Says the Chicago Police Department tweeted, “We are all Derek Chauvin.”
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No, Chicago Police Department didn’t tweet Derek Chauvin support
If Your Time is short
- The Chicago Police Department says they didn’t tweet this.
- We didn’t find any evidence that this screenshot is authentic.
On April 20, a jury found ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder in the death of George Floyd. Among the people and organizations to tweet their approval of the verdict: basketball star LeBron James and the Las Vegas Raiders football team.
But what looks like a screenshot of an April 24 tweet seems to show the Chicago Police Department standing with the officer.
"We are all Derek Chauvin," the tweet says.
However, it’s not real.
Sally Bown, a spokesperson for Chicago Police, told us that the screenshot isn’t authentic — the department didn’t tweet it.
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"Not only does this synthetic and manipulated image, which is antithetical to our values, reflect the very worse of disinformation on social media, it also puts our officers and communities at risk by widening the gap in trust that we are working so hard to build, bridge and restore," the department said in a statement Bown shared with PolitiFact.
On April 24, the department tweeted that it had reported the screenshot but were notified by Twitter that the image didn’t violate their policies.
On April 25, the department also retweeted a local TV reporter who wrote, "Seen this photoshopped image go around. It’s clearly fake. … Misinformation like this puts people at risk."
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Searching the police department’s Twitter feed we didn’t find the message that appears in the screenshot. In fact, we didn’t find any tweets about Chauvin.
We also didn’t find any evidence that the department tweeted and then deleted the message.
But on May 29, 2020, the department did appear to weigh in on George Floyd’s death. Sharing a video of Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown, the department tweeted: "What happened to George Floyd is reprehensible. As CPD works to ensure you have the ability to express your First Amendment rights, we ask you to do it in a safe and peaceful manner."
We rate this post False.
Update, April 26, 2021: This story has been updated to include additional comment from Sally Bown of Chicago Police. The rating is unchanged.
Our Sources
Facebook post, April 24, 2021
The New York Times, Chauvin received three guilty verdicts for one crime. Here’s why and what it means for his sentence, April 20, 2021
The New York Times, Sports world celebrates Chauvin verdict amid controversy over Raisers’ ‘I can’t breath’ tweet, April 20, 2021
Chicago Police Department tweet, April 24, 2021
Chicago Police Department tweet, April 25, 2021
Chicago Police Department tweet, May 29, 2020
Email interview with Sally Bown, public information officer, Chicago Police Department
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No, Chicago Police Department didn’t tweet Derek Chauvin support
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