Restaurant employee calls 911 on African-American family

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Updated 1:15 pm CDT, Wednesday, July 4, 2018

NEWNAN, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia restaurant owner says he is investigating after an employee called 911 on an African-American family who had stopped for dinner during a vacation.

WSB-TV reports that Felicia and Othniel Dobson of North Carolina on Monday had stopped for dinner at a Subway in Newnan with their four children, ages 8 to 19, when a restaurant employee called police.

In the 911 call, the employee said there are "eight people in a van" who were going back forth to the bathroom and possibly putting soda in water cups.

The couple said the responding police officer and store owner apologized.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Restaurant-employee-calls-911-on-African-American-13049537.php

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[JI7]

1. People always put soda and other drinks in the water cup

If they are paying customers just deal with it.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

10. ummm.... whats a "water" cup? Hate to think I was committing this egregious act without even

realizing I was doing it! (sarcasm)

Seriously, what differentiates a water cup from a soda cup?

[JI7]

11. Water cups are usually smaller without lids and free

[IronLionZion]

13. water is free but you must pay for soda

Good for you for not knowing this, so your diet must be healthier than mine.

Since many soda fountains will have water and lemonade from the same spout with different buttons, if I use a water cup and it looks slightly yellow because some lemonade got mixed in, they'll call the cops and say I was stealing lemonade.

[FakeNoose]

19. The fast food restaurants can't charge for water, they have to provide it for free

Many fast food restaurants have self-serve beverages. When you purchase a soda, they give you a disposable cup and you serve yourself whatever beverage you want (Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, whatever.)

If the customer purchases a soda and then puts water into the "soda" cup, well no problem. But asking for a free water cup and then sneaking soda into it and not paying for it, of course they think it's stealing and it is. Restaurants do not take kindly to this, because it's mainly the really cheap customers who do it. Sometimes a restaurant will look for a reason to ask a loitering customer to leave, and they'll use it as a reason.

I have no idea whether this black family did that, and they most likely didn't. It seems from this OP that the racist restaurant employee was using it as a trumped up charge. I'm happy to see that the owner had the good sense to apologize to the black family.

[lagomorph777]

24. You forgot to capitalize "Trumped up"

[Initech]

2. #Civility

[More_Cowbell]

3. I can't get why people are calling 911

Aside from all of the other horrible issues of discrimination, why are they calling an emergency number? Maybe if calling 911 had consequences, they'd at least have to wait their turn calling the regular police number.

Even if people are outright stealing sodas, why is that an emergency?

[SkyDaddy7]

12. Just imagine

How many mouth breathing racist are doing this & it is not in the media!

[IronLionZion]

14. It is a crime in many localities and should have consequences

it's rarely enforced but they have given fines to repeat offenders in some places.

The nazi-defending ACLU fights hard against any consequences for calling 911 because they don't want to discourage anyone who is legitimately a victim from calling. Which in theory should help minorities who are victims but in reality it just enables fragile whites to use police as their private angels of death to keep black people afraid and marginalized.

[FakeNoose]

20. Many police depts. don't take emergency calls any more

Especially in smaller towns, they don't have 24/7 phone answering - so ALL calls go to 911 service. Whether it's a fire, accident, health issue requiring EMS or safety issue requiring police, 911 takes them all and refers them to the appropriate department.

Unfortunately some people abuse the service, and I agree there should be consequences.

[hunter]

27. Even if the non-emergency calls are routed to the emergency dispatchers after hours...

... the person who answers the call knows which number was dialed. At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

If I call animal services after hours then the person who answers the phone knows I did not dial 911, or even the police non-emergency line.

Where I live the police rarely respond to small stuff.

If you have a fender-bender and nobody is hurt, if you come home and somebody has stolen the tools in your garden shed, if someone threw a rock through your window, or someone is putting soda in the free water glasses, they'll ask you to fill out a report on their web site or in person at the police station.

[Flaleftist]

4. "possibly putting soda in water cups"

So he didn't even know if that was true.
I guess we can add using the bathroom and drinking water while black to the list.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

31. So no lid - meaning you can see right in the cup! So there's no "possibly". He

either sees soda in the cup (bubbly stuff) or he doesn't!

[left-of-center2012]

5. This link has a more complete account

The family was at the restaurant for about an hour when a Subway employee made an urgent 911 call.

