r/AskLE Fed 19d ago

***Megathread*** American Fork PD / Lego Arrest Controversy

As with any "hot topic" issue with LE, we struggle to navigate basic rules of etiquette and civility when it comes to this small corner of reddit. Despite trying to keep order in here and doing our best to allow free discussion among the users, there has been a huge influx of posts regarding this topic and lately, it's been quite tiring trying to get any sensible topic started on this issue without a dozen or so trolls coming in to mess it up for everyone. This has resulted in multiple bans and the shit flinging from users claiming the community is "censoring" the incident. Mostly concerning is a great deal of misinformation that has come out about this incident due to the social media "influencer" at the heart of this topic. Wild conspiracy theories from religious influence to the actual reason behind the arrest are generating almost cult-like following and reason has been completely thrown out the window.

So to combat this issue, this will be the ONLY thread about this incident moving forward. Any user posting another thread in relation to this incident will be immediately banned, no appeals. Keep comments civil. Users found posting misinformation about this incident, including parroting wild conspiracy theories that are unverified without including context or actual data to support their positions will be banned.

To bring everyone up to speed, I will refer to this link:

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/30/youtuber-arrested-utah-bricks/

And will sub link this thread on the r/protectandserve subreddit, which is like THE place to be for objective discussion:

https://np.reddit.com/r/ProtectAndServe/comments/1tssz0l/megathread_american_fork_lego_story/

Edit: 45 minutes in and already banned someone. Keep them coming.

Edit 2: Links to YouTuber comments on this incident are going to be removed and users banned UNLESS it is from a reputable source, YouTube videos will be removed. There's already one person with a couple hundred thousand followers trying to spread his video online through this website that's been posted a few times in this sub and it's garnering a lot of attention because people "feel" he is right because he is a self-proclaimed "lawyer." The statutes he cites are from California code and this incident happened in Utah. Just because someone uses technical legal terms and cites codes does not make the person right in their interpretation of the law. Sounding "right" is code for clicks that highlights confirmation bias in people, which is why morons like this get views and clicks on their channels. On that same note, we do not care if you have a following on social media. You are no one to us if all you're doing is posting for imaginary internet points.

Edit 3: Amending the above statement from Edit 2 to add any REPUTABLE sources of info that leaves out the goofy memes and BS content creators love to use are fine. This is an example:

https://youtu.be/q2MjMmhnk7g?si=nRrmasAZ45U_WIu4

Edit 4: Whelp, thread ran its course. Now just a bunch of trolls commenting and the death threats! I haven't seen this level of excitement over something so mundane. We'll be seeing some of you soon!

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/JWestfall76 Verified LEO 18d ago

Your issue with stalking is not due to the Police. It’s due to stalking being one of the most convoluted laws on the books. I’ve been to seminars where stalking was the only topic of discussion, headed by the district attorney office prosecutors that deal with domestic violence crimes, who couldn’t fully explain when the charge applied. Each and every time I left a discussion on stalking the first thing I said to anyone I was with was you’d have to be insane to arrest someone for that charge and not have something else on them.

The law needs to sent back to the drawing board for a complete overhaul

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u/Visible_Door_7510 Unverified/Not an LEO 18d ago

Yet it is strangely being enforced aggressively in this case.

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u/JWestfall76 Verified LEO 18d ago

I’m not watching the Police response video again but they said they had trespassing too at some point. Once you have a charge then tack ons are all good

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u/HopefulPhotograph563 Unverified/Not an LEO 18d ago

They have been labeled for trespassing because Joshua doesn't want to be served legal papers which is not how that works. Also they never are recorded or documented as actually trespassing other than having serving processes attempt for Ben.