Police have praised the power of social networking site Twitter after it allowed them to quickly refute inflammatory rumours during the English Defence League’s Dudley demonstration.
Officers used the technology to rebut suggestions that a rival demonstrator from group Unite Against Fascism had stabbed an EDL steward.
They issued tweets – messages of no more than 140 letters – on the site to quell the ugly rumours. It was the third time the EDL had dropped in on West Midlands Police, but the first where the true power of Twitter on the frontline was unleashed.
The force’s ground-breaking handling of the far-right group’s protest against a proposed mosque on April 3, as Unite Against Fascism held a peaceful multi-cultural event nearby, won praise from the community.
Ch Insp Mark Payne, media liaison officer on the day, used Twitter service TweetDeck to monitor messages, and before the protest began he refuted a message posted on Facebook suggesting EDL members had smashed a mosque’s windows. Midway through the afternoon a tweet wrongly suggested that an EDL steward had been stabbed by UAF supporters. Within minutes of EDL protesters breaking through police lines, Ch Insp Payne told the public the incident was under control.
He said: “Tried and tested techniques of sharing information and new media complemented each other to ensure accurate coverage and make sure false rumour could not cause more problems.”
Of 12 men arrested, six remain on police bail, one received a fixed penalty notice, one was cautioned, two were charged and two were released without charge. Adnan Ajram, 18, appeared at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on April 14 charged with possession of an offensive weapon and of a Class B drug. Ian Rollinson, 17, was charged with having an offensive weapon in public and appeared before Dudley magistrates on April 5. Both were releassed on bail to a date to be set.
Birmingham Mail
