united-states criminal-law police
Are you disobeying a lawful order to stop if you&#39;re already fleeing?
<p>This is frankly quite a silly and obviously hypothetical question.</p>

<p>Could you be charged with disobeying a lawful order assuming you are already breaking that order? Realistically, if you are fleeing on foot from a police officer and the officer yells "Stop Running!" are you expected to obey that as a lawful order? Pertaining to that scenario, would you be charged with resisting arrest AND disobeying a lawful order? I realize this question obviously ludicrous, but is this just one of those legal anomalies?</p>

<p>Any insight would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p><strong>Yes</strong></p>

<p>If you are fleeing, and an officer (let's assume lawfully) orders you to "stop" and you keep fleeing then you clearly have not stopped. Thus, you have disobeyed the order. </p>

<p>The only instance I can think of where this might be an argument for a courtroom is where an officer orders "don't start running" while you are already obviously running. I seriously doubt a fleeing suspect would ever be issued such an order</p>
