Thursday, August 23, 2012

Brandon Raub - American Hero or Ticking Bomb?

The republican Mother is following the developing Brandon Raub story.  Her latest post Brandon Raub:  Crazy Like a Fox? gives us a most profound thought on what young Brandon may or may not realized he was doing when he predicted his detainment.  She says:


But getting back to Brandon and his comments, the one I found most interesting was the one made on August 14, a couple days before his arrest. "The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it."
 
Adam Kokesh's interview with Brandon blows my mind, for he certainly sounds perfectly sane yet he's still being held after 72 hours on the opinion of someone who Ben Swann describes as a "special judge who is actually just a lawyer and part of what Virginia calls a Civil Commitment Board".

Now this is scary.  I've been looking at many other situations where Americans or permanent residents have been picked up and even convicted on skimpy evidence or coerced confessions.  They need to be tied to the escalating use of swat teams to prosecute the War on Drugs, which is spilling over into arrests of non-violent offenders in other areas such as student loan fraud and food co-ops.  There are so many more out there that I was planning on someday putting something together to better "connect the dots", but until then, here are a few.

 
  • Justice for Yassin Aref - Monster or unwitting innocent victim?
  • The Lackawanna Six - Many questions abound about how big of a threat they really were.  See also this.
  • Robert Perske - Advocate for justice for those with learning disabilities.
  • The Agitator - Radley Balko performs exhaustive investigative reporting on civil liberties and the criminal justice system.
  • Sultans of Swat - Can they seriously come for you?
 
That's enough to give a glimpse into the serious implications of possible effects behind our government's imposition of the Patriot Act, NDAA, and other excesses into the usurpation of our Constitutionally protected rights.  Of course, without anyone left actively supporting their oath to abiding by that Constitution anymore, you have no rights.

Update (28 Aug 12) - Brandon, who was taken into custody on Aug 16, was ordered release by Circuit Judge W.Allan Sharret on Aug 23.

Brandon discusses his ordeal with John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute.

2 comments:

  1. Quite honestly I don't know what to make of this story. It is very possible that there is a great deal more to it. We have really only heard one side. Virginia is a state where you can put onto a 48 hour hold, then kept in a hospital setting for up to 30 days at a time, if a judge approves.

    But, if was purely a hold for mental health issues, why would the FBI be involved?

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    1. Excellent question!!! Much thanks for pointing that out for I failed to even consider that.

      Perhaps because they don't have enough real work for all of them they have employed to be chasing down real terrorists in our midst so they are dropping their donuts to engage in some serious mission creep here? It may just be that the FBI has more authority under new federal laws enacted after 9/11 to do things local law enforcement can't in terms of warrantless wire-taps and more, thus requiring their involvement.

      However, as you astutely point out with that question, this identifies a need to much more seriously examine what the actual role and authorities are for the FBI as well as all other federal agents in our federal republic construct.

      Could it be fallout from the public's outcry for more to be done in the wake of Aurora and the Sikh temple shootings and they are getting involved in going after everyone everywhere to show they're on the job? Possibly, which is why I urge people to look more deeply into arrests and convictions of Muslim Americans and permanent residents. This action has all the characteristics of implementing Bush's pre-emptive strike doctrine into law enforcement activities or instituting a pre-crime prevention process in the movie, "Minority Report".

      At this time, lacking further information, I think The republican Mother got it right, Brandon appears to have been probing to see how much it took for them to react physically react beyond monitoring, and that they certainly did.

      Thanks for stopping by! :)

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