Spectacular Twitter Backfire #myNYPD

Seaneh

So the good people at NYPD decided to do a wee bit of social media PR and publicity today using the hashtag #myNYPD and it has blown up in their faces massively.

They asked people to post pictures of themselves with police officers and tag the tweet with #myNYPD, what followed was internet gold.

Almost all of the tweets are of people being beaten, arrested, maced, harassed and so on by NYPD members

Linkie

SamAK

Brace yourselves, the 'get-a-haircut-and-a-job-and-pay-taxes' brigade are coming!

J_E

A lot of the pictures are pretty horrible but it's hard to tell what could have been happening during that moment. Sometimes a picture can show a pretty distorted side of a story. It's hard to watch them and not feel emotionally charged to some degree but you have to remember that the majority of the police force are just people trying to do a job to the best of their ability, and that job is made very difficult by a select few. It's easy to snap a pic of a single moment but hard to tell what comes before or after.

No doubt there are police on a power trip but let's just keep things in perspective, also.

Seaneh

Cydoniac wrote: »

A lot of the pictures are pretty horrible but it's hard to tell what could have been happening during that moment. Sometimes a picture can show a pretty distorted side of a story. It's hard to watch them and not feel emotionally charged to some degree but you have to remember that the majority of the police force are just people trying to do a job to the best of their ability, and that job is made very difficult by a select few. It's easy to snap a pic of a single moment but hard to tell what comes before or after.

I just think the whole thing is hilarious, it went exactly as they thought it wouldn't. The internet never fails to provide "le lols".

Also, if I was an Latino or african american male living in NY, I'd be applauding the people who are using this to highlight the abuse members of the black and latino communities receive from NYPD officers.

upandcumming

Seaneh wrote: »

I just think the whole thing is hilarious, it went exactly as they thought it wouldn't. The internet never fails to provide "le lols".

Also, if I was an Latino or african american male living in NY, I'd be applauding the people who are using this to highlight the abuse members of the black and latino communities receive from NYPD officers.

The abuse members of the black and latino communities receive from NYPD officers? You'd swear the NYPD would go out beating the shite out of them in packs after their lunch break on a daily basis the way some people would make it out. And as for the Occupy Wall St. bastards? They needed a pasting.

Aongus Von Bismarck

While I'm sure some members of the NYPD are less than stellar police officers, are some of these photos just an opportunity for various malcontents to highlight their inherent hatred of the police? Photos taken at a singular moment in time, published to present an inherently biased perspective on what may have been an extremely emotive and complex incident? It's a rather jaundiced tactic at this stage. Those with an ideological axe to grind use weasel words and images to further a campaign that doesn't stand up to that much scrutiny.

J_E

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

While I'm sure some members of the NYPD are less than stellar police officers, are some of these photos just an opportunity for various malcontents to highlight their inherent hatred of the police? Photos take at a singular moment in time, published to present an inherently biased perspective on what may have been an extremely emotive and complex incident? It's a rather jaundiced tactic at this stage. Those with an ideological axe to grind use weasel words and images to further a campaign that doesn't stand up to that much scrutiny.

Exactly. From the context of some of the photos, it conjures an image of a protest where the protesters probably tested the police to a point where they had to be restrained and taken away, perfect opportunity to snap a few vulnerable moments. It doesn't inspire confidence that 'Occupy Wall Street' are posting a bunch of them.

Seaneh wrote: »

I just think the whole thing is hilarious, it went exactly as they thought it wouldn't. The internet never fails to provide "le lols".

Also, if I was an Latino or african american male living in NY, I'd be applauding the people who are using this to highlight the abuse members of the black and latino communities receive from NYPD officers.

No doubt racial profiling is rampant within the police force, I wouldn't need these pics to be aware of that though, nor do I want to use the pics as a reason.

Seaneh

Cydoniac wrote: »

No doubt racial profiling is rampant within the police force, I wouldn't need these pics to be aware of that though, nor do I want to use the pics as a reason.

If it's rampant (and it is, that's not even up for debate) then surely it needs to be illuminated as much as possible?

jank

Well it appears that the Occupy Wall Street crowd are behind most of these tweeted pictures so beware the 'agenda'. Must still have a chip on their shoulder that nobody really cared about them.

J_E

Seaneh wrote: »

If it's rampant (and it is, that's not even up for debate) then surely it needs to be illuminated as much as possible?

