By Joel Skousen
Republic Broadcasting Network

Court ordered psychiatric detention has always been a disturbing legal policy open to abuse. But it is particularly dangerous when people can be thrown into Soviet-styled indefinite detention based solely on what authorities consider irrational political views–like conspiracy.

I knew that William Norman Grigg would comment on this, since he is America’s foremost champion of citizen rights against the police state. “Brandon Raub, a Marine combat veteran, was abducted at his home in Chesterfield, Virginia by a thug-scrum of federal officials and local police on August 16. He wasn’t charged with a crime; instead, he was taken into schutzhaft [protective custody] on the pretext that some of his Facebook posts concerning current affairs evinced symptoms of mental derangement or terrorist inclinations.

“Raub came to the attention of his overseers after publicly expressing doubts about the official narrative of the 9/11 attacks – the contemporary ‘Reichstag Fire’ incident that led to the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bush administration’s open-ended Authorization for Use of Military Force.

“Although Raub was seized at gunpoint and dragged from his home in handcuffs, none of those who committed the act will admit to ‘arresting’ him. ‘The FBI did not arrest him,’ insisted Bureau spokesliar Dee Rybiski. Raub ‘was not arrested by us on any charges,’ insisted Secret Service apparatchik Max Milien when asked about the case. ‘We were assisting the FBI in this matter,’ simpered Lt. Rich McCullough of the Chesterfield Police Department. ‘All we did was transport him’ to the psychiatric gulag.”

UPDATE: Raub was fortunate that the internet story about his illegal detention flashed around the world and alerted the Rutherford Institute which sent an attorney to represent him. They protested his arrest and the strange attempt by the state of Virginia to transfer Raub to a mental hospital clear across the state, away from the original jurisdiction. Rutherford got his case to a higher judge quickly, with dramatic and positive results:

“In an unexpected ruling handed down today by Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett, the judge dismissed the government’s case against Brandon Raub, the Marine who was arrested by local police and FBI agents, detained in a psychiatric ward and forced to undergo psychological evaluations based solely on the controversial nature of lines from song lyrics, political messages and virtual card games which he posted to his private Facebook page. Judge Sharrett dismissed the petition for involuntary commitment on the grounds that the petition ‘is so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.’ Raub is expected to be released immediately. ‘This is a great victory for the First Amendment and the rule of law,’ said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute.”

“Totalitarian states always require acts of immaculate suppression: Millions are seized, imprisoned, and slaughtered, and those atrocities somehow commit themselves without the conscious involvement of individuals. One incident like the abduction of Brandon Raub could be considered an anomaly; two may be a coincidence; three constitute a pattern.

“Raub is just one of several Americans who have recently been taken into shutzhaft by operatives of the Homeland Security State. Several months ago, Washington, D.C. resident Matthew Corrigan, a depressed veteran seeking help for a sleeping disorder, was arrested by a SWAT team after he mistakenly called the National Suicide Hotline. Despite the fact that he was neither a criminal suspect nor a suicide risk, Corrigan – like Raub – was hauled away in handcuffs and imprisoned.

“At about 4:00 a.m., Corrigan was startled awake by the sound of his name being called through a police bullhorn. Ordered to come out of the house, Corrigan did so, locking the door behind him. He was surrounded by police, handcuffed, and put in the back of a van. When the officer commanding the Emergency Response Team (ERT, the local equivalent of SWAT) demanded access to his home, Corrigan replied: ‘There is no way I am giving you consent to enter my place.’

“Lt. Robert Glover, the on-scene ERT commander, angrily replied: ‘I don’t have time to play this constitutional bullsh*t!’ and ordered the team to invade the property. Corrigan was taken to a VA hospital, where it was determined that he wasn’t a suicide risk. Despite the fact that he hadn’t been charged with a crime, Corrigan was held in jail for roughly two weeks before being released. He was also required to report each week to Pretrial Services.

“In Corrigan’s absence, the SWAT team ransacked his residence. Without either a warrant or probable cause, the police deployed a bomb squad to search for explosives and firearms. They eventually found two handguns and a rifle, all of which were legally owned and properly stored. Corrigan was not the first innocent gun owner to be seized by a SWAT team and detained without criminal charges owing to his suspected psychological instability.

