A hashtag campaign started by the New York City Police Department has backfired after being inundated with photos of police brutality submitted via Twitter. Cops Got Everyone to Tweet Photos of Police Brutality Thanks to Their Failed #myNYPD Hashtag http://t.co/5b0rlKO5ZO pic.twitter.com/fZxlh5N79l — VICE (@VICE) April 23, 2014 The NYPD sent a tweet on Tuesday, saying […]
A hashtag campaign started by the New York City Police Department has backfired after being inundated with photos of police brutality submitted via Twitter.
Cops Got Everyone to Tweet Photos of Police Brutality Thanks to Their Failed #myNYPD Hashtag http://t.co/5b0rlKO5ZO pic.twitter.com/fZxlh5N79l
— VICE (@VICE) April 23, 2014
The NYPD sent a tweet on Tuesday, 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.”
Other photos included an elderly man bloodied after being arrested for jaywalking.
Beating an 84 yr old man for jaywalking. #MyNYPD // keepin it classy! pic.twitter.com/oKndXEhZ9T
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) April 22, 2014
By midnight on Tuesday, more than 70,000 people had tweeted about police brutality, ridiculing the NYPD for a social media disaster and recalling the names of people shot dead by police.
Police officials declined to respond to questions about the comments, which were being posted at a rate of 10,000 an hour, or say who was behind the Twitter idea.
Best part of #myNYPD = pics of dogs being frisked pic.twitter.com/vHfmQHIHds
— Elif Batuman (@BananaKarenina) April 23, 2014
There were a few instances where respondents did send in the type of police-friendly photographs officials were hoping to get. JP Quinn, 40, tweeted a picture from inside the old Yankee Stadium with his brother Michael, 38, who is a detective in Brooklyn South.
The NYPD tried to make the best of a botched job by retweeting all the favourable photos.
Last year, Wall Street giant JP Morgan was at the centre of a social media storm when it invited Twitter users to send questions to an executive using the hashtag #AskJPM. The bank was deluged with vitriol. More than 8,000 responses were sent within a six-hour period, two-thirds of which were negative.
