A newspaper columnist was accused of being “deceitful.” A lawyer and political activist was challenged to show her face at the funeral of a fallen officer. And a city councilwoman became the target of an apparent “vote her out” campaign.
The combative comments — all posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — were nothing new for a site that has become synonymous with personal attacks and insults. What was unusual was the source: executives from the New York Police Department.
“The defund crowd who will cry ‘boo hoo’ to 9-1-1 when they need us,” John Chell, the chief of patrol, wrote on X on March 31, complaining about a critical column written by Harry Siegel of The Daily News. “The problem is that besides your flawed reporting is the fact that now we are calling you and your ‘latte’ friends out on their garbage.”
The aggressive stance — while consistent with the often antagonistic approach taken by Mayor Eric Adams and his circle of loyal aides — is a sharp departure from typical police protocol, and some former Police Department and city officials say many of the responses go too far.
But Mr. Adams and top police officials said the attacks would continue.
“We’re going to start pushing back and I think the issue is people aren’t used to it,” Chief Chell told reporters during a briefing this week. “I can tweet and fight crime at the same time.”
The latest and most extended example of the aggressive posture has centered on a series of attacks against Mr. Siegel, whose piece criticizing department leaders for crime on the subway ran the same day as the funeral of Jonathan Diller, a police officer killed in the line of duty.
Using the department’s public information account, the police began calling him “Harry ‘Deceitful’ Siegel,” pouncing on an error in his column — he wrote there had been 10 homicides on the subway when there had been four. The newspaper fixed the mistake and noted in a correction that it regretted the error. But the criticism continued, with several executives accusing Mr. Siegel of being disdainful of the police.
In recent months, police brass have also gone on X to complain about a judge, who they wrongly accused of freeing a man that went on to commit another felony.
Chief Chell also called the The New York Times’s coverage of Officer Diller’s funeral “disgraceful” in a repost of a New York Post editorial that criticized The Times for not featuring the article on the front page, among other complaints.
In an interview with The News, Commissioner Edward A. Caban did not say whether he agreed with his supervisors’ sentiments. But he said he understood their frustration with the media.
“I can tell you that my executives are very passionate about defending their specific bureaus,” said Commissioner Caban, whose own X account features more conventional fare: posts about promotional ceremonies and pictures of himself with politicians, officers and community leaders.
“As an agency, I don’t think we get credit, or the officers get credit, for the work we do,” he said.
Mr. Adams, a former police captain, was far more explicit in his support of the contentious social media posts. During a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, the mayor said that he did not believe his department leaders had “attacked” Mr. Siegel, adding that it was imperative that “the free press should be held accountable.”
“The columnist shared his opinion,” Mr. Adams said of Mr. Siegel’s column. “They shared their opinion.”
Not everyone agrees with Mr. Adams’s stance.
By letting loose on social media, executives in the department are not only undermining their own positions, they’re giving the public a sense that the leadership structure is not under control, said Bill Cunningham, the first communications director for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“I don’t know that you can make the case for this department and its leadership,” Mr. Cunningham said. “It raises the question again of, who authorized it? Who decided this was a good strategy?”
Former Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said he understood that the posts on X reflect months of anger from police officers and leaders, who feel maligned by some in the media and remain furious over reforms passed by the State Legislature and the City Council that they believe have led to spikes in crime. But, he said, the posts are a reflection of how social media has removed guardrails even from institutions like the Police Department, where messaging was usually more controlled.
“The barriers are going down,” he said. “And that’s a shame in some respects. You want to have free speech but you need to have some degree of limits.”
Mr. Bratton, who now works in private consulting and has his own X account, said he had hired someone to help him restrain his emotional impulses, “so in a moment of frustration and anger, I don’t hit the send button.”
“I’m constantly expressing frustration with the legislature in the city and the state,” Mr. Bratton said. “But the idea is to as much as possible not to get into name-calling. Refrain from name-calling and stick as much as you can to the facts.”
The online indignation has even extended to supporters of the police.
On March 31, Mike Colón, whose podcast “MC’s Audio” usually features positive interviews with police officers, federal agents and firefighters, wrote an essay on LinkedIn, telling police leaders to “grow up” following some of the tweets.
Chief Chell replied to Mr. Colón’s post, accusing him of launching “a very direct attack.”
“I wonder who put you up to this?” Chief Chell wrote from his LinkedIn account.
Mr. Colón said he was perplexed.
“What do you care what some 24-year-old upstart journalist from Connecticut thinks?” he said “Don’t you have a department to run?”
Mr. Siegel, a 46-year-old tabloid veteran who is also an editor at The City, a nonprofit publication, said he felt the chiefs had conflated his criticism of them with being against police officers.
He said he was “certain that trying to intimidate is part of the point.”
“My wife is not thrilled,” Mr. Siegel said in an interview. “They’re obviously crossing a line into outright slander, which seems to show sloppiness and weakness, and a desperation to talk about anything other than the issues I actually write about in my columns.”
For the record, he said, he prefers deli coffee to lattes.
The Police Department has a media engagement unit known as the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, with a robust budget of roughly $4 million, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. It is staffed 24 hours a day by civilians and officers — its budget allows for a staff of about 30 — who field questions from reporters and distribute news releases detailing recent crimes and arrests.
It also oversees much of the department’s social media feeds. The current deputy commissioner for public information, Tarik Sheppard, a former deputy inspector, said he reviewed “90 percent” of the posts on X put out by precinct commanders, who have separate accounts.
“It’s impossible for me to see everything,” Commissioner Sheppard said, adding that his office fixes or takes down any incorrect information that is posted.
In the case of the police executive brass, he said he saw most of their tweets before they were sent out, including the posts critical of Mr. Siegel.
“I totally support and agree with them,” Commissioner Sheppard said, adding that there was nothing “unprofessional” about pointing out errors. “And we’re not going to stop.”
The most prolific posters have been Chief Chell and Kaz Daughtry, the deputy commissioner for operations, who reposted many of Chief Chell’s tweets and, in one of his own, called Mr. Seigel a “gadfly.”
During a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, Commissioner Daughtry was more measured, saying he believed in the freedom of the press. He said his posts were an emotional reaction to seeing Officer Diller in the operating room as doctors desperately tried to save him.
“I get home, and my daughter asked me, ‘Why are you crying, Daddy?’” Commissioner Daughtry said. “Then I look at my text messages, and I see an article written by Harry bashing us on a day we just buried one of our brothers. And I felt the need to speak up on behalf of my cops.”
Hurubie Mekoand Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.
