If you asked him "Peace or Violence?", he'd choose peace every time. ~Brent, Brandon's brother
Around 7:30pm, Aug 16, Marine Veteran Brandon J. Raub was taken into custody by Chesterfield County Police accompanied by several FBI and Secret Service agents. He was arrested without being charged or being read his rights; and was transported to the police station to be processed, then taken to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell, VA, where he is currently being held in the psychiatric ward.
About a year ago I was pulled over ILLEGALLY by officer Shawn Kelley of the VCU Police Department. He pulled me over because he didn’t like what I had say to him as I drove by him, which was “Stop Harassing People, we pay your paycheck.” To read the original story, updates and to see the video click here:
To give a quick synopsis of what happened though:
I was driving on 7th street headed for I64E when I passed a VCU Police officer who was pulled over to the side of the road. I happened to have a bull-horn in my back seat, so I grabbed it and as I drove by the cop said, “Stop Harassing People, We Pay your Pay Check.” He ended up jumping in his car and coming after me for what I said. The rest is on video He initially issued me a “Obstruction of Justice” charge/ citation, I told him I wanted to see his supervisor and would not sign it until a supervisor came to the scene. After much delay, Kelley finally called his supervisor to the scene. During the 15-20 minutes of waiting for him to come, I could see the officer flipping through books and making at least one phone call while in his car. A FOIA request showed that he actually called up the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to figure out what he could charge me with. The Commonwealth Attorney, or an assistant thereof, told him to change the charge to “Disorderly Conduct”. So the supervisor finally showed up, wasn’t helpful, Kelley issued me a citation for Disorderly Conduct.
My initial court appearance I was found guilty for “being a jerk”. After appealing it, the second Judge, reluctantly dismissed the charge and said my speech was protected under the First Amendment.
So the plan was to file a lawsuit against the VCU Police for illegally pulling me over. My attorney, Tom Roberts got everything ready to file and asked VCU if they wanted to settle out of court. After more than a month of negotiating, they settled out of court on $10,000. Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing any of the money because my legal fees were that much – However it’s still a VICTORY FOR JUSTICE.
I’ve tried getting comments from high ranking officers in the VCU PD, asking if they condone officer Kelley pulling me over, no-one is willing to comment.
I fear no lesson has been learned from this. All I wanted was for the Officer and the Police Department to simply admit he pulled me over for my speech, resulting in an unlawful traffic stop.
This is just one more example, of the Rolodex of examples of Police Officers, abusing their authority and desecrating the oath they took.
To ANY Police reading this: Let this be a warning.. and a lesson learned for you guys in Blue, You may have guns, tasers, batons and other debilitating instruments, but you better think twice about abusing your authority, because more and more people are filming the police. May I remind you police officers reading this post, that YOU are PUBLIC SERVANTS, meaning you’re supposed to work FOR the people, not for the CORRUPT lawmakers & against the people. It IS okay to question orders you are given by your superiors. USE your conscience and common sense. USE discretion when choosing what “laws” to uphold.
Ask yourself, is there a victim? Is someone’s property being violated? Someone’s rights being violated? If there answer is NO, then LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE.
Are you aware that MOST of your actions violate the oath you took? Are you aware that MOST of your actions help prop up and propel he “Police State” this country is living under?
Are you aware that your actions help prop up and propel the Prison Industrial Complex? Are you aware that you RUIN PEOPLE’S LIVES who’ve done NO HARM to ANYONE?
Do you realize that you have become MILITARIZED.. and against your own (American) people at that!? I spent 14 months in Iraq and the way the Police operate here in the U.S is IDENTICAL to how the Military operates (most especially overseas). WAKE UP! and
BREAK THE CHAIN OF OBEDIENCE
If you are a cop reading this and are interested in learning more, Check out Any of Sheriff Richard Mack’s Books, and Videos. As well as Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Do NOT be afraid to take a stand and set your self apart from the “bad apples”. Police ARE waking up to this message of peace and non-violence, just ask Bradley Jardis, located in New Hampshire.
Feel free to check out my recent speech at an End the Drug War Rally at VCU, on April 20th, 2012, click here.
