It's Official: Facebook Is the Department of PreCrime

by Paul Rosenberg

Recently by Paul Rosenberg: Privacy as a Positive Good

News has just broken about a freedom activist and former Marine named Brandon Raub, who was arrested (apparently without a warrant or being read his rights) on the evening of August 16^th. Details are still coming in, but it appears that his "crime" was posting things that the overseers didn't like on Facebook.

As I recount the facts of this horrifying case (as best I am able), please remember that the violation of this man's natural rights is not the issue I wish to point out, as ultra-valid as that may be.

WHAT HE DID

From the above link, you can find five articles from Brandon on a pro-liberty website. Perhaps we might quibble with these posts on a few points (I'm for abandoning politics rather than trying to use it, for example), but it is clear that the young man is thinking along some good lines.

He also promoted a small freedom march in Richmond, Virginia last November. It was peaceful and I've seen no problems reported. So, aside from a picture of him holding an old rifle, the only thing the overseers had on him were a few recent Facebook posts:

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

#6, by the way, seems to be a lyric from a song called Bring Me Down by a band called Swollen Members. Several of these sound like rants a lot of us have had in moments of frustration.

THE POINT

I expect further facts to emerge about Brandon and what has been done to him, and I expect to see some creative statist media spin. Regardless of whatever facts emerge, I suspect that high law enforcers will get the talking heads to reassure the public that this was done to keep them safe. The obedient onlookers will be given a reason to ignore the story.

The point I want you to get is that Facebook is the Department of PreCrime. Everything you do there (or your friends, family or co-workers do there) is monitored and may be taken as a valid reason for armed men to grab you and lock you up.

In order to respond within in a day or two of a post, an entire infrastructure, including both computing power and manpower, had to be in place. The overseers are not going to abandon this infrastructure.

Some of us have warned about this previously, but this is the first time the results have been seen in public.

There is one fact that I left out above: Brandon was NOT taken to a jail – he was taken to a mental hospital. That is also a big deal. Forced committal is a very nasty tactic that was used regularly in the USSR and the other communist slave states. By declaring someone who opposes the state insane, you can disappear them, while assuring the want-to-believe public that you are benevolent and just.

The bottom line is that Brandon didn't actually DO anything. A friend of Brandon's explained this well:

I served alongside Brandon both in Iraq and in Afghanistan. He was in my combat engineer platoon in Iraq in 2006 and in Afghanistan 2011

Brandon was the man who opened my eyes to the slow hemorrhaging of civil rights in America and the extreme and purposeful devaluation of the dollar.

Whether you agree with his method or mode of expressing himself is erroneous. He has broken no laws and hurt no one.

What Brandon did do, was to type certain words into the Bureau of PreCrime's servers, aka, Facebook. For this, he was promptly picked up by a swarm of law enforcers, including the FBI, Secret Service, and county police.

Facebook is the Department of PreCrime, and the rest of the Internet is following. You had better start taking that seriously.

And please don't expect this situation to be reformed. Since 9-11, law enforcement on all levels has been publicly worshipped beyond measure. Aside from reality shows and sports, television has effectively become Cop Worship Theater. Their arrogance and their power will not go away for a long time.

Face this or don't. It's your life.

August 20, 2012

Paul Rosenberg [send him mail] is the CEO of Cryptohippie USA, a leading provider of Internet privacy technologies.

Copyright © 2012 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.