The 21-year-old’s extraordinary haircut triggered an avalanche of remarks and memes when his picture was posted on Facebook by Gwent Police.
Gwent Police’s Facebook posts usually get only a handful of responses but this time there were nearly 90,000 comments, most of them mocking Taylor’s haircut.
One joked about police “combing the area” while another suggested detectives look in Edinburgh, which is homing the fringe festival.
In a classic example of snowflake generation policing, the force then responded by warning people they could be prosecuted for leaving offensive comments about Taylor, who has a conviction for peddling cocaine in his home town of Newport.
— Sean Shields (@sshields10) August 8, 2019
On Monday 12 July, Gwent Police said: "We're really grateful to everyone who is assisting us in locating Jermaine Taylor, and we must admit a few of these comments have made us laugh. However, when the line is crossed from being funny to abusive, we do have to make sure we are responsible and remind people to be careful about what they write on social media."
— Kron (@Kronykal) August 11, 2019
That only provoked a fresh round of mockery and a stream of invective by libertarians who were outraged that the police would seriously consider wasting time and money prosecuting people for lampooning a drug dealer’s haircut.
