Former Marine Detained, Held For A Month For Posting Conspiracy Theories, Rap Lyrics To Facebook
from the free-speech? dept
We were just discussing how some in law enforcement are overreacting to "threats" on Facebook, and someone in the comments pointed us to the case of Brandon Raub, which we had been unfamiliar with. Raub, a former Marine, posted some of his concerns about the government to his Facebook page, along with some rap lyrics. Raub's views definitely fall into what many consider to be conspiracy theory territory -- claiming 9/11 was an inside job, talking about the Illuminati controlling the world, etc. He also did make vague references to the idea that a "revolution is coming" and that a "civil war" was coming -- and even said that "I'm starting the revolution. I'm done waiting." The only directly "violent" thing he posted -- which gets covered in all of the press about Raub's situation -- is the line: "'Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads." Of course, what nearly everyone who quotes that line leaves out is that it's a lyric to the rap song Bring Me Down by the group Swollen Members.Either way, it seems that these statements on his Facebook page resulted in him being detained in a psychiatric ward. A recent hearing ended with a decision that he needs to stay there for another 30 days. While government officials say he wasn't arrested, the video footage of law enforcement officials handcuffing him and pushing him into a police car sure looks like an arrest:
That said, many others are quite reasonably concerned that a few comments involving conspiracy theories and angry rap lyrics can get one carted off by the government to a psychiatric ward for over a month. In an interview from the ward, Raub notes that he'd actually been leaning towards re-enlisting right before all of this happened.
No matter what, the situation raises some serious questions about free speech rights with regards to social networks these days. While I don't have an issue with people investigating the details of a situation if comments could reasonably be interpreted to be a possible warning sign of a threat, it's troubling how these same comments could be taken out of context and mean nothing in terms of an actual threat. The fact that he ends up in a psych ward against his and his family's own best wishes is, at the very least, a big concern.
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Filed Under: brandon raub, civil liberties, free speech
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http://allnewsanonymous.blogspot.com/2012/08/former-marine-indefinitely-detained.html
I thought the site was a bit sketchy at first, but seeing one of the stories it was covering on TechDirt has convinced me of it's authenticity.
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Well if he was a marine
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And what if someone's account gets broken into? What if someone's careless with their laptop, or falls for a phishing scam or something?
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Normally I agree
The guy deserved to be detained. He was making repeated violent threats against people, and trying to downplay his desire for a "revolution" is being naive.
Sure, the axe comment was a lyric, but so what? Does it mean any less because of that? He was a MARINE. Trained to kill, talking about killing and starting a civil war.
Yeah, lets let this nut-job slide until he shows up to your next movie premiere.
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Re: Normally I agree
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You can't apprehend people for what you think they might do sometime in the future.
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Re: Normally I agree
I think I recall that the Columbine killers were found of quoting violent lyrics in advance of their cowardly attack.
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That is simply untrue.
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Did you even read the article and watch the video? The fact that this guy was apprehend for what others think he MIGHT DO some time in the future, proves you wrong.
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The "authorities" sure caught hell
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Re: Normally I agree
" trying to downplay his desire for a "revolution" is being naive. "
Dont kid yourself. If the GOV keeps tightening the noose it will be inevitable, a civil war. Or do you think the sheeple will just accept being RFID implanted and every action, transaction, and word uttered be monitored and stored for future or real-time scrutiny?
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9-11
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What did they put on the warrant?
/willing to accept correction by a lawyer on that point.
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http://youtu.be/iGI4jfwOmOk
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Different strokes
I guess he couldn't possibly be certifiable or a threat because he's a Republican judge, not some guy on Facebook. And the bright folks around Lubbock think his judgement is so good they decided to pay him for it. He won't be going to the psych ward anytime soon. At worst he'll decide to spend more time with his family while collecting a nice fat pension for the rest of his life.
More: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/us/texas-judge-warning/index.html
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"Conspiracy theories" come in all forms...
I would challenge anyone to explain how the "official" 9/11 Report doesn't also qualify as a conspiracy theory.
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Re: Normally I agree
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Re: Well if he was a marine
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Re: Different strokes
Things could go South really bad in the next Year to 15 years.
And this is how we put someone away for as long as we want to without ever seeing a Judge and being Charged with a Crime.
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Interesting that the difference between the brave heroic types who are part of the slaughter large numbers of men,women and children in other countries and crazy conspiracy theorists is so small.
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Re: Well if he was a marine
I presume you mean the streets of the US. I imagine you were all in favours of that kind of crazy loon walking the streets of Bahdad, Kabul, etc.
