NYC Police Twitter Campaign Backfires, Spreads To California Departments
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) -- Taking their cue from tweets bashing the New York Police Department, Twitter critics of police in the Bay Area and Los Angeles have been posting photos of people roughed up or injured in scuffles with officers.
The NYPD has been stung by a public relations backlash after a Twitter request that people post feel-good photos of people posing with officers. It led to the posting of hundreds of recycled images of alleged police brutality and has now spread to other cities.
The movement has spread to the Bay Area, with hashtags #myOPD and #mySFPD gaining steam as of Wednesday night. Pictures included a teen with a bullet wound in his cheek, a battered protester, and a bloodied Muni rider.
Some tweets under the hashtag #myLAPD mentioned referenced officers who recently tampered with in-car recording equipment in order to avoid being monitored. One included a photo of a woman who fell out of a moving police cruiser. Another put up images from a May Day melee in 2007 that resulted in punishment for many officers.
An email seeking comment from the LAPD was not immediately returned.
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