FAKE POLICE TWEET SPARKS CITYWIDE MAYHEM AS LOS SANTOS DESCENDS INTO "PURGE-LIKE" CHAOS

Downtown District Left Without Power After Night of Unprecedented Lawlessness

By Janet, Weasel News Correspondent

LOS SANTOS - What started as an apparent social media hoax spiraled into the most chaotic night in recent Los Santos memory, as a fake Twotter post claiming all criminal activity had been temporarily legalized sent thousands of residents into the streets for an impromptu city-wide celebration that quickly devolved into destructive pandemonium.

The fraudulent post, which appeared on a convincing replica of the official San Andreas State twotter account Tuesday evening, read:

Within minutes of the 7:47 PM post, social media exploded with screenshots, memes, and increasingly frantic questions about the announcement's legitimacy. By 8:15 PM, despite desperate attempts by actual law enforcement to clarify the hoax, crowds had already begun forming in Downtown Los Santos, with many residents apparently deciding to test the waters regardless of official denials.

Even more groups gathered in Downtown Los Santos blasting music from car stereos, launching fireworks from rooftops, and openly drinking in the streets. Social media was flooded with live streams of residents popping champagne bottles on police cruisers while officers stood back, unsure whether to intervene.

"I saw the tweet and thought, 'Well, better safe than sorry,'" explained Strawberry resident Marcus, 28, speaking from his hospital bed where he's recovering from what he calls "celebration injuries." "Even when they said it was fake, there were already so many people out there doing crazy stuff that it felt real, you know?"

Crowds quickly swelled throughout the Downtown core, Strawberry, and Davis districts. Eyewitness reports describe scenes reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic movie, with impromptu block parties erupting alongside more destructive activities.

"At first it was actually kind of fun," said Davis resident and amateur videographer Kelly, who livestreamed much of the evening's events. "People were setting off fireworks, playing music really loud, dancing in the streets. It felt like New Year's Eve mixed with a street festival. But then it got... darker."

Chen's footage, which has since gone viral with over 2.3 million views, captures the evening's dramatic escalation. What starts as jubilant crowds celebrating their perceived freedom quickly transforms into increasingly chaotic scenes as some participants took the "legal crime" concept to dangerous extremes.

Convenience stores in Strawberry were looted within minutes. Car dealerships in Davis reported entire rows of vehicles stolen, some used immediately for reckless burnouts that ended in fiery crashes.

According to dispatch records with the fire department, it was reported that the department received over 400 calls between 9 PM and midnight, with incidents ranging from illegal fireworks displays that got out of control to multiple vehicle fires throughout the affected areas. The situation reached its peak around 11:30 PM when a series of drive-by incidents began occurring throughout Strawberry and Davis. While police stress that most participants were engaged in relatively harmless activities like illegal parking and public intoxication, a smaller group apparently interpreted the fake announcement as permission for more serious criminal behavior.

"We had people doing donuts in intersections, drag racing down major boulevards, and yes, unfortunately, actual drive-by shootings," explained an LSPD spokesperson "The dangerous thing about mob mentality is that it doesn't distinguish between harmless fun and genuinely harmful activities."

The Power Grid Goes Dark

The evening took a catastrophic turn when vandals, emboldened by the chaos and the overwhelmed police response, began targeting critical infrastructure. Power substations in the Downtown core became prime targets, with groups of individuals cutting power lines and damaging electrical equipment with what witnesses described as surprising coordination and preparation.

"These weren't random acts of vandalism," explained Los Santos Department of Public Works Director Frank. "They came prepared with bolt cutters, sledgehammers, and what appeared to be detailed knowledge of our electrical grid. This was organized sabotage disguised as part of the chaos."

The first power outage hit Downtown Los Santos at 12:47 AM, initially affecting only a six-block radius around the financial district. However, as vandals continued their systematic assault on the power infrastructure, cascading failures began affecting larger and larger areas of the city.

"Each time we restored power to one section, another group would take out a different substation," Frank continued. "It was like playing whack-a-mole, except each 'mole' was a multi-million dollar piece of critical infrastructure."

By 3 AM, rolling blackouts were affecting nearly 40% of Los Santos, with the hardest hit areas being the very districts where the chaos had started. Paradoxically, the power outages only seemed to fuel the mayhem, as darkness provided cover for increasingly bold criminal activities.