“On March 8, 2010, David Pyles of Medford, Oregon awoke to find his home surrounded by company-strength contingent of police – two SWAT teams, officers from two local police departments, sheriff’s deputies from two counties, and troopers from the Oregon State Police. A few days earlier, Pyles had purchased two handguns and an AK-47 rifle. Shortly before he used a tax refund to buy the guns, Pyles had been put on administrative leave by the Oregon Department of Transportation.

“This convergence of events led police to categorize Pyles – without evidence of criminal intent or derangement – as a ‘disgruntled employee’ planning retaliation of some kind against his ODOT supervisor. The police that surrounded his house demanded that he submit to a mental health evaluation. They also seized his firearms for ‘safekeeping.’

“‘They woke me up with a phone call at about 5:50 in the morning,’ Pyles recalled later. ‘I looked out the window and saw the SWAT team pointing their guns at my house. The officer on the phone told me to turn myself in. I told them I would, on three conditions: I would not be handcuffed. I would not be taken off my property. And I would not be forced to get a mental health evaluation. He agreed [not a good idea].’

“The negotiator, being a police officer, performed as he was trained to – that is to say, he lied.‘The second I stepped outside, they jumped me,’ continues Pyles. ‘Then they handcuffed me, took me off my property, and took me to get a mental health evaluation.’

“Within a few hours Pyles had been discharged from the hospital. He never saw the inside of a jail cell. The local police – most likely in reaction to a nation-wide outpouring of outrage triggered by their persecution of an innocent gun owner – returned the firearms, albeit not before lying to him again by claiming that he would have to undergo a second ‘background check.’ All of this, according to Sgt. Jeff Proulx of the Oregon State Police, was a successful exercise in ‘proactive’ police work.

“The February 2010 paramilitary assault on the Salem County, Massachusetts home of engineer Gregory Girard was an even more egregious case. Girard had an unremarkable gun collection – at total 11 legally purchased and registered rifles and two handguns. The police who stole Girard’s property described that collection as ‘an alarming, nearly military-grade stockpile,’ and his food storage supplies, flashlights, batteries, and camping gear as ‘military-style items [they always exaggerate in order to justify illegal arrests].’

“Girard’s ‘arsenal’ came to the attention of the police when his wife, a psychiatrist [figures], told them that she was afraid to return to their home following an argument. On the following day the police were contacted by the ATF, which relayed a report from someone described as a ‘friend’ of Girard’s wife who supposedly saw hand grenades in the apartment.

“At the time, Girard held a Class A firearms license and had registered all of his weapons. Glenn McKiel, Chief of the Manchester-by-the-sea Police Department, revoked Girard’s license and called in the Cape Ann Response Team (CART) – the Homeland Security State’s local paramilitary affiliate – for a joint assault on Girard’s home.

“Among the specific concerns related to the police by Girard’s wife was his supposedly alarming view that martial law is imminent [he’s a victim of what I have been warning against in past briefings—about this disinformation being spread by government agents and causing people to react unwisely]. In terms of his personal experience, Girard’s fears were vindicated in every detail by the behavior of the police who invaded his home [yes, this type of tyranny is growing, but nationwide martial law is NOT going to happen until war comes].

“After four months of schutzhaft – that is, ‘protective’ imprisonment – Girard saw his case ‘dismissed without a finding.’ He was designated a ‘ward of the court,’ [which means he is never free again] compelled to undergo routine psychiatric evaluation and treatment, and notified that he could be arrested and subjected to indefinite detention at any time such action was deemed suitable by his persecutors. This was done to Girard because he was classified to be what law enforcement organs in the Soviet Union called a ‘socially dangerous person.’”

This is a truly evil trend that has been with us for decades, slowly growing as an arm of state police powers. Now the scope of this mental illness dragnet truly threatens to draw all of us in who believe in ‘irrational’ conspiracies. Be careful not to give any disgruntled co-worker or relative an excuse to inform on you – a sad state of affairs in the former “land of the free.”