The video has set off a wave of mockery on social media, with Twitter users dubbing the woman “Officer Karen,” and many questioning whether she should be allowed to carry a firearm if she has such a massive reaction to a botched breakfast order. Other people are rushing to her defense—specifically by doxxing the McDonald’s that they believe lost the Egg McMuffin.
It all sounds a bit ridiculous, but paranoia and the manic demand for respect are as embedded in police culture as violence is. Late in 2019, a Kansas police chief angrily denounced a local McDonald’s after one of his officers received a coffee cup with “fucking pig” written on it—a nickname the officer later admitted he wrote himself.
Earlier this month, a Philadelphia sandwich shop called Di Bruno Bros announced it would no longer offer free meals to police officers, and removed a sign in its front window promoting the special. The restaurant’s owners also issued a statement in support of Black Lives Matter and the anti-police brutality protests going on across the country. Upon learning they could no longer eat for free there, Philadelphia cops borrowed a page from the activist playbook: the head of the local police union announced that the cops would start a boycott.