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with Occupy Wall Street telling me that the cops are all pigs, so no, I don't think it's the right way to highlight the issue when it's just used as a political tool rather than showing a real concern.

wazky

Seaneh wrote: »

If it's rampant (and it is, that's not even up for debate) then surely it needs to be illuminated as much as possible?

Who decided it wasnt up for debate?

mickydoomsux

Seaneh wrote: »

..... the abuse members of the black and latino communities receive from NYPD officers.

The entire justice system over there must be abusing them because of their disproportionate representation in the prison population.

More guilty liberal excuse-making.

Seaneh

Cydoniac wrote: »

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with Occupy Wall Street telling me that the cops are all pigs, so no, I don't think it's the right way to highlight the issue when it's just used as a political tool rather than showing a real concern.

It's not just OWS though, their tweets are just getting the most retweets. There are plenty of people unattached to OWS who are sending in tweets with the hash tag. It's easy to try deflect the legitimacy of something by trying to associate it with something you can tar and feather as extremist or unimportant but reality is that NYPD are over zealous, heavy handed, institutionally racist and need massive reform.

And this ball up on their behalf a spectacular failure in social media PR, even mainstream news outlets are reporting it as such, and not as has been implied by some, as being hijacked by fringe groups.

Seaneh

mickydoomsux wrote: »

The entire justice system over there must be abusing them because of their disproportionate representation in the prison population.

More guilty liberal excuse-making.

J_E

mickydoomsux wrote: »

The entire justice system over there must be abusing them because of their disproportionate representation in the prison population.

More guilty liberal excuse-making.

To be honest, I think it would be pretty unreasonable to say that racial groups aren't disproportionately targeted by police in various aspects of the system. There's consistent evidence to back this.

Seaneh wrote: »

It's easy to try deflect the legitimacy of something by trying to associate it with something you can tar and feather as extremist or unimportant

You said it, and that's what's happening.

gctest50

Cydoniac wrote: »

It's easy to snap a pic of a single moment but hard to tell what comes before or after.
.

a single moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDIXiuS4

Seaneh

wazky wrote: »

Who decided it wasnt up for debate?

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, actually...

But then again he is trying to cover his own arse by suppressing the debate because senior officers have been caught on tape telling cops to "go out there and violate some rights" and the stop and frisk programme was stated in Supreme court findings to be unconstitutional.

This is all extremely topical in NY over the last year or so.

wazky

Cydoniac wrote: »

There's consistent evidence to back this.

Where's the consistent evidence that highlights the racial profiling?

J_E

gctest50 wrote: »

a single moment

Right, I don't think I remember saying that all police officers were great. I am aware of what does go on. I would just like to remind people of certain agendas that are being pushed around, and that not every police officer is a monster of society.

wazky wrote: »

Where's the consistent evidence that highlights the racial profiling?

I don't think going down the path of citing sources, then having sources questioned, then going down another 10 pages of forgetting what we were even debating about is something that is worth doing tonight, but;

http://www.project.org/images/graphs/Racial-Profiling.jpg
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey

In 2006, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) stopped a half-million pedestrians for suspected criminal involvement. Raw statistics for these encounters suggest large racial disparities � 89 percent of the stops involved nonwhites.

Could be argued that the War on Drugs was a facade for targeting and removing groups of people, linking opium with the Chinese, weed with Mexicans, crack cocaine within black communities, meth within poor white/gay communities.


There's still an argument made in regards to proportions of criminal activity within certain groups vs disproportionate profiling. To me it's fairly apparent that despite this, there is definitely an epidemic of racial profiling within America though.

Seaneh

mickydoomsux wrote: »

The entire justice system over there must be abusing them because of their disproportionate representation in the prison population.

If you knew anything about the shambles that is the US "justice" system you'd see the idiocy of your post.

Circa 5% of the worlds population, circa 25% of the worlds total prisoners, makes perfect sense!

Guy:Incognito

Cydoniac wrote: »

To be honest, I think it would be pretty unreasonable to say that racial groups aren't disproportionately targeted by police in various aspects of the system. There's consistent evidence to back this.


You said it, and that's what's happening.

Even if the police decided to only arrest black people that are committing crimes and openly ignore white people, does that mean the black people aren't committing the crimes? If they did it the other way around and the prison population was 100% white , would people abroad care as much when it's not as easy to point and say "look at those racist americans"?

