@FanSince09, a Philadelphia sports fan whose Twitter account has become locally famous for skewering everyone from athletes to politicians to Benghazi conspiracy theorists, has made national news overnight after using his social media prowess to identify a group of people who allegedly beat up a gay couple in Center City Philadelphia.
Video was released last week by Philadelphia police of a group of men and women who attacked an innocent gay couple by kicking them about the head and chest so viciously the two later required surgery, one suffering facial fractures and the other needing his jaw wired shut. In the days following the release of the video, police still had few leads. That's when Twitter sprung into action.
Feeding off a picture of the supposed group tweeted by The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Greg Bennett, @FanSince09 used clues from Facebook and his Twitter followers to find check-in information for the group, later identifying members and contacting police. The story was initially picked up by a local Philadelphia FOX affiliate, but has gained traction to the point where @FanSince09 was featured today on Good Morning America.
@RealGlenMacnow found them all at la viola, some of them checked in on FB, compared FB pics
— FanSince09 (@FanSince09) September 17, 2014
If you're going to gay bash don't fill your FB profile with gay slurs and also delete that resturant check in from earlier
— FanSince09 (@FanSince09) September 17, 2014
S/O to @FanSince09 This is what makes my job easy. Sure, it's up to me to make the arrest but we are all in this together.
— Joseph Murray (@PPDJoeMurray) September 17, 2014
This is how Twitter is supposed to work for cops. I will take a couple thousand Twitter detectives over any one real detective any day.
— Joseph Murray (@PPDJoeMurray) September 17, 2014
And even with the serious nature of what transpired, @FanSince09 stayed in character throughout like a Twitter version of Stephen Colbert:
When the media asks you to wake up hella early for morning shows. pic.twitter.com/bzykg60j3w
— FanSince09 (@FanSince09) September 17, 2014
It's not OK to beat up people for their sexual orientation. This is Philly, beat up people due to wearing another team's jersey.
— FanSince09 (@FanSince09) September 16, 2014
The full series of events can be seen below thanks to a Storify created by Melody Kramer.
[via Crossing Broad]