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Miami Police Troll Looters, Post Photo Of Looting Suspects On Twitter To Discourage Robberies During Storms

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 05:28 PST, Sep 11, 2017

Police in Miami found a way to shame suspected looters by taking to Twitter to warn others not to do the same. As seen in the tweet (below) from the Miami Police Department Twitter account @MiamiPD, authorities posted a photo of alleged looters who appeared to be sitting inside a holding cell. Although the photo has the faces of the suspect blurred out, other identifying factors, such as their clothing, ethnicities and beyond, are the subject of certain comments online.

Authorities claim that the looters took advantage of the events of Hurricane Irma. Police posted a description along with the photo that asked readers if they were thinking about looting, and if so, they might want to think again, in light of the people shown in the photo. Police included the hashtag #stayindoors to encourage people to stay in safe locations instead of going into dangerous and potentially flooded streets. Posted to Twitter on Sunday, September 10 at 9:30 p.m., the tweet has since gone viral. It was been liked more than 10,000 times and retweeted more than 5,000 times. The tweet also has more than 1,000 replies on Twitter. While some of the replies thank the police for their service, others criticize police for allegedly being more concerned with protecting property than human lives.

According to Heavy, there were other tweets published to Twitter by the Miami police that displayed looting situations. Authorities reported that nearly 30 people had been arrested for looting while Hurricane Irma raged. There weren’t only photos of looters being posted online by police, but also photos and videos of flooded streets, along with cleanup efforts in the wake of the hurricane passing through Florida. Warnings about curfews that were issued to help keep people safe from fallen power lines and flooded streets were also posted to Twitter.

As seen in the top photo above, a Miami police cruiser patrolled the streets of South Beach prior to Hurricane Irma making landfall in Miami Beach, Florida. The photo was captured on Friday, September 8 as the state asked 5.6 million people to leave the area to help save their lives from the impact of Hurricane Irma.

[Featured Image by David Goldman/AP Images]

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