A tearful video of a Georgia police officer accusing a McDonald’s outlet of withholding her order went viral on Twitter, on Wednesday, reportedly leading the local owners of the fast food chain to apologise to the cop. However, she has not received much sympathy online.
A Twitter user with the username @tkag2020_ann and profile name ‘Ann’, posted the clip of an officer who she says is named “Stacey”. In the caption, Ann wrote: “Stacey who has been a cop for 15 years went to @McDonalds. She paid for it in advance and this is how she gets treated for being a cop. Come on America. We are better than this.”
The clip suggests that this was done on purpose as part of the growing backlash against the police in the US after Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were killed during their encounters with cops.
Business news website, MarketWatch reported that they reached out to Ann to verify the authenticity and origins of the video, but she did not respond.
The local McDonald’s operators confirmed the incident to the outlet but said that she “was never denied service”.
The clip sparked a debate online about the relationship between police officers in the US and the public.
The over two minutes-long video, features Stacey explaining that she placed a mobile order for her food but it was not ready when she went to pick it up.
“And I’m waiting. And I’m waiting. And I’m waiting,” she says, noting that she was hungry because she “had not eaten for a very long time”.
She was told to wait on the side in her car, and an employee eventually gave her a coffee.
Stacey then begins to tear and says: “That’s all she hands me is the coffee. I said, ‘Don’t bother with the food because right now I’m too nervous to take it!’ It doesn’t matter how many hours I’ve been up. It doesn’t matter what I’ve done for anyone. Right now, I’m too nervous to take a meal from McDonald’s, because I can’t see it being made!”
Talking on behalf of police personnel in the country, Stacey says: “Please, just give us a break. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
She added that she has never had such anxiety in all of her years of service, and asked people to say “thank you” when they see cops.
Since being posted on June 17, the post with the undated video has been viewed 15.7 million times, retweeted more than 122,000 times and gotten thousands of replies.
Son of US president Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., @DonaldJTrumpJr, also reacted to the clip: “Disgusting what’s going on right now.”
However, many of the comments on the video have been less supportive.
Some referenced the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in their responses.
Tweep @prestigeteej wrote: “Okay now imagine feeling like this every day of your life especially when you see a cop. Imagine feeling like this every day at your very normal job just because someone might not like the way you look. Imagine feeling like this every time your kids leave the house.”
Tweep @LouisatheLast wrote: “This is what gets you mad? Not all the extrajudicial murder of people by the police? A cop having to wait for a McMuffin during the breakfast rush? They don’t make it when you order it via the app, by the way. They don’t make your food when you get there and check in...”
Many thought that Stacey was displaying behaviour unfit for a cop.
User @MrsEmilyR posted: “That sounds like someone who is extremely paranoid and unstable and should not be in charge of literal life and death decisions and crises.”
