NYPD Twitter Campaign Backfires Big Time

A New York City Police Department campaign to get Twitter users to share photos of themselves with officers got a massive response—but not the kind the department had in mind. Instead of citizens posing with friendly cops, the #MyNYPD tag became the top trending hashtag on Twitter with thousands of photos of police brutality, Occupy Wall Street arrests, and headlines about unarmed citizens being shot, reports the New York Daily News. (See plenty of examples at the Daily Dot.)

"Free massages from the #NYPD," read one tweet with a picture of riot cops pressing a man against a car. There were a few friendly submissions but they were massively outnumbered by those slamming the department, NBC notes. In a statement, the NYPD said it is "creating new ways to communicate effectively with the community" and "Twitter provides an open forum for an uncensored exchange and this is an open dialogue good for our city." (More Twitter stories.)