Kent police reposted a disturbing photo on their X account Monday. After alerting the department, Assistant Chief Jarod Kasner said it was a mistake and that the post would be removed. After the post was up for 40 hours, Kent police deleted its X account.
At about 8 p.m. Monday night, KIRO 7 News was alerted to the post.
The post says, “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.”
The accompanying photo shows two female soldiers, both holding automatic weapons, and one pointing her fingers and mimicking a gun at a man who is nearly nude, with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded.
At 2:48 p.m. Tuesday, KIRO 7 News called and emailed the Kent Police Department. We also emailed Kent Mayor Dana Ralph, sending the following:
Good afternoon,
There is a post on X reposted from the Kent Police Department account referencing the war with Israel and Hamas, showing two female IDF soldiers holding a tied and blindfolded man at gunpoint.
Was this repost intentional? What happened here? How did this happen?
We have attached a screenshot for reference.
Within an hour, KIRO 7 News received a reply from Kent Police Department Assistant Chief Jarod Kasner:
We verified this was accidently reposted. Once it was discovered it was immediately taken down.
Thank you for your inquiry on this.
Throughout the rest of the day and Wednesday morning, KIRO 7 verified the post had not been removed, so we called the Mayor’s office at about 11 a.m.
The Mayor’s office was unaware of our email until we asked them to look for it. Once they saw the email, we were told the post would be addressed. KIRO 7 News also asked for a statement from the Mayor’s office, asking if they condoned this.
We’re still waiting to hear back.
As of 12:25 p.m. Wednesday, the post had been up for 40 hours.
Shortly after publishing this story, the Kent Police Department deleted its X account at about 1:30 p.m.
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