Former Marine detained for facebook post

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/brandon-j-raub-marine-detained_n_1817484.html

RICHMOND, Va. — A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights.


Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI, Secret Service agents and police in Virginia's Chesterfield County questioned him Thursday evening about what they said were ominous posts talking about a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month according to authorities, Raub wrote: "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads."
Police – acting under a state law that allows emergency, temporary psychiatric commitments upon the recommendation of a mental health professional – took Raub to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was not charged with any crime.




A Virginia-based civil liberties group, The Rutherford Institute, dispatched one of its attorneys to the hospital to represent Raub at a hearing Monday. A judge ordered Raub detained for another month, Rutherford executive director John Whitehead said.


"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," Whitehead said.


Raub's mother, Cathleen Thomas, said by telephone that the government had overstepped its bounds.
"The bottom line is his freedom of speech has been violated," she said.
Thomas said her son, who served tours as a combat engineer in Iraq and Afghanistan, is "concerned about all the wars we've experienced" and believes the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of his Facebook posts, she said, pictured the gaping hole in the Pentagon and asked "where's the plane?"


Whitehead said he found nothing alarming in Raub's social media commentaries. "The posts I read that supposedly were of concern were libertarian-type posts I see all the time," he said.



The big concern, Whitehead said, is whether government officials are monitoring citizens' private Facebook pages and detaining people with whom they disagree.


Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman in Richmond, said there was no Facebook snooping by her agency.
"We received quite a few complaints about what were perceived as threatening posts," she said. "Given the circumstances with the things that have gone on in the country with some of these mass shootings, it would be horrible for law enforcement not to pay attention to complaints."
Whitehead said some of the posts in question were made on a closed Facebook page that Raub had recently created so he questioned whether anyone from the public would have complained about them.


"Support Brandon Raub" Facebook pages have drawn significant interest, and other Internet sites had numerous comments from people outraged by the veteran's detention.


Raub's supporters characterized the detention as an arrest, complaining he was handcuffed and whisked away in a police cruiser without being served a warrant or read his rights. But authorities say it wasn't an arrest because Raub doesn't face criminal charges.


Col. Thierry Dupuis, the county police chief, said Raub was taken into custody upon the recommendation of mental health crisis intervention workers. He said the action was taken under the state's emergency custody statute, which allows a magistrate to order the civil detention and psychiatric evaluation of a person who is considered potentially dangerous.


He said Raub was handcuffed because he resisted officers' attempts to take him into custody.
What he posted


http://wtvr.com/2012/08/21/full-text-brandon-raubs-proclamation-take-our-republic-back/


Watch what you post on Facebook, you might end up disappearing into a mental institution just like in the old Soviet Union.

First they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.​
 

MrColin

Platinum Member
May 21, 2003
2,403
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Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman in Richmond, said there was no Facebook snooping by her agency.
Nice dodge. You don't get to be an FBI spokeswoman by giving away the goods.

This is kind of unsettling to me as I have repeatedly voiced on FB, here, and elsewhere, that most of our Govt. and definitely all of the professional lobbyists would best serve our country wriggling at the end of a rope.
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
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If this guy did turn balistic and shoot a bunch of people, can you just picture all the outcrying of why we didn't do anything to stop this guy when he posts "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads" on Facebook?
 

Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
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If this guy did turn balistic and shoot a bunch of people, can you just picture all the outcrying of why we didn't do anything to stop this guy when he posts "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads" on Facebook?

I havent read everything he said, but from what I saw at the beginning it looks very reasonable. The "federal" reserve is evil and needs to end.

When is it OK to take away someones rights on suspicion? Lets just do away with innocent until proven guilty.
 

UberNeuman

Lifer
Nov 4, 1999
16,937
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On the Face of it.... (get it) - this is an overreaction and Mr. Raub will get his day in court to clear his name... and then sue those who made or insinuated false claims...

\however, his ass is grass if he's been working towards something else.....
 

Abraxas

Golden Member
Oct 26, 2004
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"The posts I read that supposedly were of concern were libertarian-type posts I see all the time," he said.
Thus proving Libertarians need to be put in padded rooms. :biggrin:
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,227
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Scary shit....there needs to be more outrage about this.....we arent in Germany here.

This is why the 2nd is so important. Without it, there is no 1st.
 

Abraxas

Golden Member
Oct 26, 2004
1,056
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Scary shit....there needs to be more outrage about this.....we arent in Germany here.

This is why the 2nd is so important. Without it, there is no 1st.

I'd be willing to wager he partook in his second amendment rights and didn't do him a bit of good, did it?
 

Pr0d1gy

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2005
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Scary stuff, you should definitely be careful and seriously consider if what you're about to post is worth being scooped up by the government. I love conspiracy theory but when you start going around espousing it's factuality you are playing a dangerous game. Minimal research will show you that most conspiracy theory is just entertainment, often used for selling goods (see Alex Jones, et al), and not really 100% truthful representations of what is going on. That is the, albeit enjoyable :p , downside to our freedom of speech is that people will take these things and run with it; often to their own and even our detriment.
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
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Considering there is a chance with that post that he was going to affect national security I am not surprised this happened.
 

Pr0d1gy

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2005
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Considering there is a chance with that post that he was going to affect national security I am not surprised this happened.

Dude, get real. He is a former soldier, if anyone is NOT a threat to national security it is them.
 

kami333

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2001
5,110
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We have his manifesto from 2011, where are the rest of his posts?

He supposedly posted "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads" (song lyrics btw) recently, why isn't that or other more recent posts included? I'm withholding judgement either way (authorities overstepped vs he's crazy), without more recent posts to give context it's all meaningless. He may have just liked to post song lyrics or he may have actually been posting some disturbing stuff.
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
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Dude, get real. He is a former soldier, if anyone is NOT a threat to national security it is them.