Valorie Plop, a Strawberry resident who watched the night unfold from her apartment window, described the scene as "absolutely surreal."

"When the lights went out the first time, everyone cheered like it was part of the fun," Williams recalled. "But when they went out again, and then stayed out, you could feel the mood change. People started getting scared, but by then there were so many people in the streets that nobody knew how to stop it."

"I then also heard a women screaming in the apartment and a gunshot go off too, I tried to call the police but the phones were completely dead. I couldn't call anyone."

The fake Twitter account, which investigators now believe was created using sophisticated digital tools to perfectly mimic the official LSPD social media presence, was taken down by Twotter's security team around 2 AM. However, screenshots of the original post continued circulating throughout the night, with many residents apparently unaware that the announcement had been debunked hours earlier.

"The scary thing is how realistic the fake account was," explained Dr. Jennifer, a social media expert at the University of San Andreas. "They had the right fonts, the right verification badges, the right posting patterns. If you weren't looking extremely carefully, you would have no reason to doubt its authenticity."

The mayhem finally began subsiding around 5 AM as exhausted participants started heading home, many apparently sobered by the extent of the destruction they had witnessed or participated in. However, by that point, the damage to Los Santos' power infrastructure was so extensive that large portions of the city remained without electricity.

"The final blow came around 4:30 AM when vandals managed to damage the main transmission lines feeding power to the central grid," Frank explained. "At that point, we had to shut down the entire Downtown electrical system as a safety precaution. It's taken us nearly 18 hours to restore even partial service."

The economic impact of the night's events is still being calculated, but early estimates suggest damages in the tens of millions of dollars. Beyond the infrastructure damage, hundreds of businesses throughout the affected areas reported break-ins, vandalism, and theft, while dozens of vehicles were destroyed or heavily damaged.

Press Conference

Mayor Patricia held an emergency press conference Wednesday afternoon, calling the night's events "an unprecedented assault on law and order in our great city."

"What we witnessed last night was not harmless fun or civil disobedience," Mayor Patricia declared. "This was a coordinated attack on our community, our infrastructure, and our way of life, all triggered by a malicious lie spread through social media."

The mayor announced that the city would be seeking federal assistance in investigating the source of the fake social media post, which authorities now believe may have been part of a coordinated effort to create civil unrest.

"Make no mistake," Patricia continued, "this was not a spontaneous outpouring of community spirit. Someone planned this, someone orchestrated it, and someone is going to be held accountable."

"We train for riots, we train for natural disasters, we train for attacks," "We train for riots, we train for natural disasters, we train for terrorist attacks," a state patrol spokesperson at the meeting explained. "But we never trained for a scenario where thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens suddenly believe that all laws have been suspended. It's a completely different type of crowd control challenge."

The department acknowledged that the initial response to the fake tweet may have inadvertently contributed to the event. "In retrospect, our counter-messaging wasn't aggressive enough, "We issued a standard denial on our official channels, but we didn't anticipate how quickly the false information would spread or how many people would choose to participate 'just in case' the announcement was real."

As Los Santos begins the long process of recovery and investigation, many residents are left grappling with larger questions about social media, community trust, and the thin line between order and chaos in modern society.

The investigation into the fake Twitter account is ongoing, with the FIB's cybercrime division now involved in tracing the post's origins. Preliminary analysis suggests the account was created using advanced techniques to mask the user's digital fingerprint, indicating a level of sophistication that goes well beyond typical social media pranksters.

Local businesses are beginning the process of assessing damage and filing insurance claims, though many are questioning whether their policies will cover losses resulting from what some are calling the first "social media riot" in San Andreas history.

As Los Santos picks up the pieces from its night of chaos, city officials are promising a comprehensive review of emergency communication procedures and social media monitoring systems to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Weasel News will continue following this developing story. For live updates on power restoration efforts and ongoing investigations, visit our website at https://weazelnews.flamenetcloud.com/

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• City Council Calls Emergency Session on Social Media Crisis Response
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• "Digital Vigilantism": How Citizens Are Fighting Back Against Fake News
• Insurance Industry Scrambles to Address "Social Media Riot" Claims

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