Earlier today Twitchy reported on the outrage at the St. Louis County Police Department for a tweet they posted on Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot and killed by police in Cleveland.
That tweet has since been deleted with no explanation:
.@stlcountypd has removed the Tamir Rice tweet. Told Mashable they're looking into it. http://t.co/pgKRGxCRuq pic.twitter.com/pdibrVQFbs
— Amanda Wills (@AmandaWills) December 4, 2014
The link in the now deleted tweet went to a Facebook post from the “Fenton Precinct,” which has also been deleted.
The website Mediaite contacted the alleged author of the post who offered this defense:
Mediaite spoke with Aaron Dilks, a neighborhood police officer who wrote the post. “I too was a kid, and I too would have done the same thing as Tamir Rice did,” Dilks said. “I was allowed to go play with guns, and have BB guns — we didn’t have Airsofts at the time. The point of the ‘kids will be kids’ is that’s what kids will do…The point of putting [the post] out was to educate and make sure something like this doesn’t happen in the city of Fenton or in our area.”
Mediaite has a screenshot of the Facebook post here.
But these deletions are now only feeding the anger toward the SLCPD, made worse by the fact that Tweeters new to the story can’t easily read what the SLCPD was trying to say.
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https://twitter.com/E_Hellerstein/status/540542933804793856
Go Home @stlcountypd,
You're Drunk.— Ξnemy of the State (@Anony_Mia) December 4, 2014
https://twitter.com/JasBaileyTweets/status/540542526139420673
https://twitter.com/bradagreenberg/status/540541796913541120
I'm sorry that @stlcountypd thinks dead black boys are humorous talking points #NotAnApology #SorryNotSorry
— Missandei Nikita (@Sugadoll314) December 4, 2014
The @stlcountypd weighed in on the police shooting of Tamir Rice, and that went about as well as you might expect. http://t.co/Iw1q6iu9YG
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) December 4, 2014
And Vox offered its take with this explanation:
The original post seemed like well-intentioned advice to parents to make sure their children are using airsoft and pellet guns responsibly, but the general theme of the post is that children should have to adapt to how police officers handle these situations — instead of changing how police officers themselves deal with these situations. Instead of focusing on responsible use of the real firearm the officer actually used in this case, the post focused on the type of toy gun the boy was carrying.
Not really. Vox wrote:
…to make sure their children are using airsoft and pellet guns responsibly…
Key word: “responsibly.” But the main point made in the Fenton Precinct Facebook post was that the laws for BB/Airsoft guns and the laws for real guns are the same:
Key word becomes: “Legally,” as in “to make sure their children are using Airsoft and pellet guns legally.
Vox goes on to argue that cops need change “how police officers themselves deal with these situations.” The Facebook post addressed that, too:
Maybe Vox can explain exactly what they want cops to do in a situation where it’s impossible for them to tell if a gun is real or fake.
To be continued.
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Related:
‘Kids will be Kids?’ What exactly does the St. Louis County PD mean with this tweet on Tamir Rice?
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