UNION CITY, GA.

Extremely Tough on Crime

(Thanks to Andy the TropicHunt.com Guy™)

Comments

[Siouxie]

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off."

Bull.

[Mikey]

Thank God it wasn't a donut! That would have been a capital offense!

[Mikey]

A salt on a police officer?

[Siouxie]

LOL Mickey!

[Mikey]

:)

[fivver]

He thinks it's salt but it' snot.

[AmerInParis]

Does that mean I can bring charges against McDo for the huge amount of pepper they put on the McChicken? Or the excessive amounts of goo they call sauces?

[crossgirl]

next time i get mayo when i specifically say NO mayo, i'm suing cause it makes me gag and gagging is like being sick, so i'd be within my rights. big whiney sissy cop.

[AmerInParis]

Actually, this isn't unlike the university student in the UK who was taken to court for putting her feet up on the seat opposite her during a train ride. OK, so there was a sign nearby saying that there was £100 fine for such socially aberrant behaviour, but to take it all the way to court??? Not even a "three strikes and you're out"?

In France they'd probably put up their feet while smoking a cigarette in front of the no feet on seats/no smoking warnings. No, that's unfair. They've mostly stopped smoking in the trains, but it'll take a few more years before the station announcement not to smoke on the platforms sinks in.

But feet on the seats? Hey, normally they don't, but post a sign forbidding it and it will become all the rage TO do it!

[DeskDiva]

cg - I'm with ya! On the cop thing. I like mayo (but not on my burger).

[Nookee]

Maybe the salt was from something else, IYKWIM.

[Guin]

I salt the sheriff...

[DeskDiva]

...but I did not salt the deputy!

[Siouxie]

I, personally, would have peppered the wuss.

[DeskDiva]

According to Amer, you'd only have needed a McChicken sandwich to do it.

[daisymae]

snork @ diva & guin

[Bethie]

Because everyone knows, when you are expecting low salt food, a fast food joint is the first place that comes to mind.

[DeskDiva]

Thanks daisy! I love getting a good snork!! :)

^5s Guin.

[Punkin Poo]

I think guys with big guns and little, um, what's the word I'm looking for.....oh yeah, PENISES, tend to abuse their power. (Since it's hardly satisfying abusing anything else)

[tropichunt.com guy™]

Personally, I think the burger was 1) more appetizing and 2) more healthy after adding the salt than it was beforehand.

But that's just me.

[DeskDiva]

I had a cop try to intimidate me once. I hit a road hazard and something flew from it to the car behind me (his wife's). She drove me to my office then called her husband. That jerk drove all the way down from another county in uniform in his departmentally-issued patrol car to get a look at my tire. Fortunately, there was a CLEAR mark indicating I'd run over something, but to this day I wish I'd made a complaint to his captain about his deliberate intimidation. And I wish I'd insisted he leave me alone since I had no attorney present.

But I was young and stupid and not good at asserting myself.

[daisymae]

dd: see the balloon thread for a follow up to yours and guin's immortal "salt the sheriff."

[mcmick]

the hamburglar really did it.

[DeskDiva]

*snicker* @ mcmick

[Eleanor]

It's clear to this FCDA that the officer was one arrest short of his quota for the day! ;)

[DeskDiva]

*^5s daisy* :o)

[artchick]

She raises a good point-if it was too salty, why did he eat the whole thing?

[mcmick]

i say send in datelines chris hansen. by the way, did anyone have beer and condoms?

[Moon]

AmerinParis, that's the ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Ordinance) in England - everybody knows about it, so that person shouldn't have been surprised.

[Lairbo]

There's a coffee shop in my neighborhood where the entire staff should be doing 25-to-life for what they serve.

[Siouxie]

No, mcmick. Too salty. Although if you have too much of the first, you'd definitely need the latter. Annie told me.

[Jeff Meyerson]

"It didn't make me sick."

McDon@lds' new slogan?

Police said samples of the burger were sent to the state crime lab for tests.

Are they freaking kidding me?

[Moon]

They put way too much salt on their fries, too. Nobody needs all that SALT. The fries are tastier without it. AND, there's plenty of salt in the ketchup.

