This story about a police officer who scrawled an anti-police epithet epithet on his McDonald’s coffee cup and then uploaded a photo of it to Facebook, claiming that the barista had done it. The hoax was discovered when security footage revealed that no employees had written those words. The police officer then admitted the hoax (he said it was a ‘joke’) and has since resigned.
But this story is symbolic of the tricky world we live in where people manufacture bogus stories that promote an agenda and hope that others will believe them. What if there had been no exonerating footage? The hoax could have resulted in the barista losing their job and suffering all manner of opprobrium. Will there come a time when we will all have to wear bodycams in order to protect us from those who try to harm us by making up stuff?
His false accusation didn’t pass the sniff test from the instant I read it. Since when does McDonald’s write names on pieces of paper attached to coffee cups (because it wasn’t on the cup itself)? Given the history of police lying, I’m not surprised. Their actions in Washington DC last week are proof of that.
If Jussie Smollett and those who make the rare few false accusations of rape are investigated and prosecuted (and financial compensation demanded), why aren’t cops who make false accusations held to the same standard? The McDonald’s employee and the franchise owner have justification for filing a civil suit. The false claim could have done severe harm to them both financially and physically (with so many cop worshippers around).
Cops lie, this isn’t new — the only thing that’s changed is cops are getting caught lying.
“Will there come a time when we will all have to wear bodycams in order to protect us from those who try to harm us by making up stuff?”
The time won’t come. The time is now. The first company to make a convenient Gopro-style bodycam that actually works will clean up on much the same way Gopro did.
Note: “actually works” means in this instance something like streaming to the cloud so cops can’t confiscate the footage.
Did Jussie Smolett actually put anyone at risk? This cop put the employees of that McDonalds at risk.
West Bloomfield synagogue employee charged after allegedly falsifying report of stabbing
Surprised the original post did not mention other notable hate hoaxes. Some were widely publicized, some quickly buried. This is not a typical one, it seems to me.
BTW, the final sentence is a bit ironic. When police themselves are obliged to wear bodycam, both the public and the police officer(s) are safer, both from assault and from false allegations..
Hans @#7,
You are right that hoaxes are common. I thought this was notable because it was a hoax done by the police for no reason whatsoever.