When the New York Police Department asked Twitter users yesterday to share their photographs with police officers, they were perhaps expecting a few feel-good neighborhood scenes or tourists with police horses in Times Square, says the New York Times. After the call went out from the department's Twitter account, users took the opportunity to attach some of the most unfavorable images of New York City officers that could be found on the Internet.
Among them: officers holding down a photographer on the pavement and a white-shirted supervisor twisting an arm, among photos taken during Occupy Wall Street protests; an officer knocking a bicyclist to the ground during a Critical Mass protest ride, and another dancing provocatively with a barely clad paradegoer. the Times called it “an embarrassing stumble” in an aggressive effort by the police epartment to engage with New Yorkers on social media, particularly on the short messaging service. Commissioner William Bratton has been active on his own Twitter account for months. Relying on an officer from the department's communications team to write most of the messages, his account has included semiofficial messages and photos that track his daily movements.