Want a Black Eye with That Shake? McDonald’s is the New Fight Club

Back in April, a transgender woman was brutally attacked while trying to enter a ladies bathroom in Baltimore.  The 14- and 18-year old beat her so severely, the woman collapsed into convulsions; it was captured on tape while onlookers did…nothing.

An altercation that spilled into a Cleveland parking lot became a mob scene when two people were run over by a car driven by one of the fight’s participants.  Again, it was filmed by hecklers doing their best Michael Buffer/WCW impersonations while commentating the whole gruesome ordeal.

In a small town, two men duked it out over a woman leaving a dining room in shambles but not before the woman they were fighting over decided to jump into the fray.  The melee was caught on a closed-circuit video camera and, surprise, no one intervened.

Besides being reprehensible and a gross display of the darkest side of human behavior, what do all of these events have in common?  All of these incidents took place at various McDonald’s locations.  Just typing the phrase “McDonald’s fights” into the YouTube search box yields thousands of results–the majority of them are cell phone-recorded fights.

For those of us who read about these slugfests or listen to reports on the nightly news, we’re often stunned into silence.  What kind of people go toe-to-toe in a public place and make fools of themselves in a manner that was usually reserved for seedy bars or nightclubs?  Well, sometimes it’s not just patrons.  Sometimes, it’s employees.  In a recent event that’s being lauded as an open-and-shut case of self-defense, two women jumped a McDonald’s counter after arguing with an employee.  A worker–uninvolved in the initial argument and armed with a metal pole–decided to, literally, take the matter into his own hands and beat the two women to the ground.  He didn’t stop even after they appeared to be submissive.  He seemed angry.  He seemed out of control.  He seemed…like a fed up fast food worker.  No matter what stance you take on the issue–I happen to be a student of the ‘you-get-what-you-deserve’ principle–it begs the question: What the fuck is going on at Mickey D’s? 

McDonald’s, the titan of squashing bad PR, has yet to release any kind of statement on this rash of violence that has plagued its locations over the past year or so.  Perhaps they figure since their food is killing you anyway, getting your brains knocked out in Playland is a quicker, more humane death.

How do you feel about these fights?  About the people who record the fights and don’t intervene?  Would you jump in or call the police?

MICKEY D’s NUTS!