So here I am in Denver doing the CELTA Grammar Rodeo, an intense four-week course. Denver is nice. Lots of stuff in walking distance, including a Wendy’s. So I went over this afternoon.
Service was gruesome and overworked. A line of people came in behind me as I waited. An older man, full head of gray hair, some sort of veteran baseball cap and aviator sunglasses came in a few places behind me. I noticed him but did not stare.
He was talking in a gruff manner, I presume on one of those bluetooth wireless things that lets normal people behave as a madman does. He was chattering away, something about “This is America…”
I got my food and sat down. The guy seemed to have caused trouble with the staff. Something about “Throw the change at me…” The guy sat at some distance and I was better able to observe him without being rude.
At one point (as he continued to talk he held up his middle finger, but covered his hand signal with his other hand. A family sat near him. A couple of kids. He harangued the mother to “control the children… this is America …”
I left. I do not run the Wendy’s. There was no violence or threat of violence.
Should I have called the police? Should someone else had done so? The guy seemed to be right on the edge of being “a danger to himself and others.”
Does this sort of thing happen all the time in big cities? Kind of strange.
I’d worry about the guy, but let it go. If it was really bad the family he admonished should be the one to complain, or the staff. I know you say they were overworked, but it’s their job to keep an eye on things.
Now, if he’d got up and moved towards the mom and kids, instead of remaining in place, that would be different. I might have got up and moved in that direction myself, casually, to be prepared if he tried something.
Yes. All the time. Rarely turns to violence. Where do you think all those folks went when they decided that holding people in mental institutions was a violation of their rights? They went on my street, if you want to know. Pissing in my alley. Oh sorry, this isn’t the pit, is it. What you ought to have done is what you did, nothing. Doing something usually gets you sworn at. Or spit at.
We can call the police on people for being assholes now?
Yes, the guy was rude. But he was rude, not criminal. Even if he had said “sit your fucking crotch fruit down you fucking bitch whore” he would not have been criminal. He would have been more of an asshole. There is an area between enormous jackass and potentially violent offender. He was being loud to someone he was talking to on the phone about what he perceived to be poor service and misbehaving children. Take a look at the pit to see how common those complaints are.
What could the police have charged him with? Rudeness? Geography?
Some bloke talking to himself and haranguing someone mildly - meh. It’s not pleasant, but it’s really no big deal. Unless there’s something you left out that made it more serious.
I am taking a course toward the Cambridge English Language Teaching Award, (CELTA) as my old certificate is no longer valid (and from a diploma mill too).
Last I heard, they would not let you out of Saudi, what changed? Did the wife come back with you? Or is she how they are going to make you go back?
Hope all is well with you.
As to the OP. You have been gone too long. Wait until some asshat teen really gets in your face and mildly damages your property and walks away free as a bird.
There is no personal responsibility left here in this country. Everything is somebodies eases fault… Every time. You will see much more before you leave. And for heavens sake, don’t go to Chicago… or New York … or Los Angles…
I’m not sure if Paul can. But the employees certainly could have asked the police to remove him if they wanted to. This is America and we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. I can, in my store, pick out a random person and ask them to leave. If they don’t I could have the arrested for trespassing. I’ve called the cops on plenty of people over the years at my store. A few of them have been for similar reasons. Basically just causing a ruckus and they wouldn’t stop when asked to.
True - and it is something I would not change. However, I doubt the guy would still be there by the time Paul went through the application and training process at Burger King.
IOW - he isn’t an employee, the employees didn’t seem to need police intervention and it just seems like a huge overreaction to mention wanting to call the police for somebody that is an asshole.
Prolly a crazy asshole, at that. I don’t understand this expectation of “no unpleasantness ever” that seems to prevail these days. He’s way different from you. So what?
And Calgary. I don’t even really understand what the OP is holding up as a problem - the guy was talking to himself? He told a woman with kids to control them? I’m not even really seeing a problem- if that’s all he did, he was pretty well-behaved for a crazy person, and I would have just eaten my lunch.
No kidding? I thought a grammar rodeo was just a Simpsons joke (the one where Bart and Milhouse tell their parents they’re going to a grammar rodeo, but they actually steal a car and drive to the Knoxville World’s Fair, not knowing that it ended in 1982.)
I wasn’t saying he should/shouldn’t, I was just answering the question asked above as to wheather or not you CAN call the police on someone for being an asshole. Yes, you can and they will come and remove the person.
See, I was expecting you to tell us about landmarks or beautiful vistas, not a Wendy’s.
And after having lived in NYC for 25 years, I don’t find the guy’s behavior all that odd. Perhaps you were comparing him with all your grammar buddies.