Minority Report Is Here: The Chilling Case Of Brandon Raub

A day more significant than 9-11-01 should be marked in the history books: 8-16-12. On that day an American, minding his own business, outside of ranting on his Facebook page, was forcibly taken without charge from his home. - Robert Wenzel, EconomicyPolicyJournal.com.I really would like nothing better than to spend Ron Paul's birthday watching old videos of him schooling Rudy Giuliani on foreign policy, playing with my dog and just forgetting about all the ills of the world for the rest of the afternoon.  But alas, the life of a libertarian blogger isn't always so easy.  I've been following the story of Brandon Raub for the past several days and it simply can't be ignored.  For those not up to speed, this article from Business Insider sums it up fairly well.Brandon Raub is an ex marine who was also seemed to be a liberty advocate, as he wrote several articles on liberty and economics for the website Don't Tread On Me and also ran a small numismatic coin business from his home.  On Thursday August 16, a swarm of law enforcement officials including the Chesterfield Virginia Police, the FBI and The Secret Service showed up at his home and took him to a psychiatric ward for "evaluation".  This was apparently due to some Facebook posts Raub had made as well as his signing a petition calling for a new investigation into the events of 9/11.   Let's take a look at a sampling of these Facebook posts:

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. 7/24/12We MUST rise up and take our country back. 7/30/1I am standing against a great evil. I will do it all by myself if I have to. 8/4/12This is the part where I tell the Federal Government to go fuck 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. 8/9/12I’m starting the Revolution. I’m done waiting. 8/10/12Sharpen up my axe; I’m here to sever heads. 8/13/12The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it. 8/14/12The Revolution is here. And I will lead it. 8/14/12

The only part that I could see that could be construed as even remotely threatening would be "This is the part where I tell Generals, training our young men to fight Americans, I am coming for you" and a few days later "Sharpen up my axe; I’m here to sever heads", the latter of which is apparently a song lyric from the band called Swollen Members.  The phrase "coming for you" very vague and neither specifies a target nor what action "coming for you" might entail.  He generally sounds like someone who, like many of us, are fed up with what he is seeing from the government and knows that revolutionary types of changes are needed.  And he's pretty fired up about it. But is that in itself a crime?We may never know, because the most chilling aspect of this case is that he wasn't charged with a crime at all and technically wasn't even arrested.  There are three very interesting quotes from the Richmond Times-Dispatch article regarding this incident, all from various levels of law enforcement.

1. Spokesman for the FBI Dee Rybiski: "The FBI did not arrest him...We are not commenting any further."
2. Chesterfield police Lt. Rich McCullough:  "We were assisting the FBI in a matter. All we did was transport (him to John Randolph for medical evaluation)
3. Secret Service spokesman Max Milien in Washington, "That subject was not arrested by us on any charges."

So three spokesman for the three law enforcement agencies involved in taking Brandon Raub to the psychiatric ward agree that he was not arrested. According to all accounts of his family members including his own account in a phone interview, Raub is being held against his will.  Take that all in for a second.  Brandon Raub is an ex marine, has no criminal history, is not charged with a crime, was not arrested, and yet is being held against his will in a psychiatric ward.  If he hasn't been arrested, what do we call it? The only word I can think to use is kidnapping.  If any other group of men not wearing government badges did this to someone, they would certainly be accused of kidnapping themselves.Maybe Brandon Raub is a little off the wall.  One could argue that it might even make sense for an FBI agent to at least pay him a visit and ask him questions if there was indeed a legitimate concern over a supposed "threat".  But to hold a man against his will without charging him with any crime and placing him in a psychiatric ward is beyond any thing even I could have imagined.  This is literally straight out of the Soviet Union playbook, where dissidents would routinely be sent to psychiatric wards, be declared "insane" and a "danger to society" and never be heard from again.In Naomi Wolf's well-known article "Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps", Step # 6 is "Engage In Arbitrary Detention and Release".   This is something the Chinese government routinely does with its dissidents, and is a classic fascist tactic for quelling decent by making the general populace afraid of the possibility of detention.   Now that indefinite detention - though in legal limbo thanks to a preliminary injunction in a federal court - is the law of the land via the 2012 NDAA, are the pieces starting to fit together? Is it time we stop pretending that this is just "soft" fascism or "play" fascism we are seeing in this country, and consider the possibility that it might be the real deal?The 2002 film "Minority Report" depicts a future where computer programs determine who will commit a criminal act so that they can be arrested before they actually commit a crime.  It seems that in this digital age Facebook and the internet as a whole are turning into the Department of Pre Crime .  Anything we do or say can be interpreted as a "terrorist threat", by nameless faceless government offiicials without any sort of accountability whatsoever.Reading a recently published article by Brandon Raub, much of it doesn't seem all that different than something you might read on this very website.  He criticizes The Federal Reserve system, the income tax and the growth of the Federal Debt. Can I be whisked away for writing a post where I sarcastically call for the indefinite detention of President Obama?In this article, Brandon Raub also states:

Force is not the way because liberty is a powerful concept.  The idea that men can govern themselves is the basis for every just form of government.

Do these sound like the words of a man who is looking to incite violence?  Whether one agrees or disagrees with anything Brandon Raub has said is irrelevant.  He is a free man, charged with no crime, and the latest reports are that he may be held for up to 30 days in a psychiatric ward.In the Minority Report world we now live in, everyone must now be extra mindful of their word choice, especially on the internet and social media sites, all of which are admittedly heavily monitored by The Department of Homeland Security. You know, to keep us safe from those Facebook ranting, puppy-loving marines. Seriously, is it time to wake up yet?UPDATE: Brandon Raub gave an interview from the psych ward where he is being held with Adam Kokesh.  Brandon certainly sounds a lot more "sane" than most of Obama and Romney supporters I've ever met.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!