Austin Police Accused of Staging Photo With Giant Pile of ‘Thank You’ Letters

The Austin Police Department in Texas has come under fire after sharing a series of photos displaying “Thank You” letters from the community. The pictures of the pile of cards are getting accused of social media of being fake. In the original posting, the Twitter account of the police department shared two images, one of which featuring three separate images in one, of officers looking at the cards and the other showcasing the mound of letters they received in total.

“We can’t express enough how grateful we are,” the tweet began before adding that all of the notes they have received have made their days “a little brighter.” Across the nation, protesters have put police officers on blast for their use of violence in the wake of George Floyd‘s death. While many of the protests have been peaceful, others have been met with opposition, including the scene that unfolded in Washington D.C. just minutes before President Donald Trump addressed the country.

The letters shown, though, aren’t convincing enough for social media, however. Many pointed to the handwriting seen on the letters and how they all looked similar. One user wrote, “Damn y’all only found one whole person who can write Thank You legibly.” Another astute user pointed out how the “T’s” in each “Thank You” all appeared to be similar, “It’s weird how the handwriting is the same on so many of them. Look at the capital T in ‘thank you.’”

Many of the other comments followed the same trend, expressing disappointment in what they considered to be a staged photo. Another Twitter user caught a minor detail about how none of the letters had any postage, “Weird how all of those letters have precisely the same handwriting and were all hand-delivered without postage.”

The Austin City Council recently announced that it is considering cutting the police budget by $100 million. This is a move that has happened in multiple other metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles and New York City amid the unrest across the country. The Austin police department is also being sued along with the city on a wrongful death lawsuit on the second anniversary of Leslie Salazar’s death after she was fatally shot by an Austin police officer.