The World's First Wireless Internet Hostage Situation

Just like any technology, social networking can be used for good or for evil. Recently, criminal "flash mobs" organized by Chicago teenagers and young adults have brought this issue to the forefront. However, one incident in Utah may go down in history as the first siege and standoff "live-blogged" through wireless Internet service onto social networking sites. What can this incident in Utah tell us about the future of crime, and of social networking?

Jason Valdez, a resident of Ogden, Utah, near Salt Lake City, recently engaged in a 16-hour standoff with local police forces at an area motel. During this time, the armed Valdez managed to hold a woman physically hostage while holding his friends and family virtually hostage to the updates he was posting to Facebook over wireless Internet service. Valdez had been arraigned on drug charges several months before, but did not show up for a court hearing scheduled some weeks before the standoff. When Ogden police tried to serve a warrant for his arrest for failure to appear for the hearing, Valdez initiated his hostage-taking and Facebook-posting campaign.

Valdez’s status updates are truly memorable. In his first post on the matter, around 11 p.m., he stated, "I'm currently in a standoff ... kinda ugly, but ready for whatever." At 2 a.m., he posted pictures of himself and his hostage, noting that his hostage was "cute." Valdez’s friends also posted information on where police officers were hiding, for which Valdez thanked them using his wireless Internet service. His final status update, at around 7 a.m., stated, "Well i was lettin this girl go but these dumb bastards made an attempt to come in after i told them not to, so i popped off a couple more shots…". Valdez eventually shot himself in the chest as police stormed the motel, and in addition to the new charges being filed against him, police are considering charging some of his friends who gave him information on the whereabouts of police officers with obstruction of justice.

In the opinion of many observers, what makes the Valdez case so jarring is that many people think of social networking as something only to be used for communicating news of a relatively non-serious, or at least non-ominous nature. While it doesn’t seem strange to announce a new job to one’s friends over Facebook, notifying people of things like deaths in the family, divorces, and major personal tragedies can still seem "tacky" or inappropriate to many people when announced on Facebook. However, the Valdez case is showing that this is no longer the case to many people. Social networking sites in the mind of many people are becoming just as valid a form of communication as phone calls or e-mails, and those of us who believe that news of a more serious nature should be communicated in a more "personal" manner may just have to adjust to this new reality.

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