They put WAAAAAAAY too much tartar sauce on their fish sandwich. And that glob of pure fat is 50% of the calories and fat on that sandwich.

Wake up, McDonalds!

[Jeff Meyerson]

AmerinParis: we went through something like that in New York a few years ago. Someone got a ticket for taking up two seats on an OTHERWISE EMPTY subway car. A teenage girl who was seven months pregnant got a ticket (at my local subway stop, by the way) for sitting down on the steps to rest as no one on the platform gave her a seat.

Etc.

[mcmick]

I just saw on cnn, they have arrested Ronald McDonald for his alleged involvement in this tragedy.

[DeskDiva]

Maybe not surprised, Moon, but we do have laws for the most RIDICULOUS things.

[gfunksizzle]

So, wait, he ate the whole thing, and then they sent samples of the burger to the lab?

So, that would mean they,... EW!

[Dave Watterson Sr.]

I don't like a lotta salt either but dayumm!!! talk about overreacting. Sounds like a small town redneck cop throwing his weight around to me. I think everybody oughta take the time to write to the Union City Chamber of Commerce and tell them just how this little incident makes them appear to the rest of the country. The addy is,,,,,,,,,,

6400 Shannon Pkwy
Union City, GA 30291

(770) 964-1984
(770) 969-1969
sfcoc.org

[DeskDiva]

Uh oh....

[DeskDiva]

Oh, and since I forgot to say it waaaaaaaay up there ^ YAY ANDY!!!!!

[tropichunt.com guy™]

Bah. That's reality. I don't deserve credit for that.

[Eleanor]

I'm always a little scared when someone puts an address in a post.

[DeskDiva]

Uh, yeah, El. Exactly why I "uh oh"ed. Maybe we should ask judi to remove?

[mcmick]

Look on the bright side. When this poor cook gets out of jail, she'll at least have a job to go back to.

[insomniac]

you don't deserve such sodium
so chug down immodium
sue mcdonald's!

[Dwaterboy2]

Crime lab for results...... Is this really a good use of tax payer dollars? What does Barney Fife hope to find from the lab results and how much does it cost to confirm what this cooking criminal already confessed to doing? Shouldn't he be out pulling over people exceeding the speed limit or something? Note to self, move to this City because apparently there is such a lack of crime there that cops have nothing better to do.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

Wait...
If Dave posts the telephone number for the telemarketers association HQ it's OK, but it's NOT OK to post the number for a JBT's boss?
WTFBBQDNA?

[Siouxie]

*Promises not to stalk the U C Chamber of commerce*

It's legit. It's Googable. I checked. No biggie.

[baligurl]

I got tired of getting cold fries at fast food restaurants (apparently, the hot ones aren't any more expensive) so now I tell them NO SALT. They have to empty the fry bin, line it with paper, and fry a new batch. Hey, presto! Then I pile the salt on at my table.

[Siouxie]

*smooooch bali*!! how ya doing???

[baligurl]

Hey, Sioux, I'm good. Hope things are good with you. How's the collegiate?

[Siouxie]

she's doing great!! thanks for asking!

are you finally gonna try to come down this way soon? If ya are...send me an email.

[wickedwitch]

bali, good thinkin on the fries. However, after working in restaurants (including McD's) i've seen what happens to the occassional 'special order'. no, i wouldn't drop something on the floor or spit on it, but I have seen it done. i've had to curtale my dining out experiences because i can cook better, safer and healthier meals at home. but damn, I'd like to go out now and then and have someone else do all the work.

[mcmick]

Your right witch. Thats why I never send anything back to the kitchen, no matter how bad it is.

[baligurl]

Sioux, I'm gonna be in Orlando over Halloween, for scuba convention. Don't think I'm gonna make Miami the same trip, but maybe. I'll let you know closer in.

[baligurl]

Well, ww, I live in a small town and one of our businesses puts us in tight with restaurant owners, so I'm not too worried about kitchen retribution. That's the upside of small towns...no anonymity.

[wickedwitch]

the downside too. however, give me a small town anyday. lived in the city too long to trust anybody or anything.

[DeskDiva]

ww - I was thinking that. GMTA!

[SafeInPortland]

Don't they have better things to be doing with State Lab resources, like processing DNA that will put the HamBurgular away once and for all???
Really though, I hope that worker gets a good McLawyer and teaches that cop a lesson.

