 After two police unions in New York publicly accused Shake Shack employees of poisoning them We are learning more and more about the persecution complex of the police and this isn't just something to laugh at sure You know officer Karen's meltdown over an egg McMuffin is funny in a way And it's entitlement and you know We should shame people with this mentality But it speaks to a real danger that if someone has this mentality that they're always under attack I mean this explains why police officers often times end up escalating rather than de-escalating because they always feel as if They're the ones who are under threat in this country and not the other way around and what's interesting is that we're learning about the police persecution complex after we've had weeks with dozens of videos of police officers Beating and gassing peaceful protesters and even targeting medics in some circumstances, but it's actually them Who are the real victims? They're not the oppressors. They're the oppressed. Everyone is discriminating against them according to them So I'm sure that you've already seen this video of officer Karen. It's ridiculous But for those of you who have not seen it Take a look. We'll watch it and then talk about it I decided to come to the McDonald's at Love's on the Ford Avenue exit and I Waited in line to get my food. I had already done my mobile order so that you know people Don't pay for my stuff because I just always like to pay for myself But I'm on my way home from work When I pull up to the window They hand me my receipt so I go to the second window to get my food and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and so the girl comes to the window and Asks me what my order was I repeat my order and my coffee um order And they asked me to pull up because my food's not ready. It's um An English muffin meal with a hash brown of coffee And I mean I hadn't eaten since I don't probably but I mean I've been up for very long time, but I haven't eaten In a while, so I was kind of hungry and I'm still waiting And I'm still waiting and they asked me to pull up so I pull up forward and A girl comes out with my coffee and just the coffee and she hands it to me and at my window down And that's all she hands me is the coffee So I told her 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 I don't know what's going on with people nowadays But please just give us a break. Please just give us a break I don't know how much more I can take Because I've been in this for 15 years and I've never ever had such anxiety about waiting for McDonald's drive-thru food So just have a heart and if you see an officer just tell them Because I don't hear thank you enough anymore I mean I think that that video speaks for itself Anyone who has gone through a drive-thru at a fast food restaurant It doesn't matter if it's McDonald's or Burger King or Wendy's sometimes you have to pull around and wait I mean this is a common practice. It doesn't mean that they're trying to poison you because you're a cop You're not a victim Karen people are rightfully questioning the role of the police in our society because for far too long Police have been able to be aggressive. They brutalize peaceful protesters oftentimes and yes murder black Americans with impunity And so the fact that we are now drawing attention to this Long practice of like over policing communities that it's gone on for far too long All of a sudden she melts down. She can't take it now someone who Is melting down because they took a little bit too long to bring her her egg McMuffin That is someone who should not be in law enforcement That is someone who is not stable enough to have a gun Because if you honestly think that everyone is out to get you then that's a really dangerous situation That you're creating like if you respond to some sort of situation We can see that you're already on edge and you're going to want to escalate rather than de-escalate and handle it In you know a more calm and irrational way. So this is a really huge thing It's not just you know, let's all laugh at officer Karen over her egg McMuffin This is about a broader issue This persecution complex can literally be deadly the fact that officers think that way that everyone is out to get them Is exactly why people get killed all the time by police officers, even if they're unarmed, right? I mean, this is really a microcosm of a broader issue here with this one viral video And in an article for the los angeles times, I think that maria cruder actually made some really fantastic points She writes if your typical american consumer got sick after drinking a shake shack milkshake tainted with a bleach based cleaning solution She would be rightfully upset if that consumer then accused Shake shack employees of intentionally poisoning her publicly crying that she can't even take a meal without coming under attack She would almost certainly be considered paranoid if not outright delusional But for the typical american police union paranoia is beginning to seem par for the course on monday night two nypd unions The new york police benevolent association and the detectives endowment association Issued statements alleging that three new york police officers had been intentionally poisoned at shake shack The nycpba tweeted a statement since deleted from its president patrick lynch claiming that the officers discovered a toxic substance Believed to be bleach had been placed in their beverages If the intent of signing diction of placed didn't clue you in lynch and the pba made it even more obvious When nyc police officers cannot even take meal without coming under attack It is clear that the environment in which