cleveland city hall.JPG

The city of Cleveland's Community Relations Board apologized Tuesday night for a series of inflammatory tweets asking Twitter users if the city should burn down like Ferguson or Baltimore.

(The Plain Dealer, file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city of Cleveland's Community Relations Board has issued an apology for a series of tweets earlier this week asking Twitter users if they think Cleveland should be "burned down" like Baltimore or Ferguson, Missouri.

"Our intention with the #ourcle campaign was to create a conversation online surrounding community and police relations," @CRBcleveland tweeted Tuesday evening. "We apologize for recent inappropriate #ourcle tweets sent from this account. They were not in the spirit of what we intended to do. We'll continue pushing for dialogue between you and the city."

But city officials have yet to say who was responsible for the debacle. And the apology has done little to quell the uproar on social media or national news, where the city's public outreach campaign has been labeled an "epic Twitter fail."

The controversy began last week, when the Community Relations Board, which is led by Director Blaine Griffin, launched its Twitter account with the intention of opening dialogue in advance of a verdict in Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo's manslaughter trial. Brelo is accused of killing two unarmed suspects after a high-speed police chase in 2012.

When Twitter users responded with criticism of the Police Department and angry comments about Brelo, the city tweeted: "We respect everyone's right to vent and speak out but this is #ourcle."

Twitter users, who viewed that as an attempt to tamp down dissent, expressed their outrage.

The Community Relations Board, in tweets and in a news release Monday, responded by inviting the criticism. But many felt the board went too far Monday night, when it tweeted: "Should Cleveland be burned down like #bmore #Ferguson #hough #central?"

In a later tweet, the board pushed even further: "Have heart! Don't hide in the shadows! Should #ourcle be burned down? Speak up."

By Tuesday morning, Twitter was abuzz with the controversy, though the inflammatory tweets had been removed. Mark Weaver, a Columbus-based media law attorney, public relations strategist and crisis communications consultant, said in an interview Tuesday that the debacle is a study in how not to use social media for public outreach.

"When we train public officials to use social media in this way, they have to understand how their efforts can be hijacked and the dangers of soliciting criticism in a volatile environment, such as a high-profile police trial," Weaver said.

The anonymity and spontaneity of social media can lead to a "tweet first, think later" approach to its use, Weaver said. That can be a powder keg for a city trying to build a thoughtful public outreach campaign surrounding the sensitive issue of police use-of-force.

Instead of supporting a healthy dialogue, the city fanned the flames with its provocative invitations to sound off on police, Weaver said.

"Our police officers are in the crosshairs of danger every day," he said. "Let's not have the city that employs those officers solicit new criticism of them. That breaks the faith between city leaders and first responders."

If the city's goal is to create a release valve for public anger, city leaders should provide physical space for citizens to speak their minds directly to officials, he said. Those venues should be in the neighborhoods most affected by the case at hand, he said. Residents should not be forced to travel downtown to participate.

If the city decides to use social media as an outreach tool, the message must be controlled, Weaver said. For example, every hour, the city could tweet links to short statements reflecting temperate voices in the community -- a minister, a police commander who heads up the department's diversity initiatives or a city council member.

"These are community perspectives that have a calming effect on those who wish to listen," Weaver said. "The notion of 'let's let people on social media blow off steam,' -- unless it's undertaken gingerly, it can go awry, and that's what happened here. Good people, with good intentions, but bad forethought and a really bad outcome."