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Re: Re: Normally I agree
If he is, then the chances that he would be dangerously violent go way up.
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Re: Re: Different strokes
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He posted copyrighted lyrics without permission.
After all who does the FBI work for anyways?
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Yes.
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Re: What did they put on the warrant?
In short, detentions are shorter and more limited in scope, and carry a lower burden of proof.
However, in this case I think it's a psychiatric detention, which is a little bit different. They have cause to believe that he may present an immediate danger to others, and are detaining him pending a psychiatric evaluation.
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Re: Normally I agree
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Nope, they got it right
The sad thing is that naturally people think they're perfectly fine, even if everyone in their family can see it. Usually there's nothing that can be done to even get them diagnosed.
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Re: Nope, they got it right
And on a wider scale, that mentally ill individual, is the united states.
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Granted its not the ONLY option, but forgive me if I don't trust a potential psychopath's "friends and family" to stop a potential disaster.
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Re: Normally I agree
"We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution." - How about this one?
"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible." - Or this guy
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear private arms." - Or this guy?
You need to wake up.
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Code Red!
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People seem to think, for some insane reason, that putting your venting/eccentric antics on the internet suddenly makes it more real.
I have friends like this guy that I can totally see sharpening an axe in front of me going "I'm gonna chop people's heads off so I can appease the great dragon!" and my response will be something along the lines of "Whatever Brad, there something you want to talk about or did you forget your meds again?"
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Re: Re: Re: Normally I agree
He wasn't arrested(which would involve him being detained), he was only detained(without being arrested), and that's supposed to be a good thing?
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And there YOU go.
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Re: Code Red!
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predict.
The crackpots who took this guy in need to be reprimanded and then ostracized. It's also funny some of you point out that he is a trained killer...HILARIOUS, for all these "trained killers" are never properly brought back into society with proper treatment after going out and being exactly what the army trains them to be. I wonder why?
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If your statement were correct, Micheal Moore and Anne Coulter would have been sharing adjoining cells years ago.
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not under arrest
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Re: Normally I agree
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Re: Well if he was a marine
Now that I have had a chance to vent. Let me explain to you that the shit Marines go through behind the enemy lines is extremely detrimental to mental health. Yes he probably should have reported to the US Navy's Section 8 befor shipping out, but psychologically he doesn't think he needs to. It's called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The shockwaves of the various gunshots and explosions this man has heard over the years has damaged his brain at a neurological level. So maybe you should lay off the "people like that shouldn't be allowed to walk the streets" shit. He's as human as you and I are and I wish that you would have understood that being a human yourself, but you failed at it. So please next time you ever have a thought like that, please consider that he is a fucking human being who deserves the right to be helped as a human and not to be shut away from the world because he's labeled as "crazy".
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Psychiatric wards have a long history of being used to slander and discredit political prisoners.
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Adding to this as a psychologist, you should never trust any diagnosis unless done by a professional. Friends and family are the single worst proponents in recognizing this type of neurological disorder because they are biased in how they see him. They see him from what their homeostasis allows them to see. If they don't "seem to notice" irradic behaviors it's because they were conditioned not to see them because he wasn't like that before he shipped off to the Marines.
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Imagine if the environment were being destroyed and death and misery on a massive scale were already beginning to be realized while for decades governments around the world have done next to or worse than nothing to avert any of it. Wouldn't that be worse than a mere mall shooting?
Imagine if the US and UK government convinced everyone to wage a war on a third world people over imaginary weapons of mass destruction, leading to the deaths of probably hundreds of thousands of people and no one did anything about that. Wouldn't that be worse than a mere mall shooting?
When it comes to intimidating and stripping the populice of their civil rights, any hint of a threat is sufficient justification for any degree or kind of over reaction or absurdity, but when it comes to real and present threats and harms, it's all just "too hard" and we pretend that these things are inevitabilities that no one is really blameworthy for.
Our risk perception is badly skewed so that we sense a huge risk is letting law abiding people walk free, but none in letting the state invoke the mere hint of the possibility of a potential threat as an excuse to lock away law abiding people. That's crazy-dellusional.
We need to stop stomping on the faces of the mostly powerless as an excuse to be distracted from those who are powerful enough to do real wide spread harms at the stroke of a pen, and who having been getting away with their destructive harmful crap. Meanwhile everyone else is made to bicker and look with suspicion on each other while tossing blame and hysteria back and forth amongst ourselves.
