BellaBionda29

No argument there.

trollkiller

coren

Police do the job THEY want to do. Nobody forces them to accept the job. Just because power is abused does not mean it should be expected, accepted or tolerated.

The cop bashing is because this cop needs to be bashed. If the post were about doctors we would hear a whole bunch of doctor bashing.

You wouldn't take a million to live in Florida? You are a 'tard. Not all of Florida is full of old people. In fact most of the state is beautiful. In my area I have to deal more with criminal aliens driving slow than old people.

trollkiller

Old people driving pisses me off, and he had every right as a police officer to take that hag in when she refused to provide identification. She could have been an illegal alien for all HE knew! He was just protecting his country. Zig Heil!

Joking aside...all this cop bashing makes me sick. I want any of you to come back here and post about how much you hate cops when they show up in defense of you being robbed at gun-point....seriously, you're all a bunch of hypocrites. Corrupt cop this, corrupt cop that. POWER corrupts at every level of our society!

You couldn't pay me a million dollars to live in Florida now, and I'm a poor working class fool...a million dollars would be a dream come true. But nope, to hell with that state. An old folks retirement "home" now, it's been scientifically proven that old people are the worst drivers on the road. They should be forced to retest for their license once they get 60+

Commence flaming me for my very true statements.

Arrngrim

CoS runs the Clearwater police. Maybe she wasn't a scientologist?

RvLeshrac

That's funny, I've never once seen a "reasonable person" pulled over and arrested on COPS.

What I do see is a lot of useless idiots who think it is OK to scream and yell at the cop after they've done something illegal, and a lot of stupid women who seem to be of the mind that it is perfectly OK to have men beat on them and that the cops trying to arrest the guy who just punched her in the face are much more evil.

RvLeshrac

There was a curb in front of her? At the drive through? Doesn't that make it difficult to.... drive through?

Are they putting curbs in the middle of the street now, too?

RvLeshrac

Police do not get breaks or lunches. If they are on shift, they are responsible for every single call. That's also why they don't turn off cars unless they're actually staking out a section of roadway.

The comp'd meal serves two purposes: It means you don't have to bother with refunds if the officer jumps up and leaves before the food is ready, and it also means that they're going to be a visible presence in your place of business. You're getting what is essentially a security guard for the price of a few burgers a day.

RvLeshrac

There is an obvious difference between why the police thought they could order her around and whether they could - note the article "Merola, a widow and 43-year resident of Clearwater, made no apologies for her conduct. She said she could not move her car forward as the officer wanted because a curb was in front of her. She denies that she was blocking anyone." So despite disorderly conduct - it is pretty clear why the police thought it was ok.

Private property, the conduct of the police, as well as other factors play into the right and wrongness of the police actions - you should not assume people who quote the law support the actions of the police at all times.

Here a misapplication of the law quoted above by the police as well as Mcdonald's lack of actually asserting their rights as property holders for the consumer was the problem.

Curiosity

coren

coren

nardo218

LionelEHutz

sibertater

Now think about this. If she would have moved up a foot she would have now been the one not able to get out.

Where she was smart enough to stop her car far enough in front of the curb to allow her to navigate around the curb when it came time to leave, the cop was not smart enough to do the same so he had room to navigate around her car.

If the cop would not have been in such a rush to be "Mr. By God I am in charge" she would have recieved her food and been on her way.

The cop was and asshat and the old gal called him on it. Try a bit of respect to old ladies and you will be surprised how nice they can be. Be a shithead brat like this cop was and expect to hear about it.

trollkiller

@CaliforniaCajun: Exactly. People have been tasered for far less than what she pulled. And at her age a taser just might be lethal force.
You comply with cops to the best of your ability while lining up as many witnesses as possible, then let the lawyers do the fighting in court.

EtherealStrife

She blocked the drive-through exit (for EVERYONE, not just the cop);
She wouldn't move her car to allow people through when one of the McDonald's employees asked her to;
She wouldn't move her car to allow people through when the cop subsequently asked/ordered her to;
She continued to refuse to move her car after she got her food;
At the time of her arrest she had the place so backed up that McDonald's was having to walk peoples' orders out to their cars and directing them through the other exit.

