Utah Man Posts Facebook Updates During SWAT Standoff, Gets Help From Online Friends

It's still aiding a criminal. Isn't it?

wow there are some really sick people in this world it seems.

I have to say the these people should be charged the same as any other person ading and abetting a criminal. doing it on line is no different then being there in the room with him.

Really? Real-time status updates about the whereabouts of police officers trying to arrest a man who has a warrant? Of course they should be charged with aiding and abetting. It is quite obvious.

no they shouldn't. they were not at the scene so the police doesn't have a case.

@jedimindset

the "friend" who told him there was a officer in the bushes outside the motel room must have been there, otherwise how would he know that?

Yes they should be prosecuted! Whether they were on the scene or not, they still provided assitance to the individual which gave him an advantage to delay capture. They would prosecute as well if the individual was on the run and asked a friend (who know he was on the run) for money to be sent so he could keep going.

Aside from that, I'm actually surprised it took this long for something like this to happen. I was also expecting it to be a twitter feed instead of facebook.

@GTO
most likely tv coverage. thats what i think.

im thinkin it was just a joke. but if swat really was in the bushes then i have no comment either way. ultimately it seems like their haste cost them a more speedy conclusion. sometimes you shouldn't just rush in. people get hurt....is stopping one guy worth costing an innocent person their life?

that said i am not a fan of the police in most cases. simply put, IMO they are only 1/4 as useful as they would advertise. asking police if we need them is like asking a toddler does he need candy. of course he'll say yes.

facebook saved this guy's life...if the world wasn't watching the pigs would have killed this guy. LOL facebook saves lives.

Legalize drugs and you won't have this problem.

Instead of a war on drugs have a war on poverty.

There's no point to the war on drugs.

Charge the friend........any lawyer worth their salt can get this bogus charge thrown out of court.

@Aldrons Last Hope
you are right drugs are the root of most crimes. but dont forget that most drugs are deadly. i say only legalize weed and we're good. lol. pills should be banned. both legal and illegal. Ritalin, Prozac etc. are the number 1 cause of suicide among teens.

I wouldn't tell Aldrons Last Hope he is right about anything, whether it is true or not. You shouldn't encourage him.

Aldrons most of the time i don't care for the things you say EX:9/11 was an inside job. but you are totaly on target with this one.If people were not poor they would not need to turn to drugs as a source of happiness. If you illegilize drigs people will keep getting drugs no matter what the gov says,its a redo of the 18th amendment you would think that they would have heard of the phrase "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" but thats the government for you

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*growls*If you troll or flare I WILL MAUL YOU!*growls*

Also im not saying drugs should be legal just that we should focus more on decreasing poverty in our country

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*growls*If you troll or flare I WILL MAUL YOU!*growls*

Funny how you can't find what sparked the standoff. I can only assume he did something that wasn't worth his life or endangering the life of the woman. Something like robbing a convenience store for 40-60 bucks. Money is more important than safety of the general public.

@Ultra-Humanite - So, if Aldrons is right, we should discourage him? No, don't support what's right if it will encourage some one who is usually "wrong" to act more often or feel supported. -heavy sarcasm- I don't understand people like you.

@Aldrons Last Hope: I agree
@JediMindset dont be naive. Alcohol is the most deadly "drug" out there. people either make the choice to use it with deadly consiquincies or not like the dumb ### ryan dunn. Sorry I have ZERO sympathy for drunk drivers. as far as I am concerned he murdered his friend who was with him.
people will use drugs weahter they are legal or not. But if they are legal they will MORE likely to seek treatment. Plenty of people go to AA meating. But only people caught with drugs go to NA meetings (for the most part). they idea is to keep drug users out of jails and have better education and if that fails to have conciling and treament centers.

@Ultra-Humanite what are you talking about. The previous US surgeon general said we need to legal drugs. The WHO says we need to legal drugs.
do you really think we can do ANYTHING about the WAR on drugs.
More Mexicans have died in the war on drugs than ALL the western nations in the war on terrorism!
Did you know about 90% of the world herion and opiun STILL comes from afganstian. Even with NATO and US forces in Afigattain they couldnt even put a DENT in opium producation.

where does organaized crime get their money and power? drugs!
where does terrisim get 95% of its money. opium and herion. drugs!

Legalize and regualte and you take away ALL the power and money from 99% of the worlds bad guys.

the KEY is regulation, education, and treatment and counseling instead of jail time.

Alcohol is legal. I used to drink. I made the CHOICE not to drink anymore. we are humans not monkeys. but the world treats drug users like moneky and throws them in a cage and offers them NO other choice or chance to change.

IF I smoke weed and got caught and thrown in jail, even for 1 year. my life would be ruined. I would leave jail and do EVEN more drugs. that is the mentality of most criminals. whats there to loose? beucase there is no way to get any help unless you have have rich parents that can send you archaic rehab programs that 90% of preach god when only 10% of the world is religious anymore.

Interesting case and use of social media.

And @ inaka right on, the war on drugs is a miserable failure, and the us can not afford to keep the highest per capita prison population, especially when so many are non violent offenders. We could also regulate them so that they are clean instead of possibly being tainted/pesticides/etc. Mexico has around 12,000 deaths a year, from the violent drug trade. They get ALL of their money from the U.S., and around 90% of their guns. If we wipe out the illegael status, imagine how many lifes this would save and the immense burdon we would relieve the legal system of. Some of these pharmacy drugs are much much worse, but those are allowed because those in power have patents, sure they will sell merinol in utah for various conditions as prescribed, a time released thc because they have a patent on the synthetic version, but god forbid someone actually use the organic natural version of it.

How is this any different than a news reporter putting the situation on the news? If the criminal inside is watching the news, isn’t this the same thing? I am not siding with the criminals here but it seems to me, you can’t charge the friends if you don’t charge reporters...

@inaka_rob
yeah alcohol is the deadliest. i forgot that alcohol is a drug for a second. the media does a great job of covering that. you never hear on TV that alcohol is the number 1 drug killer of all time. yeah i agree that i also feel no sympathy for drunk drivers. its equal to playing Russian roulette. Ryan Dunn knew that driving drunk was stupid. but than again he loved doing stupid stuff. the final report of death hasn't been released yet. he could have also been racing as there was a second set of tire marks. or someone could've been chasing him. his friends were idiots for letting him drive. but than again the people there said that he barely drank when he was at the bar.

Why is it that everyone is ignoring the real issue here? The question here is not whether drugs should be legalized or not. The question is, should the guy's Facebook friends be charged for obstructing Police. In tipping this guy off about the SWAT Officers' locations, they endangered not only the Officers' lives, but the suspect's as well as the female that was with him, either voluntarily or involuntarily. Say he stuck his gun out the window and shot the Officer? Then the team would have been forced to make a hasty entry, possibly killing the man, and maybe the woman gets killed by the suspect, or in a crossfire, or maybe she was in on it and gets herself killed resisting. The point here is, the law was broken. And this guy's friends are just as guilty as he is. They risked the lives of everyone involved in the operation, and should be charged accordingly. Whether they were at the scene or not, which is a ridiculous argument. It doesn't matter if they are standing right outside or on the other side of the country. Interfering with Police is still interfering with Police. And when they did it, they signed their digital signature on the admission of guilt. Charge them.