Following a media-contrived moral panic over racist messages sent to black England footballers after the national team’s Euros defeat to Italy, West Midlands Police jumped at the chance to broadcast that it had taken swift action.“#ARRESTED| We were alerted to a series of racist messages sent to a footballer today and after looking into them and conducting checks, we have arrested a boy,” stated the tweet. “The 12-year-old from #Solihull has been taken to custody. Thanks to everyone who raised it. Racism won’t be tolerated.”
In a follow up tweet, the force added that it had contacted the footballer in question to “obtain a statement.”
In other words, authorities are attempting to have a multi-millionaire footballer amplify the issue and potentially expose the identity of and ruin the life the child responsible for the messages.
