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After a full day of widespread outrage over a report of a Kansas officer receiving a coffee at McDonalds with “pig” and a profanity scrawled on the cup, the local police chief admitted late Monday night that the officer had made the story up as a hoax and the officer has been fired.
“Now, this is absolutely a black eye on law enforcement,” Herington, Kan., police chief Brian Hornaday said in a joint press conference with a representative of McDonalds, according to KSNT-TV in Topeka.
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Ironically, it was Hornaday who had posted the original photo, scolding the Junction City McDonalds, pointing out that the officer who allegedly had received it was a military veteran, asked to “please share!”
As a kicker, the police chief called the incident “a black eye for Junction City.’’
He later took the post down, but not after nearby law enforcement people had joined in; the county sheriff’s office declared that the coffee incident “is not indicative of the community.’’ In addition, some on social media had started demanding that the unknown culprit be fired.
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It turns out, though, that McDonalds did a better job of investigating the situation than the sworn officers of the law. Franchise owner Dana Cook told KSNT that it checked its own security video, and it “clearly shows the words were not written by one of our employees.”
Now, the department is eating its words. Hornaday, who had gone on camera to defend the officer, later declined to identify that officer because it was a “personnel matter.’’ But KSNT reported that the officer is 23 years old, a resident of Junction City and served five years in the U.S. Army as a military police officer.