A police force has been ridiculed for warning people to get consent before they ‘bump into that special someone under the mistletoe’ — or else they could be committing ‘rape.’ 


The Police Service of Northern Ireland posted the highly criticised message on Saturday, drawing hundreds of mocking comments attacking the force for ‘trivialising’ rape. 

The force, which has 159,000 Twitter followers, posted: 

“If you bump into that special someone under the mistletoe tonight, remember that without consent it is rape #SeasonsGreetings.” And it wasn’t long before the warning was shared hundreds of time across the social media platform.


 @Renown_Vet commented: 

‘Since when did a kiss under the mistletoe turn into rape? Get a grip, and start being thief takes again not half arsed SJWs [social justice warriors].’ 


@69mib wrote:

 ‘Bumping into someone, under the mistletoe, is now considered rape? Why do you trivialise such a serious issue with such a nonsense tweet?’ 


Mike love tweeted PSNI: 

‘This tweet tells people that a kiss is rape. Do you realise what you’ve said?’ But the force only removed the tweet after being contacted by MailOnline. In a new message, posted this morning, 

the PSNI wrote:

 “We posted a message on Twitter yesterday that some may have taken out of context but the message remains the same; when you are out socialising over the Christmas period, please remember without consent it is rape.”