That is a fantasy world. ANYONE can be a threat. Especially trained soldiers. So it wasnt a trained soldier that killed those men in that army base in texas few years back? Damn civilians hiding in uniform.

I wasnt defending what the government did, but I am stating something like this doesn't surprise me. Especially since there is a huge group of people behind facebooks posts that review every post written by everyone off site (in another country) to help market stuff towards you, and anything that can be "problem matic" is reported to those who they feel must.

How I know this is none of your concern. If any normal person would have said what he did. Nothing would have happened. However take a trained soldier who may not be all there from any possible PTS, it isnt a surprise.

And like Kami said, we dont know the rest of his posts because it wasn't reported. Maybe he posted stuff like this quite often?
 

kami333

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2001
5,110
2
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That is a fantasy world. ANYONE can be a threat. Especially trained soldiers. So it wasnt a trained soldier that killed those men in that army base in texas few years back? Damn civilians hiding in uniform.

I wasnt defending what the government did, but I am stating something like this doesn't surprise me. Especially since there is a huge group of people behind facebooks posts that review every post written by everyone off site (in another country) to help market stuff towards you, and anything that can be "problem matic" is reported to those who they feel must.

How I know this is none of your concern. If any normal person would have said what he did. Nothing would have happened. However take a trained soldier who may not be all there from any possible PTS, it isnt a surprise.

And like Kami said, we dont know the rest of his posts because it wasn't reported. Maybe he posted stuff like this quite often?

Not to mention Wade Michael Page, the Sikh temple gunman was a former soldier. Army, if I remember correctly, so I guess according to Pr0d1gy the Marines get a free pass?
 

Pr0d1gy

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2005
7,775
0
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That is a fantasy world. ANYONE can be a threat. Especially trained soldiers. So it wasnt a trained soldier that killed those men in that army base in texas few years back? Damn civilians hiding in uniform.

I wasnt defending what the government did, but I am stating something like this doesn't surprise me. Especially since there is a huge group of people behind facebooks posts that review every post written by everyone off site (in another country) to help market stuff towards you, and anything that can be "problem matic" is reported to those who they feel must.

How I know this is none of your concern. If any normal person would have said what he did. Nothing would have happened. However take a trained soldier who may not be all there from any possible PTS, it isnt a surprise.

And like Kami said, we dont know the rest of his posts because it wasn't reported. Maybe he posted stuff like this quite often?


You're right about one thing, it is certainly none of my concern because I post on Facebook about once a quarter....lol

That said, this is an obvious trampling of his 2nd ammendment rights.
 

SS Trooper

Senior member
Jun 18, 2012
228
0
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Another reason I don't use Facebook or Twitter. Hard copy of any thought or joke I happen to decide to share with even just close friends. No thanks. I'm sure a lot of people would want to throw me in a mental hospital. More than the ones that want me to be thrown into a mental hospital for not having Facebook or Twitter.
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
3,393
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You're right about one thing, it is certainly none of my concern because I post on Facebook about once a quarter....lol

That said, this is an obvious trampling of his 2nd ammendment rights.

I am assuming you mean the 1st amendment, as forcing him to have a psych evaluation and detaining him temp. for that post really doesn't harm his right to bare arms.
 

Pr0d1gy

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2005
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I am assuming you mean the 1st amendment, as forcing him to have a psych evaluation and detaining him temp. for that post really doesn't harm his right to bare arms.

Yep, thanks for the correction. Obviously, I meant 1st. :p Nobody's perfect, least of all me.
 

kami333

Diamond Member
Dec 12, 2001
5,110
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Found his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.raub?sk=wall

Nothing really outrageous, if he had been just a civilian I wouldn't think much of it (I have friends who post similar things and sometimes I wonder about them too) and say the the government definitively overstepped, but seeing as he does have a military background and there is the potential for TBI/PTSD (symptoms can show up years later in some cases) if I were his friend I would have been checking up on him, especially if this contrasted greatly with how he used to act. Probably wouldn't have reported him to the "authorities" but who knows, maybe others had been trying to get him to go in for evaluation or counseling voluntarily and this was the only way to get him to agree.

The thing with mental issues is that in many cases all you see are a string of little warning signs, by themselves they are fairly innocuous but when there's a pattern that's when the person is heading into trouble. I think those of us who have had friends commit suicide or gone off the deep end look back and feel guilt for not picking up on those signs earlier, even little things like not wanting to go out, loss of concentration, etc can be important when there is a trend.
 

Zargon

Lifer
Nov 3, 2009
12,240
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of course he resisted, his detention reeks of BULLSHIT and violations of numerous constitutional rights
 

rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
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If this guy did turn balistic and shoot a bunch of people, can you just picture all the outcrying of why we didn't do anything to stop this guy when he posts "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads" on Facebook?

This is the risk we just have to accept. I have said many time at work... "heads are going to roll" when some idiot does something wrong. Where do we draw the line?

Now being that he was a former marine. I would look at his service record. Had he been in Iraq or Afghanistan and suffered a brain injury or PTS from being a sitting duck... then it is the duty of the military to take care of this person... but not have the FBI go an arrest him.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
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"Given the circumstances with the things that have gone on in the country with some of these mass shootings, it would be horrible for law enforcement not to pay attention to complaints."

While tragic it greatly concerns me when the fate of 0.0000001% of the population is used to change\massage the rights of the remainder. By itself this is not so 'bad' and one would hope that the justice system will work as desired. Unfortunately there seems to be a growing trend of squeezing the rights and freedoms with the expectation that people can be protected from any harm no matter how statistically insignificant