A police force has apologised after posting an “unacceptable” image of two men dressed in Nazi uniforms on its official Twitter page.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) removed the tweet from their GMP Traffic Twitter account, which had shown the men wearing SS uniforms and standing next to a German military Kubelwagen.
The tweet, which was posted on Sunday, was captioned: “M62 J22 On the west Yorkshire border. These two likely lads trying to invade”.
We’ve posted this for the comments section. Chins up @gmptraffic.
https://t.co/oKFp1d16bk via https://t.co/PWYLTQrv4X— 4Policing.com (@4Policing) August 8, 2016
But one Twitter user, Shulem Stern, saw the post – which was later deleted – and flagged it up to the force.
Mr Stern, who is part of Stamford Hill’s Orthodox Jewish Community, described it as being “not right”:
Two guys dressed in SS uniform tweeted by official @gmpolice account. Not right. @ACCGarryShewan @CCIanHopkins https://t.co/5kYbgeyFgO
— Shulem Stern (@ShulemStern) August 7, 2016
He later tweeted that the “insensitive SS uniform tweet” had been removed before re-tweeting an apology from GM Police.
GMP said the “unacceptable” tweet had been removed and senior officers “will speak to those involved”:
@ShulemStern @ACCGarryShewan @CCIanHopkins it has been removed and we will speak to those involved. It was unacceptable.
— G M Police (@gmpolice) August 7, 2016
The men were returning from a Second World War re-enactment event in nearby Saddleworth.
The event, titled “Yanks are back in Saddleworth”, had strict instructions for any German re-enacters not to wear black SS uniforms with red arm bands.
However, SS uniforms were permitted as long as the insignia was not on show.
