Police union account temporarily suspended after tweeting de Blasio’s daughter’s arrest

Twitter temporarily suspended the account for a union representing sergeants in the New York Police Department on Monday for violating its privacy policy, a spokesperson for the platform confirmed, after the account reportedly shared information about the arrest of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (D) daughter. 

A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill Tuesday that the Sergeants Benevolent Association’s account was “temporarily locked for violating our private information policy.”

It was back up as of Tuesday morning. 

The account posted a police report Saturday night documenting the arrest of Chiara de Blasio, the 25-year-old daughter of the Democratic mayor, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, The New York Times reported. 

The internal police report, which is not typically made public by the department, reportedly included Chiara de Blasio’s personal information including height, weight, address, date of birth and driver’s license information. 

A Twitter spokesman said the union’s account had violated its policy that prohibits publishing another person’s private information without express authorization and permission. 

According to Twitter’s policy, an account is required to remove a tweet that violated the platform’s rules before the account is able to tweet again. 

In the since-removed post, the union asked how police officers could protect New Yorkers from “rioting anarchists” when “the mayor’s object-throwing daughter is one of them,” according to the Times. 

Nothing in the police report suggested Chiara de Blasio had thrown any object, the newspaper added. 

Edward D. Mullins, the president of the union, told the Times the intent of the tweet was to question the mayor’s strategy toward the protests. 

“The message was that cops are being pelted with rocks, cars are being set on fire and our police department is being held back,” Mullins said.

“Is that why you’re tying our hands, because your daughter is out there?” Mullins added. “This needs to be looked at.”

The Hill reached out to the union for comment. 

During a briefing Monday, Bill de Blasio said he is proud of his daughter for participating in the protests and said she did so peacefully. 

“She recounted the story in detail to me. She was acting peacefully. She believes that everything she did was in the spirit of peaceful respectful protest,” the mayor said. “And the bottom line is, I will let her speak for herself in any way she wants to, but I admire that she was out there trying to change something that she thought was unjust and doing it in a peaceful manner.” 

The clash is the latest between de Blasio and the union. In February the union said the NYPD is “declaring war” on the mayor after two police officers were wounded by a gunman. 

“We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals. You sold the NYPD to the vile creatures, the 1% who hate cops but vote for you. NYPD cops have been assassinated because of you. This isn’t over, Game on!” the union tweeted. 

Protests across the country have emerged in response to Floyd’s death last week in Minneapolis police custody. He died after an officer knelt on his neck while Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. 

In New York City a curfew was set for 8 p.m. Tuesday, earlier than the 11 p.m. curfew imposed the night before, when peaceful protests turned violent at night.