[SafeInPortland]

Don't they have better things to be doing with State Lab resources, like processing DNA that will put the HamBurgular away once and for all???
Really though, I hope that worker gets a good McLawyer and teaches that cop a lesson.

[JoyLeaf]

City public information officer George Louth said Bull was charged because she served the burger "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."
So we arrest everyone in the fast food biz. Since all that food is served "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."
Just another Bully with a badge looking to get off on his power.

[Guin]

*really late* ^5s back at Diva and Daisy. I have a new job with crappy blocking software, so I couldn't even tell if that was posted until this morning. :P

[Jamie]

Yes, the addresses are easy to find. Here's a letter I sent to the police chief and copied to the mayor. Of course, I don't expect any kind of response, but I had fun writing it. Oh, by the way, I wonder if part of why this cop's so bitter is because his parents named him "Wendell". I could see that being a problem in school. Kids are mean.

10 September, 2007

Mr. M. H. Isome Sr.
Chief of Police
Union City Police Department
5060 Union St
Union City, Georgia 30291

Dear Chief Isome:
I read a news story today that deeply disturbed me. Apparently, one of your officers, Mr. Wendell Adams, was served food at McDonalds that was too salty. Your officer felt that this justified arresting the person who served him the food and putting this person in jail for the night.

According to the news story, your officer claimed that the salty food made him sick. From what I read, salt was spilled on a batch of hamburger meat. The employee consulted the store manager and was instructed to remove the salt and proceed normally. The news story also says that this employee ate a burger made with the same meat herself without suffering any ill effects. In order to get “sick” from eating food with too much salt, one would have to eat a considerable amount of it, and one would certainly not be able to do it without noticing. Unless we’re talking about something a lot less innocuous than salt, I find it highly unlikely that Mr. Adams suffered any ill effects.

According to your “public information officer”, Mr. George Louth, the employee was arrested because she served the burger “without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it.” Indeed, that makes anyone who serves just about anything that McDonalds offers guilty. However, the facts seem to lack any evidence of criminal intent.

Most police officers approach their careers with a life of public service in mind. However, there are some who take the job simply because it gives them power over others. These are bullies who forget that they are paid to serve and protect the public and instead treat all civilians as their subordinates. As I said before, I find it highly unlikely that Mr. Adams became sick from his food. I think it is more likely that he noticed that the food was too salty and decided to assert his power over civilians by putting someone in jail for daring to serve him food that failed to meet his expectations.

I realize that you have little motivation to care what someone who doesn’t even live in your state thinks. However, let me tell you what motivates me to write to you. About 20 years ago, some friends and I were driving around showing a foreign exchange student our town. A police officer with nothing constructive to do decided to pull us over, searched all of us, and told us that if he saw us driving around again that he would arrest us for loitering. The exchange student was terrified and amazed. He had heard all of the bragging about America being such a free society. He couldn’t believe that a policeman could stop you and threaten and harass you even if you weren’t breaking the law. Having grown up desperately poor, I knew different.

Unless your crime lab turns up something more sinister than too much salt, I hope that you will do the right thing and appropriately discipline Mr. Adams, issue an apology to the McDonalds employee, and compensate her for any legal expenses she may have suffered.

Sincerely,

[John]

Has Dave or anyone else asked the GBI yet about the results of the testing? If so, please let the world know. If not, please do so -- and let the world know that!

[Jamie]

Unfortunately, the media has a short attention span. Once they dump the sensational news out there, there is rarely any follow-up. I'd certainly like to know the results, but I'm sure we never will.

[darlean]

The worker is going to sue, apparently, and her lawyer is a guy who wrote a book on Georgia Tort Law. His name is also adams. I hope she wins a good deal.

[theresa]

Maybe it's different in the states but my first reaction here in Canada was...Since when does MacDonald's make their own hamburgers?...and Really, they use meat at MacDonald's?...and to the cop who had the bad burger...You get what you pay for.

[John]

Any updates? I know the burger (photo at the page mentioned above) has been sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for testing. Has anyone heard about the results? Does anyone know how to submit a Freedom of Information Act request for the results? (It was just Sunshine Week, yes?)