‘ This s—t ain’t no joke yo – I’m serious, people are gonna die like aurora, ‘ the person tweeted, referring to the July massacre at a Colorado Aurora movie theater where a gunman in tactical gear opened fire on movie-goers during a showing of Batman The Dark Knight Rises.
The Twitter user threatened to unleash similar carnage at the Longacre Theatre in midtown, where retired American professional boxer Mike Tyson is currently performing his one-man show ‘ Undisputed Truth. ‘
The US officers asked Twitter to turn over the user’s information when the NYPD first noticed the posts, but the social media site has refused. In an e-mail, the site told police it did not appear the tweet in question fell within its parameters for invoking emergency-disclosure procedures.
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As a precaution, the NYPD detectives dispatched officers to the theater. Chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne has said the NYPD would continue to secure the theater until the Twitter user who made the threat was found. Twitter has since complied with the subpoena, providing police with the information they requested. Paul Browne said : ‘ We take the threat seriously, especially in light of recent attacks in Wisconsin and Colorado. ‘
Police that night learned of the threat, assigned a security detail to the Longacre Theater, then in an 11:52 p.m. email asked Twitter for the identity of the person making the threat. Twitter responded less than three hours later — at 2:15 a.m. — with a denial.
A judge had earlier ruled that the tweeter in question, Malcolm Harris of Brooklyn, did not have a ‘ reasonable expectation of privacy ‘ on Twitter.
But the social media giant has taken a firm position on law enforcement demands. It typically tells its users whenever authorities ask about their postings, something that has reportedly happened more than 900 times this year in the United States alone.
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The menacing tweets referring to New York began last week, when the unknown user wrote about making a hit list and tweeted : ‘ i wanna kill a lot of people. ‘
On July 29, the same user tweeted : ‘ I might just shoot up this theater in new York I know they leave their exit doors unlocked. Ha now I gotta plan it step by step. ‘
On Aug. 2, the user responded to another user tweet about Mike Tyson’s show playing at the Longacre Theater “right now” with the tweet : ‘ Well ima shoot that theater up tonight just trust me. ‘
Mike Tyson’s ‘ Undisputed Truth ‘ opened Friday for a limited run at the Longacre Theater in Broadway. Paul Browne has told there have been no incidents at the Longacre theater since then but that police will maintain a beefed-up presence there.
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson had no comment.
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