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 ...
“Age has nothing to do with it. She was blocking access in a public place, and interfering with the business.”
No, she was conducting business.
“Someone posted the exact statute she was violating earlier.”
And if you read what they posted you will see she was not in violation of that statute.
Should have tased her and taken her unsalted fries.
It would probably be hard for a reporter to legally track down the other customers, who presumably took off as soon as the car imprisoning them in the drivethru was moved.
If the perp is serious about her lawsuit she will subpoena any credit card records from that timeframe at the McD and subpoena the others present to document her woe.
Of course, if they aren't willing to rubberstamp her story, though, I doubt her attorney will release their statements.
“I can’t think of anything dumber than allowing this to escalate. And twenty minutes (if true) is remarkably inept. Nothing at McD’s takes twenty minutes to cook.”
If the manager was smart he would have given her a couple extra fries, some coffee, and perhaps a apply pie and she would have been on her way.
Instead they’ve pissed off a major part of the wintertime population and received some rotten national press.
Problem is easy to solve for the future, don’t go to MD.
She was in a line at Dunkin Donuts waiting for her McDonalds fries.
What options did he have again?
“He could have urged the restaurant staff to expedite the lady’s order.”
A later news report stated that after she got her food, she still refused to move.
“He could have walked into the restaurant to order his own meal.”
He was already in line. And if you’ve ever been in a fast food drive thru, you know that if you’re in the middle of the line, and the line stops, you can’t just “Go Go Gadget” your car out of it.
I believe that he chose the best option available. Patiently asking her to move for OVER TWENTY MINUTES, WHILE BEING INSULTED THE ENTIRE TIME.
Are there any other “options” that you think were available to him that I missed? Perhaps calling on Captain Planet to save the day? Or, maybe he could have hypnotized her. Or he could have called on the dreaded BLACK HELICOPTERS that we all know are “in league” with the jackboot cops to just take her away while she was still in her car.
I personally blame not only the police officer, but Quakers, George Bush, the Masons, the Jews, the Grey Aliens, and the Military Industrial Complex. This advertisement brought to you by Ron Paul.
“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.”
Old people can be difficult sometimes, just the same as anyone else. The lack of respect shown on this thread because she is old has been surprising.
Long and short of it is this minor incident has hurt McDonald’s and the City of Clearwater. The lady is laughing about it and is obviously not a danger to society.
But its more important that the cops power not be questioned. Just doesn’t make any sense to me.
yes, by the time I got around to posting a comment, this thread had grown at a phenomenal rate!
You ask;
Yes, I actually did. The italicized quotes I used in my original post on this thread, were directly from that article!
Only later have I gone back and read the other, related story, linked at the site, which gives us a bit different picture of what transpired.
You say;
End of story.
Not exactly...not according to the other article
Grandmother, 75, Gets Cuffs, Not Fries
From the above link;
And further;
From those two quotes from the article, it appears there was possibly more than one drive-thru "lane", since it was written in the plural lanes. Further, according to this other article, she did not initially, completely refuse to move her car. In fact, it does appear that she did move her car, just not quite far enough
. I've seen this phenomona before, with little-old-ladies in Lincoln Town Cars. Sometimes, they just won't pull all the way into a parking place...for whatever batty reasons batty old birds have for doing so...
The picture I'm getting is that it's possible that the Mc D's that this happened at, was one of those where there is more than one singular drive through lane, at that portion past the "order placing" segment. In those situations, store employees step out through a side door to deliver to the second, far lane, once folks get up to the pickup window area.
So the old lady moves her car, after she's told to do so, but not far enough so that the backend of her vehicle still blocks either part of the second lane, or in the case of there being only one lane, the car still partially blocks that one. Obviously, if she could have moved her car to others satisfaction, then there wouldn't be a problem. That part does look to be inarguable. In fact, I never mentioned that it wasn't...please don't assume that I meant something that I did not say. THAT is what is "getting old" around here!
You say;
And;
HEY! I never claimed that it "took 20 minutes to get her fries", as you imply that I said, now did I? So why are you trying to correct me, for something I never [precisely] said in the first place, even though I did make mention of the 20 minute period, and rightfully enough so, since in both of the written articles, there is mention of a "20 minutes" in which she was interacting with the officer.
In the second article, it quotes the woman as saying,
"And I didn't get to eat my McDonald's, you know?", so that means, either she didn't get the fries, or perhaps more likely, judging from the expanded context of this second article, she may well have recieved them, but was unable to eat them, since she was getting arrested for, as much or more than anything else; popping off at the mouth, to a police officer.
Now go away, kid. You bug me...
Yes, there is a middleman.
The ones that you can buy are of a lower resolution among other factors.
Sure. But the existing resolution is good enough to identify individual automobiles, and even individual tiles on the McD facade.
According to your logic we should all be thankful we aren’t arrested when driving or stopping.
Not at all.
If we deliberately and illegally block other citizens into an enclosed area and prevent them from moving unless they abandon their vehicles, we should be thankful we're not arrested.
Umm... Maybe she broke the law she was charged with breaking?
877.03 Breach of the peace; disorderly conduct -- Whoever commits such acts as are of a nature to corrupt the public morals, or outrage the sense of public decency, or affect the peace and quiet of persons who may witness them, or engages in brawling or fighting, or engages in such conduct as to constitute a breach of the peace or disorderly conduct, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
The officer found that blocking the drive-through lane of McDonalds for 20 minutes and screeching at him was Disorderly Conduct.
I'm inclined to agree.
LOL, this thread has gone on way too long. But while you're at it, don't forget the Methodists.
Sorry, how could I forget? :-)
The batteries to his tazer were probably down.
From what I hear a lawyer is taking her case pro bono.
Guess you don't know any big men. I've known many men that were not a bit over 6'5" that were 300+ and would never be described as obese. They weren't Olympians either.
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.
What? So police officers shouldn't respond to anything because "normal people" don't do bad things? Well, I'd have to say that the police appear to agree with you, at least when its convenient.
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.
Indeed, and she would have died of old age before they arrived. A tow truck on the other hand would have arrived inside of 15 minutes, and she would have moved.
A tow truck company is not going to tow a car with someone in it.
Want to bet?
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.
Yes, how very lucky, and they have the power to pick and choose as well. Interestingly, they are far more concerned with "their" rights than yours.
Having been in the position of holding off a deranged man threatening to kill several terrified little girls, while the cops refused to come down the street, I'd have to say they are very selective about their involvement. To quote them, "So what do you expect us to do about it?"
That’s ok, you are no doubt a Presbyterian and predestined to leave us out.
Like I said you win. Use that google maps to argue that there is not adequate room for two cars to pass but ignore someone who has been there. Heck I’ll go back there tomorrow and take a picture of my own. Perhaps you’ll beleive that.
You mean pro publicitate.
I’d say it’s a 5 over the limit type offense at best. Not something that needed to be cuffed. And I think the manager was not being smart and the cop was over the line. I’m back to my 33-33-33 blame percentages.
If it doesn’t end in a reprimand for the cop and a settlement for the older Floridian, it has escalated into a national public relations nightmare, one that could have been avoided with better procedures.
Love to see it. More data always helps.
Considering the way that people are creating data on this thread out of whole cloth, his pic should be interesting.
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