Vet Detailed For Facebook Remarks

[BendtheBar]

Posting for discussion...

Military Vet Detained For Psych Evaluation Over Anti-Government Facebook Posts

Military Vet Detained For Psych Evaluation Over Anti-Government Facebook Posts CBS DC

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 and Secret Service agents and Chesterfield County police questioned him Thursday evening about what they considered ominous posts talking of a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month, Raub wrote: “Sharpen my axe; I’m here to sever heads.”

“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. “This should be a wake-up call to Americans that the police state is here.”

[moeheep]

I am not at all agreeing with this situation....BUT...if the next day he went on an axe wielding killing spree, everyone would be criticizing the government for "doing nothing, even though there was clear evidence of his intentions"

[5kgLifter]

Pretty sure, with the size of Facebook, that there are numerous anti-government messages posted there...somehow I doubt anyone else has been detained though.

[BendtheBar]

Here are 5 articles from this detailed Marine that are found online:

Property, Liberty, Jesus, and Our Country | Don't Tread On Me

What God Tried To Do | Don't Tread On Me

Richmond Liberty March | Don't Tread On Me

Economics 101 | Don't Tread On Me

The Richmond Liberty Movement | Don't Tread On Me

He might be fringe, but he certainly doesn't seem the type that meant "sharpen the axe" literally. But that's simply my opinion.

Here are his recent Facebook comments:

1) I feel like I am standing at a great crossroads. As if a storm of destiny is about to pick me up and take me to fight a great battle. A battle I could have never imagined existed. 7/24/12

2) We MUST rise up and take our country back. 7/30/12

3) I am standing against a great evil. I will do it all by myself if I have to. 8/4/12

5) This is the part where I tell the Federal Government to go **** itself. This is the part where I tell Generals, training our young men to fight Americans, I am coming for you. The Veterans will be with me. 8/9/12

6) I’m starting the Revolution. I’m done waiting. 8/10/12

7) Sharpen up my axe; I’m here to sever heads. 8/13/12

8) The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it. 8/14/12

9) The Revolution is here. And I will lead it. 8/14/12

In any case, our founding fathers fought to give us the right to express ourselves freely, and to control our government, and not to let the government control us.

[MC]

Originally Posted by moeheep

I am not at all agreeing with this situation....BUT...if the next day he went on an axe wielding killing spree, everyone would be criticizing the government for "doing nothing, even though there was clear evidence of his intentions"

That's the challenge. While we can't have it both ways, I have to believe there is a better middle ground.

People's ability to express themselves must be protected, and there are constitutional limits to those protections.

Your rights are only supposed to end at the point where they begin to infringe upon the rights of others.

EDIT: My spidey sense goes off every time I hear someone say "Take Our Country Back!!" Um, who stole it? Did I miss something?

[IronManlet]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

In any case, our founding fathers fought to give us the right to express ourselves freely, and to control our government, and not to let the government control us.

Right on.

[Tannhauser]

Originally Posted by moeheep

I am not at all agreeing with this situation....BUT...if the next day he went on an axe wielding killing spree, everyone would be criticizing the government for "doing nothing, even though there was clear evidence of his intentions"

Wasn't there a multiple slaying fairly recently by someone in the US military, where it was felt warning signs had been ignored?

Edit to add: I was thinking of the Fort Worth killings in 2009

Immediately after the shooting, analysts and public officials openly debated Hasan's motive and preceding psychological state: A military activist, Selena Coppa, remarked that Hasan's psychiatrist colleagues "failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was."

Not taking sides on this, just wondering if cases like this are uppermost in the minds of those insisting on an evaluation. Or maybe that's naive.

[Goat]

Update

The Marine veteran who was detained over anti-government Facebook posts is headed home after a circuit court judge ordered he be released from a psychiatric facility on Thursday, WWBT in Richmond reports.

The judge ruled that the government had no legal grounds to detain Brandon J. Raub, a 26-year-old former U.S. Marine, and Virginia resident.

Judge Orders Marine Detained Over Facebook Posts Brandon Raub Released, Could You Be Next? | Video | TheBlaze.com

[DieselWeasel]

You can now be guilty of thoughtcrime in the U.S. Quite disturbing.

Honestly, some of my Facebook posts aren't very dissimilar from the stuff Raub posted. Uh-oh! :-/