Moral hysterias over freak incidents involving the relatively powerless keep us from looking up and asking the really tough questions of our so called elites.
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Re: Re: Normally I agree
Never turn your back
On the ripper
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Re: "Conspiracy theories" come in all forms...
We have tons of recorded evidence to back up the claims that the report convey's. This includes conversations recorded on Flight 93 that was supposed to hit Cleveland.
A lot of conspiracy theorists believed 9/11 was an inside job because of political motivation. They failed to account for the fact that there was a lot of recorded evidence and scientific tests done to confirm how the steel failed in the towers.
For the jet fuel fire vs the steel I-Beems test. It took 30 minutes for the steel to bend like gack being stretched out.
The Pentagon's holes should not be bigger on the inside is a favorite among them too. They fail to account for the shockwave and dabrye expanded the size of the hole in the next wall.
As for your comment, there was irrefutable scientific evidence and recorded personal accounts of passengers compiled to create that report.
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Re: Re: Well if he was a marine
You're: a contraction of "you" and "are" (example usage: you're not good at grammar)
Your: possessive form of "you" (example usage: your teacher didn't teach you grammar)
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Re: Nope, they got it right
"The dude's quite possibly unstable. They didn't lock him up for life, they got him evaluated for his mental health which can indeed take time. Better safe then sorry and as someone who has seen the effects unknown mental illnesses can cause, He may well end up lucky that he was forced into it."
And the second part of the same comment be the final word?:
"The sad thing is that naturally people think they're perfectly fine, even if everyone in their family can see it. Usually there's nothing that can be done to even get them diagnosed."
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Re: Re: Nope, they got it right
Sorry for the muck up :-)
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Re: Re: Nope, they got it right
What country are you from?
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Re: Nope, they got it right
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So according to you the only choices are "do nothing" and "lock him up for a month"?
Some of the adults in the room realize that there's a wide spectrum of responses that could be taken, and (as expressed in the article you clearly did not read) believe that perhaps it should be further in one direction on that spectrum, not all the way at the extreme end.
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Re: Re: Re: Well if he was a marine
:-)
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He has to be evaluated and monitored. It takes a bit of time to get a diagnosis, especially when a patient refuses to cooperate. So the detainment is mostly behavioral observation. It's not like he's going to be there for years as well.
I could point to the copy of DSM-IV that I have but The Mayo Clinic website gives it in plain English:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/DS00246/DSECTION=symptom s
Feel free to read that at your own leisure :-)
There are 3 types of PTSD but the one I would like to focus on is hyperarousal/anxiety:
Symptoms of anxiety and increased emotional arousal may include:
Irritability or anger
Overwhelming guilt or shame
Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much
Trouble sleeping
Being easily startled or frightened
Hearing or seeing things that aren't there
So maybe someone saw some of these behaviors and decided to help him out to get evaluated. Point is that he can now start treatment before it gets worse :-)
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Some of the comments on the HuffPo article are claiming he got a court order to release him, though, so who knows?
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However I do find your final paragraph a tad misguided.
PTSD symptoms can start to appear up to 3 months after a traumatic event. The problem is that they send the unstable people (such as the man to what is a Section 8 classification. Mr. Raub is showing signs of PTSD. It's common amongst servicemen and women who have been in combat duty for too long a time. So before he went in, he was fine. When he ended his tour of duty, he seemed fine. After 3 months, depending on what types of trauma they've gone through in their tour of duty, certain signs of it show up.
In his case it was Anxiety/Hyprearousal. Some of those symptoms include irrationalty and irritability.
Glad to help you gain a bit of perspective :-)
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Judging by the video alone that he has a mental illness. So to say "I'm just surprised people like him are allowed to walk the street," is sort of a jibe against those who cannot help doing some of the crazy things he was doing.
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Increasing levels of censorship, with soviet era mental health as a new punishment for critiquing government.
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Re: Act like a nutjob, you get treated like one.
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I wonder
Freedom starts with Words..DEALS with actions..and then becomes the END result.
Our forefathers didnt want a war, and tried to get away from it, but When Britain sent its troops..there was little else to do..
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marine vet detained outrage
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Re: not under arrest
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Re: Re: "Conspiracy theories" come in all forms...
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But Then Why...
Abandon you assumptions. Stick to your convictions. Clouverse.
http://clouverse.com
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Correction
Hey, the source link in this paragraph:
Either way, it seems that these statements on his Facebook page resulted in him being detained in a psychiatric ward.
is not longer working. Use this link instead
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