Was That a Burning Cross on the Philly Police Twitter Feed?

No, says the guy who posted it: "Swing and a miss on my part."

The original image, left. The replacement, right.

The original image, left. The replacement, right.

The guy in charge of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Twitter account this afternoon decided to post a welcome message to newly appointed Commissioner Richard Ross, and in doing so, it sure looked like he used the image of a burning cross.

It wasn’t, the department’s social media manager says, but he understood why people thought that was what they were seeing. “Swing and a miss on my part,” he told Philly Mag Wednesday afternoon.

Burning crosses originally had nothing to do with racism. They were used way back in the 1100s as a religious statement and later a declaration of war, but these days, if you put an image of a burning cross anywhere, we’re pretty sure everyone in their right mind thinks one thing: the Ku Klux Klan.

Some on Twitter were quick to point out the strange image choice:

But most were amused over the name of our new commissioner, in light of the famous and oft-arrested rapper Rick Ross, or simply confused by the graphic’s other attributes, which were apparently a reference to the Nintendo video game series Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

So what of the burning cross, which was quickly removed and replaced with an updated image?

“It’s a popular symbol from the same game,” offers Sergeant Eric Gripp, who posted the original graphic on the PPD’s Twitter account. “Wasn’t as widely known as I hoped, so went to a generic [image] to avoid folks thinking it was a burning cross.”

Wait. So what was it if not a burning cross?

“It’s a Poke Ball from Pokemon opening up,” Gripp insists. I guess we have to play more video games.