For one South Carolina resident, it was a case of “no good deed goes unpunished” this week when his attempt to buy a homeless man a meal ended with police involvement.
On Wednesday, Yossi Gallo entered a Myrtle Beach McDonald’s with another man, James Davis. Gallo bought the homeless Davis a meal, but as Davis was eating, a police officer arrived and approached him.
That’s when Gallo started filming. As of the publication of this article, the video he later posted to Facebook has received 67 million views and has been shared nearly 1.5 million times.
The footage shows the officer explaining to Davis that several people have complained about him begging for money outside the restaurant and that once Davis is done eating, he must leave and never return.
Gallo tells the officer that Davis hasn’t asked him for any money, but the comment is deemed irrelevant. That’s when it becomes clear how frustrated Gallo has grown.
“By the way, you guys suck!” he loudly tells a McDonald’s employee, a phrase he repeats over and over:
“You guys suck! I’ll never be back here. You guys suck!”
“He didn’t even ask me for food. I brought him from outside. You guys suck for giving him a trespass.”
That’s when a manager comes on the scene and asks Gallo to calm down and lower his voice, but the would-be good samaritan is having none of it:
“This is how I talk. I talk loud. If the officer has a problem with that, the officer is gonna arrest me.”
When the manager tries to explain that he’s not even sure what’s going on, Gallo replies:
“What’s going on is you suck.”
Ultimately, Gallo is asked to leave the restaurant on the grounds he’s being disorderly. He insists on getting his receipt first, and as he searches for it, he says to other customers:
“I’m getting kicked out of here for giving a homeless guy food, by the way, guys. Just so you know.”
It’s when Gallo continues to insist on a receipt that the officer finally loses her cool.
“Listen!” she interrupts him. “I’m not here to argue with you. I am the law. You need to get your stuff and leave! That is all.”
Gallo gets his receipt and leaves but not before hurling one last “You guys suck” at the McDonald’s staff. Davis is already outside. The video ends with the two men heading for Gallo’s car to go eat somewhere else.
At present, there are over 231,000 comments on Gallo’s video. Local WMBF noted the section was “flooded with nasty, crude and misogynistic comments about the police officer,” with a particular focus on her “I am the law” remark.
Gallo told the news outlet he didn’t “have any anger towards her in any way” and that the officer was simply “doing her job.” He also said he wants people to “leave her alone” and that the woman had been “polite” to him.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to speak badly of her,” he said. “She was very nice actually.”
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