Internet vigilantes falsely link ex-officer to US teens’ attack

This undated photo provided by the Damskey family shows John Damskey. Damskey, a retired police officer who was falsely accused by many Twitter users of accosting three young adults on a Maryland bicycle trail, says he was saddened and scared by the barrage of hate directed against him. — Damskey family via AP

SILVER SPRING, Maryland: John Damskey’s nightmare began with his wife getting emails from strangers telling her she should be ashamed of her husband, a retired police officer. Their phones wouldn’t stop ringing with calls from unfamiliar numbers. Some even called his 74-year-old mother.

Baffled by the barrage of hate last Thursday, Damskey plugged his name into the Internet and made a horrifying discovery: Mobs of Twitter users were falsely accusing him of being the bicyclist on a Maryland trail who accosted three young adults posting flyers protesting the death of George Floyd.