Even assuming all the stuff about her haranguing the cop is complete BS, this is still more than enough to justify a disorderly conduct arrest.

LazloNibble

Instigator

Was this woman at least being extremely rude? Definitely. Refusing to move forward by a foot to let someone (cop or not) get around you doesn't make you a criminal, but does make you a jackass.

JustAGuy2

CurbRunner

This really only proves that my mother's right about something. Yes, old people can be a pain. They can also be awesome. Either way, this is clearly a bad cop overstepping his boundaries, and it's very curious that they haven't dropped the charges and launched a media blitz to cover their tracks.

Also, it's furthermore curious that such a jerk as that cop still has a job "protecting" the public, but see the amoral and hateful part above. I guess they encourage that kind of crap in Pinellas County, eh?

algormortis

trollkiller

gretch9er

5h17h34d

burgundyyears

Seriously - I caught a few minutes of Cops the other day. Three people were tased at a traffic stop - one, the sober designated driver who was pleading for a cop to leave her drunk, non-violent and non-threatening boyfriend alone (he'd been riding in the passenger's seat), two the boyfriend, who upon seeing his responsible and now hysterical girlfriend abused by the police, and finally, a bystander who saw all of this take place (he'd originally stuck around to give an eyewitness report of the accident) and who was taken aback at the police use of tasers on two people who didn't become upset/combative until they were tased.

After all the eletrocuting was over, the cop said "we really hate to do this". Right. And they hate to be patient enough to wait behind an old lady in the drive through, too.

CaliforniaCajun

trollkiller

veraikon

Truer words were never spoken.

trollkiller

@CatMoran: thank you for saying what needed to be said!

snoop-blog

Szin

Oh, and it's up to the person at the window to direct a customer to a proper waiting area. If she wasn't waiting in a place appropriate for the other customers, that's on McDonald's, not the old lady. I've driven past this McDonald's and I can see how it might be a tight fit.

bubbaprog

If you don't want to be trapped for a few minutes, why are you in the drivethru line? We'll have to start adding disclaimers now to the menus or something for dolts like this guy who think they're special.

Buran

No, seriously. Just because one person orders something that has to be made fresh, or waits until they're at the pickup window to change their order, doesn't mean that the six people behind them in line can't get their already made orders before they have a chance to get cold.

CatMoran

At the same time, our McDonalds had 2 big rectangles painted on the ground. One was painted red with a big 1 and another painted blue marked 2.
They even had a sign saying "Parking for Drive-Trhu Customers Only!"

How about this. If you so slow, that you cant give me my food, I really think the last thing you need right now is for me to go park somewhere while you take more orders and continue to get more backed up. Retards!

MarvinMar

The truth is, cops are not usually able to eat at fast food restaurants for fear of "contamination" in their food. It's a sad state of affairs that most FF workers are either incompetent or have had run-ins with the law.

I think (hope) that the idea of cops getting free stuff everywhere under threat of slow response time is a thing of the past. Does anyone else see this happening?

mackjaz

1. Watch the Flexyourrights.org video entitled " BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters" [www.youtube.com] and

2. Print out the ACLU's "bust card" that details what you should do when you are stopped [www.joshdale.com]

They should answer your questions better. generally though keep in mind Courts recognize these levels of police-citizen contact: (a) community caretaking, or public safety - not a seizure and requires no legal justification; (b) limited, brief investigatory stop - justified if reasonable suspicion of criminal activity; and (c) an arrest - justified with warrant or when probable cause that a crime had occurred and person arrested was involved in the crime.

Curiosity

@pylon83:
Generally the black letter law for stopping is the "Terry rule" [www.soc.umn.edu] :
If there is no probable cause, no warrant, and no consent then: If there is a reasonable suspicion that a crime is about to take place, officers can stop and ask questions, and if the answers do not dispel suspicion, then they can pat down the outer garments and "create" probable cause (usually if identifiable weapons).