(UPDATES CAN BE FOUND IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER ON THIS SAME BLOG POST IF YOU SCROLL DOWN, SEPARATED BY ***ASTRICKS ***)
Long and eventful day today. Let me write a quick synopsis, and share some of my philosophical views – as well as do a little educating and pleading for your help. This turned into a longer post than I anticipated, but please read the last “Help Me” paragraph (if not the entire thing). As I was living downtown Richmond, VA today to go home (10 minute drive), I was on the phone with a Liberty-loving friend of mine. I was a mile and half at most from the interstate when I saw an officer standing outside of his unmarked car, which appeared to be a traffic stop, but I really didn’t know (I think his blue lights were spinning). So just before I drove by him, I put my phone in my lap and grabbed my mega-phone (YES, I carry a megaphone with me in my car, and NO, not to just “harass” cops) and proceeded to say, “Stop harassing people – we pay your paychecks.” Then I jumped back on my phone to finish my conversation. JUST before I got on the interstate I noticed the same unmarked cop car came screaming up behind me trying to pull me over. So I pass the exit and pull over. I quickly grabbed my camera and the rest of what happened I got on film, so there is no point in writing about it when you can watch it HERE (or directly below) On my YouTube Channel you will also see two recent video posts that I filmed while at Police Checkpoints.
I am a FREEDOM loving Iraq Veteran (against the war(s)). I’ve done MUCH more for my country, and for my individual rights SINCE getting out of the Army, then while I was in. (Disclaimer: It’s almost 2am, I’m extremely exhausted, I may lost my train of thought and my grammar may look like I belong in elementary school.) Educating: Let me implore YOU to ALWAYS carry a small, compact video camera with you; for many reasons, but to apply it here, it’s the ONLY line of serious defense you have against the police. If you aren’t already, you NEED to KNOW your rights, and grasp and basic understanding of natural law, law, individual rights, the Constitution etc. Great resources would be: Flex Your Rights, Cop Block, Sheriff Richard Mack, Michael Badnarik, Stefan Molyneux, Ron Paul, and to name just one more (out of the many) Lew Rockwell. And of course, if you cherish your freedom like I do, you must actively stand-up for, and “practice” your rights on a daily basis. My Philosophical views: To take a quote from my Facebook: ” Libertarian; Ⓥoluntaryist; Free-Market Anarchist. I believe in natural rights. Furthermore I believe a person has the natural right to self-govern and “opt-out” of the State if they so choose. I believe in property rights which begins with self-ownership. I believe that anything voluntary/ consensual should be permissible in a free-society. I believe and adhere to the non-aggression principle. Period. No Exceptions.” I believe that anything voluntary or consensual, in a free-society should be permissible. My views directly pertaining to police and laws are as follows. I own myself, I govern myself. I am responsible for myself and actions. I have never given consent to the state to own me, my property, or to have authority over me. Those [involuntary] taxes that I pay, I am coerced to pay, meaning, it is stolen from me, literally at gunpoint; and because it’s the government doing it – it’s some how legitimate. The fruits of my labor are not only stolen from me, but then used for stuff I do not consent too as well (as well pay for services I do not want or need, ie. police, etc etc etc.) for instance: War, imprisonment, and paying paychecks of people I do not know. Laws; I view most laws as unjust and illegitimate. The only laws I uphold/ honor is natural law(s). I believe the only laws there should be, are laws that remedy/ bring justice to someone who’s done another person harm, or their property harmed. All other “victimless crimes”, whether it be jaywalking, hitch-hiking, drinking raw milk, or putting any substance in your body that someone else (like the state) may not approve of, engaging in consensual acts with a prostitute, growing a garden, building a house, etc, etc, etc, etc. Let me quote a few folks:
“One may well ask: How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact that the…re are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” — Mark Twain “A Patriot is an individual who is willing to stand up against one’s own government, when the government is wrong.” – Ron Paul “Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.” ~Mahatma Gandhi “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin: ‘They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
So it now goes without saying, I peacefully disobey – aka – civil disobedience. I Do NOT recognize laws that are unjust or illegitimate. My goal is to educate people about what I’ve fortunately been enlightened (array of languages here) about. And when it comes to cops educate them on these three things:
