Police in the UK have bragged about arresting a 12-year-old boy for sending mean and offensive messages on social media.
Yes, really.
Following the mainstream media’s hysteria over a handful of racist messages sent to black England footballers after the Euro’s last Sunday, West Midlands Police jumped at the chance to boast that it had taken urgent action.
“#ARRESTED| We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy,” the tweet said.
“The 12-year-old from #Solihull has been taken to custody. Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won’t be tolerated.”
Summit.news reports: In a follow up tweet, the force added that it had contacted the footballer in question to “obtain a statement.”
In other words, authorities are attempting to have a multi-millionaire footballer amplify the issue and potentially expose the identity of and ruin the life the child responsible for the messages.
Reaction from other Twitter users was vitriolic.
“Imagine bragging about arresting a prepubescent child over a tweet,” commented Ian Miles Cheong.
“You’ve arrested 12 year old for an offensive tweet. Impressive. Good to know resources are being directed appropriately,” added another.
“I’m pro-police, but you all are a bunch of wankers,” remarked Dan Gainor.
“So, police spring into action over a silly kid sending hurty words, but stand back & allow vandalism & extremism by BLM? Is that how it works now?” asked another.
“You freaking losers. You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” said Kurt Schlichter.
The moral panic over “racist” messages sent to black England footballers was largely a contrived hoax.
The vast majority of the messages originated with fake bot accounts or people primarily from India and the Middle East.
Despite this, the British media has spent the entire week hysterically amplifying the issue in a bid to force the government to impose new laws which would end online anonymity by making people provide official identity documents when opening a social media account.