Obviously though there is a lesser expectation of privacy in cars which is governed by probable cause and the ability of the police to seize and inventory the car.

Here though this is probably governed by state law and local ordinances [www.municode.com] . Clearwater I believe has adopted the Florida Uniform Traffic Control Law, and empowered their police via " It is unlawful and a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083, for any person willfully to fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any law enforcement officer, traffic crash investigation officer as described in s. 316.640, traffic infraction enforcement officer as described in s. 316.640, or member of the fire department at the scene of a fire, rescue operation, or other emergency."

Curiosity

shadow735

MercuryPDX

Exactly, and of course the fact that she's a grandmother makes her untouchable?

Grandmothers are a dime a dozen, especially in Florida.

ClayS

You may have had a bad experience, but please don't despise them.

catcherintheeye

And no, I'm not a cop. In fact, I don't like them anymore than the next guy, but they do have a job to do and it isn't an easy one.

Lo-Pan

floyderdc

ihavetogonow

floydianslip6

So you get the freshest fries possible out of the deal, in addition to lower sodium. It just takes them an extra 2 minutes or so.

NotATool

rustyni

You quickly learn to watch out for the Mercury Grand Marquis, Cadilacs and Town Cars. I firmly believe that elderly people are a more dangerous menace than drunk drivers. They have a spooky ability to cause accidents that they themselves are not involved in.

I once saw a Grand Marquis on its roof in an Arby's parking lot with almost no damage. I have seen them driving the wrong way on the interstate multiple times, I have seen them floating in canals and driven through convenience store windows.

My company had a $200,000 car wash completely destroyed by a 78 year old woman in a town car who inexplicably took a sharp left turn in the middle of the wash and drove through the wall.

I once saw an elderly lady in ft myers pumping gas into a car whose left front wheel was completely on fire. Apparantly she had driven over a hundred miles on the interstate with one foot on the gas and one on the brake which caused the brakes to overheat. We had to call the police to keep her from driving the car (which now had no breaks and a flat tire) away.

Before I moved to Florida I had respect for older people. When they represent 40% of the population they become very hard to live with.

bdgbill

rukasu

rukasu

Of course asking some teenage punk to make you a special order is sometimes asking for problems, but usually not.

I use to hate all the extra salt and ordered this way all the time. Salt does not bother me as much anymore, so I no longer order like this.

coan_net

MissPeacock

snoop-blog

savvy999

Pylon83

For example, if a cop catches you speeding, he can ask for your ID and such because he believes you broke a law. However, refusing to let a cop get ahead of you in line so he can get his McHeartattack is not something the cop can use to ID you with.

Assuming there is nothing more to this story, the cop might find himself on the bad end of a lawsuit and internal affairs investigation.

RIP MRHANDS

Snarkysnake

yukonrye

So over 20 minutes had passed and she still hadn't recieved her order??

It seems obvious that if they'd given her the order, she would have taken it and left.

PinkBox

Murph1908

JGB

Kids are great, I only hate children on a case by case basis, I just hate it when the media HAS to mention how PRODIGIOUS the family line is!

SexCpotatoes

I'm calling bullshit that she couldn't move forward because there was a curb in front of her. If you look at the satellite view of the McDonald's on google maps, there are no obstructions in the path of the drive through.

I'm going to try to link directly to the google maps page, the address of the McDonald's is 1934 N. HERCULES AVE, clearwater, fl, if that doesn't work.

google maps

CatMoran

That being said, the old lady definitely needs some psychiatric help. Too bad she's only getting a bunch of crybaby recognition from teh interwebs.

FF_Mac

Just goes to show you crazy assholes come in every age and every color of dress - including blue! Old crazy bitch VS my daddy humiliated me so I'm gonna get me a uniform so I can take it out on every person I can goad into a fight!

