San Francisco Puts McDonald’s On Notice Over Drug Sales, Other Problems At Haight Street Restaurant

CBS News ^ | May 12, 2015

[Zakeet]

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera Tuesday sent a letter to McDonald’s Corp. warning of potential legal action due to ongoing problems with drug sales and other public nuisances at the Haight Street McDonald’s restaurant.

[Snip]

According to the city attorney’s office, police responded to 641 calls for service at the restaurant between Jan. 1, 2014 and April 22, 2015 and nearly 1,100 since January 2012, a number that far exceeds those seen at other properties in the area.

[Snip]

Police have arrested people on drug-related charges on or in front of the property on at least 11 different occasions over the past seven months, the letter states. They have also recovered more than 100 doses of LSD, more than two pounds of marijuana, 88.5 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, more than half a pound of marijuana edibles and an unspecified amount of hashish from individuals on the property.

[Zakeet]

I wonder what they mean by other public nuisances ...

[Flick Lives]

“Two all beef patties, special sauce...”

[muir_redwoods]

"...more than 100 doses of LSD, more than two pounds of marijuana, 88.5 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, more than half a pound of marijuana edibles and an unspecified amount of hashish...

Somebody knows how to throw a party.

[dasboot]

When government can’t fix the problem, blame the citizens.

[madprof98]

I thought drug sales were encouraged in San Francisco.

[W.]

Hippies with drugs in the old Haight-Ashbury district? Well, wha’d they think they’re gonna find there, hillbillies with a moonshine still? D-uuh! ;)

[OrangeHoof]

So, I’m a drugged-out gangsta thug livin’ the life, yo, and my hangout of choice is Mickey D’s????

(blink, blink)

Something is wrong with this picture. Unless all the “Assistant Managers” are also dealers in which case you catch and prosecute them.

[posterchild]

Hey McD! Clean up your drug sales! Don’t profile your customers though! Don’t harass the people loitering outside or inside your establishment though! Clean up the illegal activity! Remember, no person is illegal.

[Red_Devil 232]

McDs is supposed to police the streets outside their store? seems to me they have been doing the right thing by notifying police when they see drug deals going down.

[cableguymn]

Simple fix to the problem. Their tax dollars are not getting them the protection (police) needed, the are being forced to raise their minimum wage..

Shut/lock the doors and call it a day.

[Gritty]

The SWAT teams McD's is going to need to hire to police the place (the local cops obviously are incapable) are going to want more than minimum wage to do the job. The added personal injury and liability insurance costs will be high, too.

Unless they can charge and get $35 for a Big Mac, the owners better put up a FOR SALE sign and sell out to some medical marijuana joint (sic).

San Fransicko doesn't mind drugs being sold from those places in town because they can collect the taxes.

[Nifster]

Oh sure thing .... as if McDonald’s itself is responsible for who lives in The Haight. If I were the attorneys I would sue the city for allowing drug users and dealers to live there and operate there

[Steve_Seattle]

"Hey McD! Clean up your drug sales! Don’t profile your customers though! Don’t harass the people loitering outside or inside your establishment though! Clean up the illegal activity! Remember, no person is illegal."

That pretty much sums up my reaction. If McDonald's tries to be proactive and deny service to people, they face discrimination lawsuits and charges of profiling.

And if - heaven forbid! - they allow employees or private security to forcibly remove people from the premises, or to prevent them from loitering outside, they face the possibility of physical violence and even more lawsuits. If some thug skins his elbow while being thrown out by a McDonald's employee, he'll sue them for $100,000 be awarded $200,000 by a liberal judge.

The city is trying to have it both ways, i.e., blaming McDonald's for a problem that McDonald's has no real authority to deal with. McDonald's has always been a favorite target for liberals, and this is just the city's way of bullying them.

[Steve_Seattle]

"The SWAT teams McD's is going to need to hire to police the place (the local cops obviously are incapable) are going to want more than minimum wage to do the job. The added personal injury and liability insurance costs will be high, too."

You can be sure that the city will look askance at any effort by McDonald's to provide their own security, and that McDonald's would open itself up to all sorts of potential lawsuits if it did so and there were physical confrontations between their private security people and customers or loiterers.

The city is acting like a bully and putting McDonald's in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't position

[Steve_Seattle]

"police responded to 641 calls for service at the restaurant between Jan. 1, 2014 and April 22, 2015 and nearly 1,100 since January 2012"

Which makes it sound like McDonald's is doing the right thing and reporting illegal activity. The problem is the residents of the neighborhood, not McDonald's. But if McDonald's pulls out, the neighborhood screams, "They're redlining us!"

[T-Bone Texan]

I am a grownup now and live far away, but I must have bought pot there 100 times in my young adulthood.

My university was fairly close.