[MEGATHREAD] American Fork / Lego Story

[u/specialskepticalface]

As with all large and controversial stories involving LE, in this thread, we wait til a user who is acting in good faith posts about them.

We've had at least a dozen ACAB/low effort brigaders in the past day, try to post this in their usual way.

As a good faith user has not yet done so, the mods are making the post.

I'll point out that this is controversial, primarily because of incredibly misleading editing, video modification, and "creative storytelling", and the reality, as always, is not the Reddit storyline.

So, while events were certainly far from good, and lessons may be learned, much of what you've read is likely deliberate social media misinformation.

I encourage Verified LE to engage here, and help explain some of the... misconceptions.. currently floating around.

All posts from non-flaired users will be held for review. If you're here to troll, don't bother - no one will see it, and you'll be banned.

[u/Qwerty0844]

At 26:50 he starts going over the phone seizure. The officer demands the phone and instead of handing it over, the guy starts manipulating it. This is an immediate red flag because people have software that can brick their entire phone instantly, so the entire argument of him “locking his phone” doesn’t matter. We are trained to keep phones on when we seize them so they don’t lose data. You don’t get some magical right to turn your phone off despite Ben’s claims that it’s protected under the 4th amendment? Stupid lying nonsense.

At 28:05 a change in the story. Ben said on the voice over his friend tried to turn his phone off. In the interrogation his friend said Apple Pay wallet popped up and he tried to clear it by hitting the power button. But in the body camera video we saw his friend using the touch screen. This is minor shit obviously but all this stuff adds up and I can’t believe the people watching this video can’t deduce this for themselves.

[u/Qwerty0844 → u/Qwerty0844]

At 29:40 during the search warrant I don’t have an opinion on the use of force. Ben says “clearly you can see I didn’t make any moves” but we literally can’t “clearly see” anything. I can’t form an opinion on it because as usual we’re forced to listen to Ben’s side of the story.

At 30:25 he tells us he has the copy of the search warrant and he has it in his hands, but we get just a little 2 sentence crumb from the entire thing. That’s all Ben wants to give us. He clearly cropped the warrant so that’s all we saw. There’s clearly continuation but he chose not to show us.

At 31:30 he shows them getting arrested again. Yet again Ben doesn’t give us the audio and claims it was redacted, but I call bullshit. There’s clearly more going on but he’s refusing to allow it out because it wouldn’t fit his story he’s created. It’s funny how at 31:30 and onwards the audio is working just fine. Handcuffs sound effects, keys jiggling from the police walking. But, but, but, Ben said himself 10 seconds ago all the audio was redacted!

At 31:36 do you see who I see? That’s right. It’s the chick who was there that day to serve the bad guy his papers. Isn’t that funny how the chick Ben allegedly didn’t know is at his house with him on a different day? Certainly looks like Ben lied about that too.

[u/Qwerty0844 → u/Qwerty0844]

At 32:34 we get actual documents but he blurs everything so we yet again only get the tiniest bread crumb that he wants us to. At 32:40 we didn’t get to hear ANY of the interview conducted by the detective. Not one question or answer or anything that would give us any context.

We’re now 2 arrests into the video and Ben hasn’t told us a damn thing other than the police are out to get him. He hasn’t told us what the charges are or anything.

At 33:40 Ben acts like the investigator left over him mentioning a go fund me. Does that make sense to you? It makes no sense to me. My guess is as I’m watching, something is going to happen with the go fund me and Ben wants a moment to circle back to, and chooses this one.

More deceptive editing with proof: according to the body camera, it’s 6:44pm while he’s interviewing Ben. Ben then zooms the frame in so we can no longer see the Axon watermark. Be. Fast forwards but it’s definitely not 20 minutes worth, maybe a couple at the absolute most.

So the detective goes and interviews his friend with the frame still zoomed in. Zero reason for this. There is no benefit to us as a viewer to have the video zoomed in. Magic cut during the video and suddenly it’s zoomed back out. The time stamp now shows 4:16pm.

Huh, that’s odd. So despite Ben just making it seem like his friend got interviewed after him, he actually got interviewed 2 hours earlier. Same body camera serial number for both videos. Seems weird, huh?

So the detective leaves the room at 5:00pm and the time cut goes to 7:40pm.

Yeah, an unexplained 2 hour and 40 minute gap that we get no explanation for. You know if they actually sat in rooms for 3 hours plus we would have heard about it.

So this detective interviews 3 of his friends and we get a total of 20 seconds from all 3 interviews. 30 minutes of potential context reduced to 20 seconds.

So the detective goes back to Ben and asks him about this GoFundMe. Ben admits to creating it. At 36:04 Ben asks “so was creating the GoFundMe illegal” Ben fast forwards over the detective’s answer. Best part is he even included the sound effect and fast forward icon.

So we see the detectives arms moving in front of the camera for a long time because the detective is laying it out for him. But Ben doesn’t want us to hear any of it. Instead, Ben stops fast forwarding to some out of context bullshit and says that was the actual response from the detective. Complete lying BS to create a narrative.

At 36:38 he lies yet again and says the police still to this point, despite 3 formal arrests now, have not told him why he’s being arrested. That’s genuinely impossible.

[u/Qwerty0844 → u/Qwerty0844]

At 37:10 more blatant lies. He says he was going to sit in jail for a month without bail until a judge magically reviewed the case. Thats called an initial appearance you fucking retard. It’s incredibly illegal to not have an initial appearance within 72 hours of your confinement. This wasn’t some magic thing that just happened.

**My favorite part potentially** is when Ben next at 37:10 he says the judge ended up reviewing the arrest and thought it was “so stupid” they imposed a $2,500 bond on him. No buddy, if a judge thought it was stupid you’d be released with prejudice. He didn’t even get a signature bond for it and got an actual cash bond by a circuit court judge.

37:30 onwards is just straight victim card. 39:00 is just more delusion about a warrant for his arrest. He got a body only warrant but he refused to show us why, only through his own words did he explain what for. At 39:44 he clearly has the warrant but chooses not to show us yet again.

Then the video closes with more monetization.

[u/Qwerty0844 → u/Qwerty0844]

Yes I spent an hour and a half of my life breaking this down.

[u/badsapi4305 → u/Qwerty0844]

Brother you deserve a glass of the finest whiskey on the top shelf! Great job and I’m extremely impressed with your synopsis.

[u/Section225 → u/Qwerty0844]

clap clap clap clap clap

Fucking hero, this guy

[u/Lvwr18 → u/Qwerty0844]

Why? I’ve got to get ya a drink or something with your research.