Police officers in Denver used a sock puppet Twitter account to harass Occupy Wall Street protesters, calling them "idiots." The news came out in a court hearing where Occupy Denver protesters were seeking an injunction against police for ticketing participants and supporters who honk car horns and pitch tents and commit other ticket-able offenses to show their support of the cause. A document made public in the hearing "found a police officer admitting to the creation of a fake Twitter account for the sole purpose of harassing the occupiers, referred to as 'idiots,' " according to West Word blogger Kelsey Whipple. The report doesn't say which accounts harassed the protesters, but one Occupy supporter on Twitter said the revelation had put an end to the campaign. "Since it came out at the hearing that the cops set up twitter accounts to harass #OccupyDenver, the trolls have disappeared," tweeted a local Occupy supporter going by the handle @IrishPatti.

Ironically, West Word gave a Denver Web Award last month to the official @DenverPolice account for best social media used by a public service.

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Adam Martin