Boston Police Briefly Honor Red Auerbach for Black History Month
By Kyle Koster
The Boston Police Department briefly honored legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach last night while celebrating Black History Month, but backed off due to the public backlash.
BOSTON. pic.twitter.com/g5cqgiXgFA
— Faxes From Uncle Dale (@RealFansProgram) February 12, 2018
The department deleted the above tweet shortly after posting and decided to honor Bill Russell instead. You could actually see the wheels turning in real time with the realization that a completely unforced error had been made and needed to be addressed.
#ICYMI: In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth we pay tribute to Bill Russell, one of the greatest @celtics of all time and the first African-American head coach in the history of the NBA when he was named @celtics coach on November 15, 1966. pic.twitter.com/gKX7zpcUQt
— Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) February 12, 2018
The clean-up effort included an apology to those offended.
BPD realizes that an earlier tweet may have offended some and we apologize for that. Our intentions were never to offend. It has been taken down.
— Boston Police Dept. (@bostonpolice) February 12, 2018
It may not surprise you to learn that this gave rise to a backlash to the backlash from those who believe the department should have left the Auerbach tweet up.
Another productive day on the internet, as they all are.