we work has deteriorated to a critical level We cannot afford to let our guard down for even a moment Meanwhile, the detectives association's president released the statement alleging that police in new york city and across the country are under attack By vicious criminals who dislike us simply because of the uniform we wear Emboldened by pandering elected officials these cowards will go to great lengths to harm any member of law enforcement The us versus them warriors under assault party line couldn't have been clearer in a not so shocking twist However, these claims turned out to be false the nypd's own investigation cleared the shake shack employees of any criminality Tuesday morning The bleach was more likely part of a cleaning solution that had been improperly removed from the milkshake machine sloppy consumer protection Sure sub far food safety practices Yeah, that too a conspiracy to attack cops not in the slightest and yet the police union's fast food focused fragility Felt pretty familiar over the past few months headlines about cops getting erroneously mad at restaurants have become surprising Common like the cop who accused fast food worker of taking a bite out of his McChicken because he forgot He'd taken the bite himself or the cops who threatened to boycott a philly sandwich shop For the dire sin of not giving officers free lunch or the cop who lied about a mcdonald's worker Writing fucking pig on his coffee cup while these stories might seem merely stupid and embarrassing for the officers in question Which to be clear they are this apparent police obsession with the imagined specter of an antiva fast food worker Is a sign of a much deeper problem as police brutality has become a more mainstream source of outrage over the past few years Police have increasingly closed ranks blue lives matter back the blue and thin blue line Imagery all have their roots in the same idea the world is full of dangerous cop hating criminals and the poor Persecuted police officers are the only thing standing between order and chaos What's so dangerous about these slogans and indeed about the frequent police accusations against restaurants Is how they encourage cops to interact with the rest of the world Everything from the increase in swat usage of tanks and machine guns to warrior style training that teaches cops They need to either kill or be killed is rooted in the idea that police are always under attack Seth Stotten a law professor at the university of south carolina And a former police officer wrote about law enforcement's warrior problem for the harvard law review Arguing that this warrior mindset is both common and destructive Stotten cites a 2010 article from police one a site offering police training news and career services That recommends police remain humble and compassionate be professional and courteous and have a plan to kill everyone you meet Stotten argues that this mindset creates a substantial if invisible barrier to true community policing Concluding that the assertive manner in which officers set the tone of encounter Can also set the stage for a negative response or a violent interaction that was from the start avoidable The same paranoia that leads a police officer to assume He's been poisoned by a milkshake can lead him to needlessly escalate encounters with civilians And as we've seen all too often needless escalation can have tragic consequences These stories aren't frivolous They're an illustration of how deep and pervasive the toxic police persecution mindset can be Excessive police violence isn't going to end as long as too many law enforcement agencies are people with or led by fragile skittish warrior wannabes who have deadly weapons qualified immunity and the knee jerk assumption that the people they're meant to serve and protect Especially black people are trying to kill them until then it's a lucky break when the only victim of police paranoia is a burger chain's reputation So that article is absolutely perfect in my opinion I mean this warrior mentality this view that everyone is out to get you and your job is super dangerous This leads to people getting killed by the police And it has to stop It has to stop and understand that when you compare police training in the united states to other countries It isn't as long. I mean this is why They just they aren't capable of de-escalating. They always end up escalating because these are individuals Who are absolutely skittish as the article points it out and my niece just made I think a brilliant facebook post She works with kids. She's a social worker and she's had more training than police officers So I mean you can't just claim that people like officer karen, you know are to be laughed at and disregarded absolutely not This is a dangerous mentality that she is showing us She's giving us insight into police officers in america and the way that they feel about the people that they're supposed to Protect, you know, she feels as if they're always out to get them. They want to poison her and We know if you've ever gone to a restaurant that having to wait a little bit longer for your egg McMuffin Does not mean that your life is in danger but the fact that something as You know insignificant as that leads her to fear for her life literally I mean it shows you how fundamentally broken and beyond repair our system of quote unquote policing is in america This is why people say to fund the police. This is why abolitionist arguments are gaining traction It is because what we've come to recognize as policing has failed And now is the time that everyone is paying attention that we actually fix this issue both culturally And from an institutional standpoint