Of course, without more info, for all I know this guy could be a complete nut (that likes puppies…:p)
But on a broader note, maybe I’m reading more into a few news stories than there really is to it, but is it me or does there seem to be a good bit of anti-military-vet (dare I say) conditioning and gov. endorsed paranoia going around?
Seems to be a decent bit of squawking about how all these enraged super-elite everything-killer mentally-volatile military vets are going to come steamrolling back from wherever-iraqistan and overthrow everything, and they need to be disarmed and/or institutionalized for everyones safety. Seems that TPTB are getting awful jittery about something.
Maybe one could assume this simply means our vet’s ‘hearts and minds’ are still in the right place?
Or maybe these guys ARE just nuts?
Commence entertaining me with a robust discussion.
The comments quoted in your link do not seem that alarming or crazy. Either things are becoming much more Orwellian faster than I thought they had, or there was more posted that was not shown in cited story.
To lock a guy up just for saying the goverment perpetrates evil is a grievous violation of the first amendment. That he said “a day of reckoning” was coming soon is only threatening only if meant as a direct threat of some sort of unlawful action or violence. The books of Amos, Isaiah, and Jeramiah are full of words saying the Hebrews were doing evil and that a day of reckoning was coming soon, but it was meant in the sense of judgment from God, not meaning that Isaiah or another prophet was going to open a can on anyone. He could have even meant a political reckoning in the form of the Fall Elections.
Bottom line: unless there’s more to the story that we’re not seeing, then this is an outrage and he should sue in court.
The article said he posted “a series of controversial messages” including the one statement. I wonder how inflammatory the other statements were or were they as innocuous or vague as the one given? With the media’s tendency to blow things out of proportion just for a juicy headline I wouldn’t be surprised if this is an otherwise non-story.
Law enforcement is stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Somebody calls in and reports “Joe is posting crazy shit on FB and spouting off to guys at the local watering hole.” And the authorities let it slide because it’s a free country and guys can say all sorts of shit, right?
Then Joe shoots up the local Hardees or IHOP and all hell breaks loose because somebody had warned the local gendarmes and they sat on their hands. And out come all the FB comments, the co-workers, pictures of the guy holding a semi-auto, and all the usual public post-mortem by the press.
I don’t know how it’s all going to shake out, but I’m guessing the guy that spoke with the Aurora shooter’s shrink and didn’t bother to check the guy out is experiencing some pretty sleepless nights.
I don’t like the whole “big brother thought police” bullshit either, but there are a lot of loose cannons wandering around. And the internet hasn’t helped the cause, in that it just makes it that much easier for anyone, anywhere, to seek out folks of like mind who willingly nurture and reinforce their rage, delusion, sense of alienation, and desire to exact some form of retribution.
I don’t know the particulars of the case cited in the OP so my comments are generalized and not specific to this vet’s situation. But the larger issue creates a real fine line for law enforcement to try to walk and there are very vocal groups (with legitimate arguments) to rip them apart regardless of what they do.
But let’s face it. We’ve been at war for over a decade. I don’t want this discussion to devolve into a debate over this country’s military interventions, but we’ve sent hundreds of thousands of young men halfway across the globe to fight and die in shitholes where the very people who were supposed to “welcome us as liberators” decided to start shooting at them or blowing them to pieces.
Many were reservists called up and deployed, leaving families and jobs that weren’t there when they got home. Many have suffered traumatic brain injuries and/or PTSD. And many are not getting the medical services they need and deserve from the VA.
And the military recruited more than a few folks that wouldn’t ever have been enlisted had it not been for relaxed standards adopted to keep up the numbers.
So we’ve got a fair number of folks coming home who have been trained, deployed, and returned home to a country bitterly divided over a host of political and social issues during a prolonged economic downturn with high, chronic unemployment.
To not be concerned about the potential for a limited subset of that population to have the potential to commit a violent act is sheer folly.
This is not meant as a slam against vets. Those who have sacrificed and served deserve this nation’s continued respect and support. The vast majority of returning vets resume their lives and step back into their civilian roles with only minor adjustments.
But there are going to be some problematic individuals who are going to garner some additional scrutiny. And, in some cases, deservedly so. Unfortunately, that scrutiny is going to draw unwanted and undeserved attention to all veterans.
At least on my dept there is a huge population of vets. Half my squad is vets. To say that the police are “terrified of vets” is just plain wrong.
It says in the article, which I find to be shitty journalism since it has hardly any useful info, that he A) made some sort of comments and B) he was taken to a hospital.
We get called by the mental health community to pick up mentally dispturbed/ill people every day. Many of them can and are violent so they ask us to bring them to the hospitals.
These pick up orders happen when friends and/or family of the person fills out forms detailing reasons why the person needs a mental health assessment. The police can do it if the person makes threats to kill themselves or others.
there are a large number of vets out there who are in bad places mentally. I myself have seen less than stellar service from the VA in the past.
I guess the official DHS stance has bled down to some of the local agencies. IMHO, any Veteran who re-elects Janet Napolitano as head of DHS deserves this type of treatment (if God forbid, they end up as such).
Just think of the irony in play here. An ILLEGAL Alien is not only given preferential treatment as dictated by DHS and BHO; they are going to be allowed to apply for a Green Card. But a Combat Veteran and US Citizen can be arrested because they are a Combat Veteran and a US Citizen.
Here’s some insights from a person who has some email exchanges w/ him before he went off the reservation. Sad to see him not being able to cope w/ it. Many, many more to follow.
Also for those of you that may not know. He lives just minutes from Ft Lee and the Defense General Supply Center had he decided to attack the Generals or whatever he said.
If all of these Facebook postings are true it seems the guy really needs mental help. Song lyrics or not, he made them his own mantra by posting them. Then resisting arrest…
Does anyone here not agree? Where does the line need to be drawn allowing him access to firearms or taking them away? Does he need to be involuntarily committed?
That’s why I mentioned the bases nearby… I didn’t read everything he wrote but apparently he was saying I’m going to do it now type thing and then something about going after the “Generals”.
The CIA thing is just what the radio guy said. I think the deal was no one really knew exactly who was there and why.
But yeah… I mean what do you do? I’m not a LEO… but what do you do in that case. Someone is publishing to the world that the time has come and they are going to act now type situation…
Do you leave them alone because it’s a free county? Do you go have a chat with them and see what’s up? What’s the right thing to do?
Until he’s convicted of a felony or “Pre-Crime” becomes the law of the land, the answer is yes. Absolutely the guy may need help and there’s nothing wrong with questioning him. Until they’ve develop probable cause that a crime has been committed or they have the statutorily required information/documentation to involuntarily commit him to a psych eval, they need to stay hands off. Hopefully they have their I’s dotted and T’s crossed, and we simply don’t have all the necessary info to make an informed decision on the circumstances of his particular case.
We need to be VERY careful that we don’t begin doing things that cause our vets to shy away from help with their mental health needs.
His lawyer is now saying that because he was put in handcuffs that constitutes arrest. That seems like a stretch to me. Of course they had about 8 or 9 guys there. I guess they each could have grabbed an arm and leg and walked him to the doctor. I assume locking him in the back seat of a patrol car would be arrest too by that definition.
