PD cited, Raub's initial and continued detention is unlawful.

"If they're honest, he'll be out early," Whitehead said.

Chesterfield police stated that they "took Raub into custody for evaluation in accordance with Virginia State Code § 37.2-808 Emergency custody."

But according to Va. Code § 37.2-808, a person in emergency custody may only be held for four hours unless a magistrate enters a temporary detention order (TDO)  during that time.

Raub's lawyers argue that since the magistrate entered the order more than eight hours after he was taken into custody, the District Court "lacked any basis (much less clear and convincing evidence) to conclude that Raub (i) has a mental illness, and (ii) that there was a substantial likelihood that, as a result of such mental illness, Raub will, in the near future, cause serious physical harm to others, as Va. Code 37.2-817 specifically requires."

From the motion:

"The government's power to involuntarily admit an individual for evaluation of a mental illness is a creation of statute. Because an order providing for such admission deprives a citizen of his liberty, to protect citizens from an overreaching government the Virginia legislature has created a specific, detailed procedure, set forth in Virginia Code  § 37.2-800, that must be followed before an individual can be involuntarily admitted. In the present case, that procedure was not followed. As such, the District Court's August 20, 2012 order is void."

When asked about the motion directly contradicting the statement made by Chesterfield police, Chesterfield PD public information coordinator Elizabeth Caroon told us "As this is not a criminal matter, we have no further comment."

Beyond the "fatal procedural deficiencies," Raub's lawyers argue that the evaluations of Raub "utterly fail" to provide evidence that Raub is mentally ill and potentially violent, adding that any mention of Raub's Facebook posts in the orders violates his First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Whitehead said that the posts cited as "terrorist in nature" were part of a private Facebook game called Illuminati that Brandon was playing with his brother and sister, which the government spied on.

The motion states that at the very least Raub should be transferred from Salem to John Randolph until the appeal is heard because Raub is from the Richmond area, Salem is 188 miles away from Richmond and Raub's lawyers need regular face-to-face access to Raub so that Raub can provide information and participate in his own defense.

Whitehead said that Brandon is "very calculated, very intelligent, very lucid" and that Brandon said his social worker is nice and doesn't ask him much as they "chit-chat and drink coffee."

"The best thing they can do now is say 'We're not going to charge this guy, we're going away.' But we're not going to let this go away," Whitehead said.

[Jim Johnson]

What I want to know is, how did that hilltop hippie former Marine ever escape the clutches of the Virginia system? 

He has the golden gift of blarney. 

[Tom Sawyer]

 

Damn that is some messed up stuff they've got going there. Facebook gave access to the cops, I'm guessing. Then they got some old coot to sign off on the "protective custody", then shipped his ass off to the SW corner of the state.

I hope Chesterfield County gets their ass sued off.

Becky was just noting that it is happening at an increasing rate, these examples of abusive over-reach. Thank goodness in the age of the internet we have a chance of finding out about these things.

[KBCraig]

The cops didn't need access. They showed up based on what he posted in public.