West Midlands Police raised some eyebrows and caused a bit of a furore on social media after proudly announcing they had arrested the culprit behind the sending of racist threats and images invoking the terrifying Ku Klux Klan to footballer Wilfried Zaha.<\/p>\n
Why the stir instead of the celebrations? Simply because the supposed perpetrator of the crime they had arrested was a 12-year old boy!<\/p>\n
Prior to a Sunday match between Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, Zaha tweeted out the hateful messages he received overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWoke up to this today,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Zaha had posted. Screenshots of the messages included a threat to invade the athlete\u2019s house\u00a0\u201cdressed as a ghost\u201d<\/em>\u00a0if he scored in his upcoming match.<\/p>\n Zaha also added a screenshot\u00a0of the account that had sent the messages his way, with the extreme nature of the messages kicking off a campaign of solidarity backing Zaha,\u00a0and calls for immediate arrest and prosecution of the offender.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is abhorrent, unacceptable and criminal. There can be no room for racism of any kind in football or a civil society,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Claudia Webbe, the Labor Member of Parliament for Leicester East, tweeted.<\/p>\n Zaha also received support from the Premier League with Roy Hodgson, the manager of the Crystal Palace,\u00a0praising him\u00a0for making the messages public:<\/p>\n “I think it is right that Wilf made people aware of it; I don’t think it is something he should keep quiet about,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.\u00a0“There is literally no excuse; there is no excuse at all.”<\/em><\/p>\n Authorities had quickly pounced on the case in full force \u2013 and within hours, an arrest was made.<\/p>\n