Posted on 01/23/2008 11:31:08 AM PST by HD1200
CLEARWATER - The 75-year-old grandmother who was arrested Thursday at a McDonald's on a charge of disorderly conduct gave an officer lip, according to a police report. Jean Merola swore at the officer and said, "You are an evil man. Your wife is going to divorce you. Your kids probably hate you too. You are going to hell," according to the report.
Officer Matthew Parco was behind Merola in line and had received his drink; he asked her to move up so he could get around her but she didn't respond. Parco spent about 20 minutes asking Merola to move the car before she was arrested.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
My bad. I didn’t know either of my grandmothers, only one Grand-Dad.
“Do not feel sorry for the cantankerous old b****.”
Exactly right. She’s looking for attention and is playing this up for all it’s worth.
If she in fact parked where the McDonald’s employee told her to park while waiting I’ll mostly side with her.
If she didn’t move I’ll go with the Cop (which is the only news story I’ve seen so far).
If she did move but moved to the wrong location then its a lean toward the Cop but in that case she was obviously confused and should be given more leeway.
Not true as stated.
I didn't say obese, I said 300 pounds.
Unlike you, my experience with cops is that they will go to great lengths to avoid confrontation with large belligerent men, but will be very strict with the mother in the minivan about her insurance card not being current. I'll stand by my contention.
I have no doubt that this woman was a complete pain, but there is no way a cop would have even responded to this if he hadn't been in line right behind her. He was acting on personal motivation, not for the good of the public.
I've tried and failed to get cops to take any action at all in situations far, far more serious than this one.
The manager should have called for a tow truck if she was being that big of a problem.
Cops have no more rights than the rest of us and it burns me when they use their official position to settle a personal dispute that they wouldn't even respond to if it were someone else in the same position.
It's the other way around Google purchases its satellite maps from the government.
Yeah but you can say whether two cars could pass side by side within the space.
The map shows a space 8 meters across. You say that the data could be off by a couple of feet - if so, we then have a range of 7.3 meters to 8.6 meters.
The standard width of an interstate highway lane is 12ft or 3.6m.
So, the area was 2 interstate lanes wide.
Two full size pickups can comfortably drive abreast in that space at 75mph.
A sedan can pass another sedan at 2mph in that same geography.
Also shows the cop had plenty of space.
Not necessarily - had she been a few feet from the curb rather than flush with the curb, she could easily have been blocking him.
Of course it wasnt about space, it was about his view that she was illegally parked.
As both the officer and the McDonald's manager attested, she was blocking the officer and the other customers by stopping where she stopped.
I wonder how long it would have taken a good manager to defuse this if the police car had not been present.
It has been said that the death rate is higher where there are more physicians, and I suspect the reported crime rate is higher with more officers due to that fact. Another party to escalate the situation.
I’m looking at this from a standpoint of how this could have been solved to the customer’s satisfaction without escalation, rather than saying one or the other was 100% right or 100% wrong. I’d say we’re at about 33-33-33 here.
Man, if that's the case, I'm doubly glad I wasn't behind her in line, if we were going to have to wait for a tow truck to be called and to arrive and to attach to the car and to....over never mind.
Technically, if a federal officer is there on official business, he is overruled.
I am sure we could come up with a number of special exceptions to the general rule - but in the described incident, the police officer was fully within his authority to tell her to move her car up a little.
Yea, if he'd tazed or shot her, that would have gotten the senior citizens to behave.
At exactly what age should we EXPECT a mouthy woman be treated with restraint? 80? 85? 90? Older?
Has there been any feedback from the OTHER people in line that this woman was blocking? I’ve read through the thread looking for something to that effect but so far - nada.
The main feedback I have seen is from the McDonald’s manager, who backs up the cop’s story.
Age has nothing to do with it. She was blocking access in a public place, and interfering with the business. Pretty simple, really. Someone posted the exact statute she was violating earlier.
Which is obese unless you are over 7 foot or are a bodybuilder with an Olympic-level bodyfat percentage - in which case you probably wouldn't be at a fastfood drivethru.
there is no way a cop would have even responded to this if he hadn't been in line right behind her
There should never be a need for a police response to something like this.
A normal person will move their car when asked if they are blocking someone in - or move without needing to be asked.
If this woman had blocked in non-police customers for more than 20 minutes and refused to move and cursed out the McD manager, the manager probably would have called the cops.
The manager should have called for a tow truck if she was being that big of a problem.
A tow truck company is not going to tow a car with someone in it.
Cops have no more rights than the rest of us
I agree. Cops have a right to fair use of a public accomodation and so do I.
Luckily for a cop, they not only have the same rights as I do, they are also authorized by local taxpayers to enforce their own rights as well as those of others.
“It’s the other way around Google purchases its satellite maps from the government.”
Its actually through a contractor and not direct. The government does not allow the sale of the same pictures they use for national defense. The ones that you can buy are of a lower resolution among other factors. But again, never mind someone whose actually been there.
According to your logic we should all be thankful we aren’t arrested when driving or stopping. After all we are blocking someone from going someplace.
"ten foil hat alert"!
Unbelievable!
No, I mean I don't believe it.
Let's assume a homeless guy sits down in a restaurant and is asked to leave. He says no. How many hours, if ever, do you think it would be before the police arrived? This cop wouldn't have responded to this call if he was across the street. He acted on personal motivation.
Perhaps that's unfair, but until I start seeing cops respond to things like this, I have to believe my own lying eyes.
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