The Hoboken Police Department has issued a lengthy social media apology to a resident after a retired cop tweeted that her comment was “Fake Newz” from the official Hoboken PD Twitter account.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Ms Adair, many of your posts are just Fake Newz. Like this one, nobody is “victim blaming” “shaming” none of those “hot button words” that are designed to stifle and “shame” people for having an opinion,” a deleted Tweet from the Hoboken PD said today.
“Just saying to use common sense and look both ways, it’s called survival!”
The remarks came after Christine Adair tweeted that that it was “ugly to see the victim blaming comments” on a Saturday Twitter thread about a pedestrian being struck by a car.
This morning, shortly after the tweet was deleted, Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante said that the victim was in “good condition,” that the driver would be issued a summons and that the deleted tweet was used by someone not authorized to use that account.
About a half hour ago, the Hoboken Police Department Twitter account went into more detail about what had happened, explaining that a recently retired officer meant to tweet from his new account and accidentally used the HPD handle.
“A retired officer who used to have access to the Hoboken PD twitter page still had access on his phone despite passwords having been changed after his retirement. It was a technical error where the retired officer thought he was posting from his new personal account,” they explained.
“This was not done purposely and Lt. John Petrosino, who is the sole moderator of the
@HobokenPD account at this time and Chief Ferrante who is the sole user of
@KenFerrante both have spoken to the retired officer today to ensure he has disconnected his access.”
They continued that the statement were not a reflection of HPD or Ferrante, who fully support Vision Zero and assured that the HPD “does not use anonymous trolling accounts.”
A retired officer who used to have access to the Hoboken PD twitter page still had access on his phone despite passwords having been changed after his retirement. It was a technical error where the retired officer thought he was posting from his new personal account.
— Hoboken Police (@HobokenPD) January 6, 2020
The statements made in no way reflect the opinion of the HPD nor the Chief of Police and in fact are opposite to our stance on this specific matter and pedestrian safety in general. Lt. Petrosino and Chris Adair are both on @CityofHoboken Vision Zero team.
— Hoboken Police (@HobokenPD) January 6, 2020
We can assure you 100% that the HPD does not use anonymous trolling accounts. The statements made were that of a private citizen/former officer,which he is entitled to,if they were posted from a personal account. There was no criminal activity nor malicious hacking that occurred.
— Hoboken Police (@HobokenPD) January 6, 2020