Or in this case maybe it was mommy.

molife

Say it with me, there are good cops and bad cops. Cops are people too. Except the power hungry little @#%!! who pull me over :)

Seriously, most cops are pretty decent, but you hardly ever read about when a cop does what we expect them to. I have personally seen police take a lot of shit from someone to avoid escalating a situation, so just like people, you can't generalize them as all bad (or all good).
Holy @#$!!, I'm sticking up for the man!

doctor_cos

Bodgy

jedipunk

coren

The cop starts by blowing his horn at a lady that is parked in an area that the cashier told her to wait. He then yelled at her to mover her car. (The police report says he asked nicely, but please tell me how you can ask nicely when you are sitting in your car yelling to be heard over your running engine and hers?)

I am not going to go over the whole police report. Turn on your bullshit detector and read it for yourself. You will see the officer escalated this due to his "I'm the law" attitude. The old gal called him on it. That is why she went to jail.

A smart officer would have told her she needed to pull forward and would have directed her so she would not bump the curb. Then again a smart officer would not have been trapped behind a vehicle at the drive thru.

trollkiller

Szin

"Oh my goodness, here I am, a poor little innocent woman waiting for my French fries."
...
After refusing, Merola yelled at Parco for about 20 minutes, calling him a "brat,'' a "smart a--,'' and a "dumb----"

Innocent my a--.

EtherealStrife

31 posts, and I'm the first to suggest a golden opportunity for frivolous litigation? What has The Consumerist come to?

That said, I'm off to read the article :)

kc-guy

jkaufman101

trollkiller

When you really want to get down to it.... it is just another case of "respect my authority or you are going to pay" attitude that cops often have. She dared not uttery cooperate with the cop to his satisfaction so he was going to punish her to teach her a lesson. Cops do this alllllllll the time. Too bad cop's cant actually use their brains instead of their egos to solve a problem.

If I were a cop & some old granny told me to go fuck myself, I'd probably let it slide & not go actively looking for a reason to arrest & punish her.

You know... if you interacted with a cop long enough.... he could probably find a reason to arrest you IF he wanted to. That's why its best to have as little interactions with cops as possible. Rarely anything good comes from it.

forgottenpassword

topgun

That being said, they couldn't give you a ticket for parking across three parking spots (when I say couldn't, I mean it would get thrown out in court later)

cde

I'm calling this one a stalemate. I think the two cancel each other out.

Wait, this could be the idea for a great new sitcom!

Grrrrrrrrr

DanGarion

[www.sptimes.com]

burgundyyears

magic8ball

barfoo

deserthiker

FOAD.

riverstyxxx

Cary

riverstyxxx

insomniac8400

"Park it and WAIT".

The same thing happened to me.

I had already waited 10 minutes. They gave me part of my order but the nuggets weren't done yet! I didn't want HOT nuggets and COLD fries so I told them to either give me the rest of my food or give me my money back. They called the police and said I threatened them and threw my food at them through the window. The police were going to arrest me until I told them to ask the manager to see the video from the camera in the drive-thru.

camman68

rdldr1

topgun

Fry

Victo

Some of assholes would actually refuse to your face and just sit there and hold up the drive-through while their extra food cooked, despite the fact it was their indecisiveness that caused the problem in the first place.

Even so, we'd never call the cops on such a person. Just grit the teeth and roll the eyes.

takotchi

Fry

No, seriously, look it up.

...now, how that's relevant to this story, I have no idea.

s0crates82

Not even sure what business the officer had in aproaching the car of someone waiting for food on private property...

I get asked to pull forward all the time, I'll start telling them no I don't wanna get arrested like the old lady in florida.

PSN: kingpsyz

Szin

Pylon83

Cops get away with quite a bit at fst food joints too, usually getting comp'd food and if they get to be dicks about it nobody complains cause they don't want to be the one getting the "late response" when they're being held up.

PSN: kingpsyz

Exactly the reason why TV Media is useless and untrustworthy.

aaron8301

morganlh85

I'm sorry

PSN: kingpsyz

astrochimp