NYPD social media fail

ravdin

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Some PR genius decided that it would be a good idea to solicit photos of the NYPD on Twitter, with the #MyNYPD hashtag. Do you have any nice photos stored away with your friends the police? Me neither.

Do you have a photo w/ a member of the NYPD? Tweet us & tag it #myNYPD. It may be featured on our Facebook.

Needless to say, the community has enthusiastically responded with photos of the hands on law enforcement style of the NYPD:
 

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Needless to say, the community has enthusiastically responded with photos of the hands on law enforcement style of the NYPD:

What you don't know is that the jaywalker and the dog were both holding.
 
Saw this on the BBC, and I can't help wondering why everyone seems to be calling this a fail on the NYPD's part. Seriously, the pictures shown on the BBC consist of two people being detained in an entirely normal manner, and one policeman with a baton chasing off a bunch of masked thugs. In the OP of this thread we have a guy with blood on him apparently being arrested, and something to do with a dog.

It's possible that some of these pictures have stories behind them that wouldn't show the police in the best light. Maybe the people being arrested didn't need to be or something? But none of the pictures on their own show anything bad at all. "NYPD twitter hijacked by people posting pictures of the police doing their jobs in an entirely normal manner" just doesn't seem to be as amusing as people are trying to make it sound.

If these are seriously the worst pictures people can find, I'd call this a pretty big win for the NYPD.
 
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Saw this on the BBC, and I can't help wondering why everyone seems to be calling this a fail on the NYPD's part. Seriously, the pictures shown on the BBC consist of two people being detained in an entirely normal manner, and one policeman with a baton chasing off a bunch of masked thugs. In the OP of this thread we have a guy with blood on him apparently being arrested, and something to do with a dog.

It's possible that some of these pictures have stories behind them that wouldn't show the police in the best light. Maybe the people being arrested didn't need to be or something? But none of the pictures on their own show anything bad at all. "NYPD twitter hijacked by people posting pictures of the police doing their jobs in an entirely normal manner" just doesn't seem to be as amusing as people are trying to make it sound.

If these are seriously the worst pictures people can find, I'd call this a pretty big win for the NYPD.


My thoughts exactly.
 
If these are seriously the worst pictures people can find, I'd call this a pretty big win for the NYPD.

Clearly they weren't the worst.

Bill Bratton, of course, had long-since expressed his desire to be commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police. I doubt his condoning his officers doing stuff like this will help him towards that goal.
 
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I rest my case. Once again in that article, despite the text claiming there are pictures of police violence and brutality, the actual pictures shown just don't support that. In order:

A repeat of the picture of a bunch of masked rioters being chased by police.
A man lying on the floor next to a police bike.
A man being restrained by two police officers.
A man allegedly being kicked, although it looks to me more like he's being pushed away.
Another man being restrained on the floor.
A policeman grabbing a camera and apparently about to punch it.
A policeman looking angry.
A woman being restrained by three policemen.
A woman being carried by several police.

Again, I'm not saying any of these are definitely not police brutality. Any of these could easily show massive overreactions on the police's part. But the point is that the pictures simply don't tell us that. Without knowing why a person is being restrained and what happened in the lead up to the photo, a picture of the police restraining someone is just a picture of the police restraining someone. It could be a horribly violent abuse of power, or it could be the police doing exactly the job they're supposed to.

The only one that looks at all dodgy in its own right is the one of the policeman apparently about to throw a punch at a camera, which I'm pretty sure they're never supposed to do. But even that is ambiguous without knowing what was actually going on, why he was interested in the camera or the person holding it, and whether there was actually any punching. Hell, based on the position of his hand, it's ambiguous enough that he could be posing for a selfie. Unlikely, but just from that photo it's impossible to tell.
 
Again, I'm not saying any of these are definitely not police brutality. Any of these could easily show massive overreactions on the police's part. But the point is that the pictures simply don't tell us that. Without knowing why a person is being restrained and what happened in the lead up to the photo, a picture of the police restraining someone is just a picture of the police restraining someone. It could be a horribly violent abuse of power, or it could be the police doing exactly the job they're supposed to.
If you play the Rodney King video in reverse, it's clear that the helpful police officers were actually helping him to his feet and back into his car.
 
If you play the Rodney King video in reverse, it's clear that the helpful police officers were actually helping him to his feet and back into his car.


I'm pretty sure that the LAPD/Rodney King matter has nothing to do with the current thread at all, but nice strawman/poisoning the well combo, just the same. Kudos. :rolleyes:
 
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Saw this on the BBC, and I can't help wondering why everyone seems to be calling this a fail on the NYPD's part. Seriously, the pictures shown on the BBC consist of two people being detained in an entirely normal manner, and one policeman with a baton chasing off a bunch of masked thugs. In the OP of this thread we have a guy with blood on him apparently being arrested, and something to do with a dog.

It's possible that some of these pictures have stories behind them that wouldn't show the police in the best light. Maybe the people being arrested didn't need to be or something? But none of the pictures on their own show anything bad at all. "NYPD twitter hijacked by people posting pictures of the police doing their jobs in an entirely normal manner" just doesn't seem to be as amusing as people are trying to make it sound.
I think you missed this paragraph from your own link:
Many of the photos appeared to be taken by professional photographers at incidents in New York City rather than users' own images.
So yes, they indeed would have stories behind them that regular followers of NYC news would be familiar with.
 
Apparently, they didn't understand either social media, or their own reputation. After years of attacking protesters, punching the homeless, and harassing black and Latino people (with both the previous mayor and police commissioner claiming that they should do it more often)...this should have been expected. They're probably the most notoriously poor police force in the US at this point, in terms of community outreach, so why ask people to post about how great they are?
 
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Oh no, look at that evil officer frisking a dog! POLICE STATE!

:rolleyes:

Indeed, that seemed like the only one that fit the spirit of the request. It's silly; it's cute; it shows a police officer being friendly and goofy; kids would get a kick out of it.

Now I'll probably learn there's some story behind it that makes it a testimony to police cruelty to animals or something. :boxedin:
 
Indeed, that seemed like the only one that fit the spirit of the request. It's silly; it's cute; it shows a police officer being friendly and goofy; kids would get a kick out of it.

Now I'll probably learn there's some story behind it that makes it a testimony to police cruelty to animals or something. :boxedin:

They are racist against terriers?

The ones showing officers carrying struggling screaming protesters don't exactly suggest police brutality either. They are carrying somebody who is clearly not cooperating. Oh well.
 
Most of these were captioned. "Helpful officers lifting me into their car" with a protestor being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon - that kind of thing. Assuming the captions matched with the pictures (far from certain) then some definitely did involve police brutality (jay walking old man above, for instance.) Others were simply poking at the idea of wanting people to post pictures of how great the police are.
 

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