Big brother is watching
(Fox News) 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.
Raub is a little nutty, being a big 9/11 Truther and talking about arresting government officials. He’s way, way, way out there libertarian, and wrote a bunch of stuff along those lines. But, apparently his Facebook site was closed to the general public
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.
If it could happen to Raub, it could happen to anyone.
The big concern, Whitehead said, is whether government officials are monitoring citizens’ private Facebook pages and detaining people with whom they disagree.
As mentioned, his Facebook page was private. Supposedly, people made complaints to Los Federales. Raub is on a 30 day hold for a psychiatric evaluation. For what are apparently thought crimes against the government.
I don’t agree with his views, but, no one should be detained for simply expressing an opinion like this.
And this is different than what Putin is doing with his protestors, or what the little bearded wonder in Iran is doing to the youthful protestors over there?
Every dictator uses the cover of law and safety to impose his will to silence dissent.
I think an issue just as big, is the fact that Facebook is allowing the USGov’t to spy on citizen’s private pages. (if his pages were truly private and he wasnt reported by one of his friends he allowed in)
But then, haven’t we heard more and more stories about the big social sites cooperating more and more with gov’t and even being proactive with censorship? Google allows its searches to be censored based on country. I’d tell them to sit and spin.