Jason Russell, filmmaker behind ‘Kony 2012,’ detained on suspicion of masturbating in public
A screen grab from Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012” viral video campaign. The campaign has drawn a flurry of media coverage, controversy and criticism. It has also triggered more so-called “clicktivism” in Africa, including the M23 rebellion in Congo.
One of the filmmakers responsible for the viral online campaign to hunt down Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony has been hospitalized after being found naked in the street, masturbating.
Jason Russell, 33, was receiving medical care for "exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition," said the head of Invisible Children Ben Keesey, according to Agence France-Presse.
Russell, an evangelical Christian and married father of two, is a co-founder of the American advocacy group Invisible Children, whose 29-minute film has been watched by more than 100 million people and become the fastest spreading video ever, Britain's Daily Telegraph wrote.
Kony is a fanatical Ugandan warlord who heads the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a violent rebel group that says it wants to rule by the Ten Commandments but is known for committing atrocities against civilians in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
(More from GlobalPost: Viral campaign "Kony 2012" set to take down war criminal (VIDEO)
Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
According to AFP, San Diego Police Department spokeswoman Andrea Brown said only that officers detained a 33-year-old man on Thursday and took him to a medical facility after passers-by reported him in the street in the southern Californian city.
According to the Telegraph, a department spokesman said he was possibly under the influence of something, and was acting “very strangely”: several members of the public reported a man undressing and running through traffic while screaming.
Keesey was quoted in multiple reports as saying: “The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday.
“Jason’s passion and his work have done so much to help so many, and we are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue. We will always love and support Jason, and we ask that you give his entire family privacy during this difficult time.”
According to the group’s website Russell, is the co-founder and “our grand storyteller and dreamer.”
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