Seaneh

Cydoniac wrote: »

not every police officer is a monster of society.

Most, I'd say the vast majority infact, police officers, even in NY, are probably terrific people. The problem (in this case specifically) is with the people implementing policies and quotas and telling beat cops they have to reach goals and they should aim for "black and latino males ages 14-21".

wazky

Seaneh wrote: »

Most, I'd say the vast majority infact, police officers, even in NY, are probably terrific people. The problem (in this case specifically) is with the people implementing policies and quotas and telling beat cops they have to reach goals and they should aim for "black and latino males ages 14-21".

So police chiefs are telling their officers (many of whom are black and Latino no doubt) to aim for black and Latino males? Really?

Guy:Incognito

wazky wrote: »

So police chiefs are telling their officers (many of whom are black and Latino no doubt) to aim for black and Latino males? Really?

Comes right from the top. Obama wants all them pesky blacks locked up .

J_E

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Even if the police decided to only arrest black people that are committing crimes and openly ignore white people, does that mean the black people aren't committing the crimes? If they did it the other way around and the prison population was 100% white , would people abroad care as much when it's not as easy to point and say "look at those racist americans"?

Does that even warrant a serious response? Ask a stupid question, etc etc.

Seaneh

wazky wrote: »

So police chiefs are telling their officers (many of whom are black and Latino no doubt) to aim for black and Latino males? Really?

Yes... have you read anything links posted so far? Did you watch the video on page 1?

Here's a link again.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ordered-secret-recording-stop-and-frisk-young-blacks-males-article-1.1295665


Further reading material for the uninformed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us-usa-newyork-police-idUSBRE97B0FK20130812

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/08/scheindlin-stop-and-frisk-verdict-new-york-statistical-debate.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/stop-and-frisk-racial-profiling

http://www.policymic.com/articles/59243/stop-and-frisk-is-not-only-racist-it-doesn-t-work

jank

Seaneh wrote: »

If you knew anything about the shambles that is the US "justice" system you'd see the idiocy of your post.

Circa 5% of the worlds population, circa 25% of the worlds total prisoners, makes perfect sense!

That is a useless statistic thrown out there for effect and not actual debate. Anything could be drawn from it.

Seaneh

jank wrote: »

That is a useless statistic thrown out there for effect and not actual debate. Anything could be drawn from it.

Helpful input as ever from boards most vocal vase.

creolebelle

As new yorker I can tell you the NYPD can be quite aggressive sometimes. I have never had an issue with police, I have even been helped by some great cops but I have heard quite a few horror stories

jank

Seaneh wrote: »

Helpful input as ever from boards most vocal vase.

Nice dodge but what does that stat actual tell us about the topic on hand? Nothing what so ever. Just a quick an easy soundbite for people to pontificate over their usual anti-american hobby horse.

creolebelle

Seaneh wrote: »

Yes... have you read anything links posted so far? Did you watch the video on page 1?

Here's a link again.


Further reading material for the uninformed.



]

Its great that someone over here gets it. I had to edit your post. The board wont let me post links as a new user

creolebelle

wazky wrote: »

So police chiefs are telling their officers (many of whom are black and Latino no doubt) to aim for black and Latino males? Really?

it happens

Karl Stein

mickydoomsux wrote: »

The entire justice system over there must be abusing them because of their disproportionate representation in the prison population.

Why do you think they are disproportionately represented in the justice system?

Karl Stein

jank wrote: »

not actual debate.

Have you considered starting a blog so that it could be more easily ignored?

Son Of A Vidic

Seaneh wrote: »

Linkie

The first cop in the white shirt swinging the baton is clearly fighting a Ninja. A brave man imo, personally I'd use a gun or just run the other way.

The second cop holding the person with the backpack, well that guy clearly has only one leg. So fair play to him for even turning up for work.

But since those photos represent only a very fleeting, frozen moment in time, I may have misinterpreted them.

Pixie69

#murica

JONJO THE MISER

Have been to NY twice and i have found the police to be nothing more that friendly and would go out of there way to help you, drank in pubs where a lot of nypd drink and there a great bunch, but then again im not one of those people who will go out of there way to confront the police, most of those people on the pics deserved a good beating anyway.

JONJO THE MISER

Just saw it was occupy wall street in a lot of the pics, i wonder how that little protest is going now:D