"I need somebody to come through here please, ASAP. Now," the employee said. "There's about eight people in a van, and they've been in the store for about an hour. They keep going back and forth to the bathrooms by my back door."

A Newnan police officer showed up. The Dobsons said the officer apologized and told them the employee had said she was suspicious of the family and that she has been robbed before and thought they would rob her.

"I don't think she ever felt threatened," Dobson said. "We can't change our skin color. I have great kids. I have a great family."

More at:

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/family-says-subway-employee-called-police-on-them-because-of-race/782480259

[RhodeIslandOne]

17. Yes, people rob fast food joints with their kids all the time

While staying in the restaurant for over an hour so they can clearly be seen by cameras.

[RainCaster]

6. How do we put these people?

This is happening all across our country - what is the answer?

[Maraya1969]

8. There are laws against using 911 for frivolous reasons. When the police start charging these

racists with crimes for abusing the system it might stop

[dalton99a]

7. Does Subway have a posted time limit for eating?

What an idiot

[ProfessorGAC]

18. It Would Take 15 Minutes Just To Get the 6 Sandwiches

Now we're down to eating in 45 minutes, or we call the cops! Just stupid, ain't it?

[padah513]

9. Calling the police in hopes of creating an incident where none exists

What do you call that? Low level swatting?

[MicaelS]

15. If they were really there for an hour...

That is way too long, especially for 8 people. It's not like it is a nice restaurant, where you get served by a server, and are expected to tip.

They should have been asked to leave, rather than calling police. Subway, unlike other chains, does not have Wi-Fi, so you are not encouraged to dawdle.

[cannabis_flower]

16. Subway doesn't have wifi

but I have unlimited internet on my phone. A lot of times I'll go into a restaurant and order something, eat and just sit there and read news or surf the net for a while. Sometimes an hour. I've never had the cops called on me, but then again I forgot... I'm white.

[RandiFan1290]

21. Could take almost half that time for 8 people to order

Bad attempt

[MicaelS]

22. 30 min to order? Not in a Subway. n/t

[lagomorph777]

25. You must have a very fast Subway.

During lunch rush, I can wait 15 minutes (for one person). A whole family would take longer.

[csziggy]

30. Eight people traveling together in one vehicle

OK, maybe fifteen minutes to order - at the very least.

Some smaller Subways only have one person on duty at what they think will be slow times. It can take 2-5 minutes per sandwich, longer if there is a lot of confusion with giving the orders.

Five kids, two women, one man can take a while for each to visit the restroom and Subway only have one per gender. Then organizing the kids to eat, taking a break from being in the can/van/vehicle, and letting everyone stretch out for a bit.

I can see it easily being an hour or more before they are ready to move on.

There is a small Subway south of Crystal River where my husband and I often stop on our way downstate. Even with just two of us it can take up to ten minutes for the single employee to make our sandwiches - and we know what we want. I only drink water but since their dispenser is messed up, there is often lemonade or Sprite (can't remember which nozzle the water comes out of) mixed with water in my courtesy water cup. I can be slow in the restroom and at least once had to wait over ten minutes for the lady before me to leave it. We've spent up to forty five minutes on our stop at that Subway, just hanging around, taking a break from the car. No subway employee every called 911 on us, but then we are two old white people.

[shawn703]

23. The employee forgot to take his dose of this.

[dalton99a]

32. +1

[no_hypocrisy]

26. I'm beginning to believe that Trump supporters have a not-so-secret campaign to harass

non-whites whenever the opportunity presents itself. Every day, a new incident. African-Americans being denied entry to their homes, having to prove via extraordinary proof they are members of a pool, that they own their cars, sit down in a restaurant (with or without ordering food). The first incident that caught my attention was a few years back with Professor Henry Gates being arrested while trying to enter his own home. (Remember Obama's "Beer Summit"?)

The new MO is not to deny entry because of the skin color outright, but to selectively delay, disrupt, and anger African-Americans, to make them sure that they know that they "don't belong".

This is another layer of racism, not being hidden and not addressed (yet) in courts.

[dreamland]

28. How is it we don't know who this employee is?

There seems to be a level of protection for the employee and we know all about the family.

[GulfCoast66]

33. Could they be a minor?

We often have kids working in Fast food places. If so I would guess their ID will be protected

[RhodeIslandOne]

34. We know about the family because they went to the press. N/M

[dembotoz]

29. I know several Subway owners. They would shit bricks if that

Happened in their store.
They just aren't that way...