A police officer from Strawn City, Texas, told a local radio station that he was denied service at a Whataburger because he was a police officer, CBS reports:
Officer Cameron Beckham and reserve deputy Michael Magovern were set to work overnight traffic security at a construction area along Stemmons Freeway. But prior to the start of their shift, they stopped by a Whataburger location in Lewisville for a bite to eat … According to the officers, workers at the restaurant denied them service. An employee told the men, “We don’t serve police.”
Michael Magovern subsequently spoke to CBS Radio’s 1080 KRLD.
Whataburger apologized for the incident on Twitter after this amazing exchange (James Healy is apparently a retired police chief who knew one of the officers involved):
The whole story is very similar to one earlier this month from Florida, where a police department issued a press release to announce that one of its officers was not served at an Arby’s and demand an apology from the Arby’s CEO. (Which they received. Also, one of the employees at the Arby’s later said that the entire incident came about because of an offhand joke gone wrong.)
As I wrote at the time:
One is reminded, of course, of the classic scene in the seminal 2001 film Super Troopers in which Vermont highway patrol officer Rod Farva becomes enraged when a “Dimpus Burger” employee fails to understand his order, conspires to fill his burger with spit, and sabotages his soda such that it spills comically on his (Farva’s) shirt.
Super Troopers is truly the work of art that speaks most profoundly to the (dumbest parts of) our current national conversation about policing.
Farva for president?
