Kent Police say the department accidentally reposted this photo on its X account of what appears to be two Israel Defense Forces soldiers detaining a member of Hamas. COURTESY PHOTO

Kent Police say the department accidentally reposted this photo on its X account of what appears to be two Israel Defense Forces soldiers detaining a member of Hamas. COURTESY PHOTO

Kent Police call X repost of Israeli soldiers shocking photo ‘human error’

Photo reportedly depicts Hamas member being detained at gunpoint

Kent Police say a shocking photo was “accidentally” reposted to its X account reportedly depicting two Israel Defense Forces soldiers detaining a blindfolded member of Hamas.

“The photo was reposted accidentally and was the result of human error – a miss-click of the keyboard,” according to a Nov, 27 Kent Police news release on Facebook. “As soon as the error was recognized on Tuesday morning (Nov. 26), the photo was removed.”

KIRO 7 News first reported the Nov. 25 repost last week and reached out to the Kent Police Department and the Mayor’s Office for response. Kent Police later posted its message about the accidental repost in response to KIRO’s request for information.

Kent Police banned any comments on its Facebook post about the mistaken repost. The original post was by Vivid (@vividprowess), which describes itself as “Proud Jewish” and “Proud Zionist,” and displays an Israeli flag.

Zionist is a Jewish nationalist movement with the goal of the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews, according to britannica.com.

The post under the photo of the soldiers reads:

“This is going to be the most iconic photo of the war. Hamas terrorist scum defeated by IDF female soldiers, with his head down and tied like a rat.”

Kent Police explained in the news release how the department uses its X account.

“The Kent Police Department X account is used to inform followers of major incidents, department successes and to warn individuals of safety issues,” according to the news release. “A review of past posts makes it evident that the post described above had no relation to the work of the Kent Police Department and was made in error.

“The Department is currently working to refine its process should an accidental post occur in the future.”

The department also noted the difficulty in removing posts from its account. As of Dec. 2, the repost still remained on some X postings by Kent Police.

When asked by the Kent Reporter whether the police department planned any further investigation about how the item was reposted, Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said in a Dec. 2 email:

“I would direct you back to our media release from last week that explains the circumstances of the accidental post that was the result of human error.”


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