Social networking is not a Game
A single tweet posted by a rapper triggered a criminal investigation, hundreds of calls to the Los Angeles Sheriff department at Compton and led followers to believe an internship was available with him.
The Game tweeted to his 580,000 Twitter followers that he had an available internship, and he provided a phone number for interested students to call in order to apply. So far, so good. Except the phone number belonged to the Los Angeles Sheriff department.
The station was flooded with prank phone calls for nearly 2 hours Friday evening, which delayed help for calls regarding a missing person, a spousal assault, a stolen car and 2 robberies, according to CNN.
The tweet was immediately taken downn and the rapper, whose real name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor and who goes by the Twitter handle "Charles Louboutin," claimed his account was hacked and said the tweet was "an accident." Nevertheless, a criminal investigation was opened to determine Taylor's charges, since it ignited a telephone flashmob.
Capt. Mike Parker, Los Angeles County Sheriff spokesman, said Taylor's claim about his hacked account did not make sense. "If you look at this Twitter account, you can see a stream of what's being said and what's not being said. I have yet to see anything on his Twitter account that he was hacked," Parker said in a statement.
The sheriff department is considering charging Taylor with three misdemeanor charges -- harassing phone calls via device/Internet, delaying/obstructing officers from their duties and knowingly and maliciously disrupting or impeding communications over a public safety radio frequency, said Parker. They are also considering charging the hundreds of phone calls as individual offenses
In response, Taylor tweeted late Friday: "Yall can track a tweet down but cant solve murders! Dat was an accident but maybe now yall can actually do yall job !!!!"
Parker rebutted with a tweet: "U tweeted phone# of LASD Compton & said 2 call 4 internship when there is none. Lg.vol.calls R compromising publicsafety."
Though he posted about 20 tweets since then, Taylor's been mum on the subject.