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28 March 2024

New York police Twitter campaign backfires

FILE: In this May 1, 2012, file photo, a police lieutenant swings his baton at Occupy Wall Street activists in New York. This photo is among the many put on Twitter in response to a New York Police Department request for Twitter users to share pictures of themselves posing with police officers. The NYPD sent a tweet on Tuesday, April 22, 2014, saying it might feature the photographs on its Facebook page. The responses soon turned ugly when Occupy Wall Street tweeted a photograph of cops battling protesters with the caption "changing hearts and minds one baton at a time." Similar photos of harsh treatment by the New York City police followed. (AP)

Published
By AFP

New York police Tuesday were eating extra helpings of humble pie after asking people to post images of themselves and NYPD officers on Twitter -- only to face a deluge of pictures of alleged police brutality.

"Do you have a photo w/ a member of the NYPD? Tweet us & tag it #myNYPD. It may be featured on our Facebook," the department posted on its NYPD News Twitter feed, hoping to fuel a feel-good, low-cost public relations campaign.

The result was anything but.

Images and tweets of many arrests of demonstrators went viral, including such presumed lowlights as an officer pulling the hair of a handcuffed young black woman and another of the bloodied face of an 84-year-old stopped for jaywalking.

One image showing police after striking a protestor brought the remark "Here the #NYPD engages with its community members, changing hearts and minds one baton at a time."

Also largely criticized was the unpopular "stop and frisk" policy, which many argue unfairly targets minority youth.

The NYPD so far has yet to post any happy shots on its Facebook page from its request for public submissions.