1. They do NOT have special or extra rights over any other sovereign individual.
2. They do NOT have authority over people who’ve not given them authority over them.
3. USE DISCRETION on the laws you uphold! Uphold laws that are LEGIT and JUST not the converse!
HELP ME! The officer’s name who gave me the summons to appear in court on MAY 23rd in Richmond City Traffic Court is Shawn Kelley; badge #223 of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Police Department. If you feel that my 1st Amendment rights were violated, please considering calling, emailing, &/ or faxing the Police Department. Let them know (preferably peacefully/ civilly) how you feel, why you think this is a clear attack against freedom of speech. I will be talking with Constitutional attorney’s to see if I have a case for a lawsuit against the PD. You’ll find phone numbers on this link. and you’ll find email addresses on this link I think that’s about it, it’s 3am. My eyes are blood shot and watering. I need to get up early. I hope someone has learned something from my post and video. I’ll leave you with one last some-what humorous video.. yet very true, titled, “Why I hate cops” (I do NOT Hate cops, I just dislike those who abuse the arbitrary power and authority they think they’ve been granted. I dislike those who do not realize (or fail to do) their job, which is to keep the peace, and uphold and defend the Constitution [natural rights], who thinks that being a cop is something like in a movie or tv show, upholds every single law our corrupt politicians pass and who are hell bent on keeping their quota) Big thanks to my friends at CopBlock.org for helping me edit the video (dead space).. for helping keep police accountable, and for educating and raising awareness. *************************************************************************************************************************************** Court Appearance #1 I was found guilty, because the judge said I acted like a “jerk”. Video of initial court appearance below, in the Court of Appeals TODAY July 7th at 9am.
***************************************************************************************************************************************************** Free Speech is still alive and protected… barely. So, Yesterday, September 13th I went to court. The card I receive from the Judge the second time I went to court, but the first time I appealed (which was a debacle) said 9am September 13th, 2011. We get there and the court docket said 1pm. I was a little bent out of shape about it because I was going on little sleep the few nights leading up to the 13th. My attorney showed up, talked to Mr. Toepp, the attorney representing the Commonwealth Attorney and didn’t know why there was a discrepancy, but said he had no problem putting my case on the 9am docket. I had 4 supporters show up, BIG thanks to you four who did. I think I was the last, or one of the last defendants to have their case heard before the Judge. Before my attorney made his opening statement Judge Stout mentioned he was contacted by the public with attempts to “lobby and influence” his decision. The Prosecutor then added that his office had received “35 plus phone calls” as well. The Judge was some what apprehensive to continue on with the case because he said he was worried any verdict he may have given would seem as skewed because of the phone calls. He essentially asked the Prosecution, my attorney and myself consent to continue on the case. The Prosecution said he had no doubt the Judge was able to make untampered (so to speak) decision, My attorney and I agreed. My attorney, Thomas Roberts, made a great opening statement, the prosecutor gave a rebuttal and them my attorney gave his rebuttal. That rebuttal didn’t last though because the Judge interrupted him and was ready to give his decision. The Judge said what I did was stupid, but my speech was still protected under the Constitution. Charge DISMISSED.
I do NOT hate police. I despise the politicians who legislate our Individual Freedom and Freedom of Choice down the TOILET. Police are the most immediate face of the tyrannical legislation that turns innocent people’s peaceful actions into “crimes”. When people are pushed to far and snap the police are going to be the first causality; and we hope to avoid that. I have love and compassion for EVERYONE and for those of you who don’t know me, who are reading this blog, that is the TRUTH. I’m all about peace, prosperity and freedom.
I typically don’t go around with a bullhorn, harassing cops. It’s my goal, to attempt to remind the Police, that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS. They are supposed to be “Peace Officers“. It’s my goal to remind them about the oath to the Constitution they have sworn to, just as I myself have done. It’s my goal to remind them that they are not the “strong arm” of these tyrannical legislators and they need to use discretion in upholding what laws they uphold (which essentially can nullify bad laws, simply by not upholding them, similar to Jury Nullification.
A retired Sheriff I know, named Sheriff Richard Mack quit his job to go around the country and try to educate police departments of the very same thing. Listen to what this cop has to say, when he called into a radio program called FREE TALK LIVE, listen to that 60 Second clip here.
It’s my goal BIG thanks to everyone who supported me. Special thanks to my Attorney Thomas Roberts, whom represented the Rutherford Institute. Hopefully more people will realize that victimless “crimes” should be abolished, and until then, in my opinion, any police officer that upholds these erroneous victimless crimes is doing nothing more but legalized extortion/ kidnapping.
Local Media Coverage:
From Rutherford Institute: (http://rutherford.org/articles_db/press_release.asp?article_id=960)
WTVR Channel 6: http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-freedom-of-speech-charges-dropped-20110914,0,4201309.story
Headlined on their 11pm News, video can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=284947438198993
I had a very Constructive conversation with a Richmond Police Department Captain/ Commander today, I explained to him why I do what I do, check it out, the conversation starts around the 2:45 mark.
