ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has a message for American politicos: It's not the RNC they're looking for.
The police force has been deluged with political messages on Twitter because of a shared acronym with the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, which this week officially made Donald Trump its presidential candidate.
"We've had to block some users because it does get out of control. Our news feed is just basically completely bogged down with Republican National Convention," said Const. Geoff Higdon, a spokesman who handles the force's Twitter feed.
"People have been tweeting to us for years ... any time they're dissatisfied with something Trump has done or said, especially in the last year."
The convention's official tweets come from the Republican National Committee, which organized the Cleveland gathering and also shares the acronym, but it tweets as @gop.
But for users who try the "@RNC" handle, the Newfoundland force is the first "RNC" that comes up, and it has led to confusion — and humour.
Early Wednesday, American actor and comedian Orlando Jones joked about the overlap to his 142,000 followers: "#OverheardAtRNC - "Wait, this isn't the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Convention?" @RNC_PoliceNL."
@longshot007 @realDonaldTrump we are a Canadian Police Service in Newfoundland & Labrador with no U.S. Political affiliations
— RNC (Police) (@RNC_PoliceNL) July 18, 2016
"Really what it's doing is forcing us to read every single tweet, which there's hundreds of them and they're not related to us," said Higdon.
The force tweets as @RNC_policenl, but added the word "police" to its Twitter identifier after people began directing their Trump scorn, and appreciation, to the force's feed.
"We actually changed our user name three months ago to include police in brackets to curb the tweets. I reply to them and say we're not the RNC you're looking for," said Higdon.
The constabulary has been tweeting back: "We have nothing to do with @realDonaldTrump. We're a Canadian police service in Newfoundland and Labrador."
It added the hashtag 'CanadaEh,' prompting one Twitter user to post a picture of Trump wearing a constabulary hat.
Higdon noted Newfoundland's RNC dates back to 1729, and is the oldest police service in North America: "This RNC's been around longer than the other RNC."
We have nothing to do with @realDonaldTrump. We're a Canadian police service in Newfoundland & Labrador đŸ‡¨đŸ‡¦ #CanadaEh https://t.co/sBdGzPalCN
— RNC (Police) (@RNC_PoliceNL) July 19, 2016
He said ultimately, a sense of humour is the force's best defence against a confused twitterverse.
"At the end of the day, there's not much we can do to curb many of these tweets ... other than suck it up and have a bit of fun with it."
