(no subject)

[oakenguy]

In a couple centuries, when historians look for one single news story that illustrates a deep flaw in 20th century American culture, they could do a lot worse than choose this one:

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1297922&page=1

Here's the gist: a man called fast food restaurants posing as a police officer, and told the managers that one of their employees was a suspected thief, and needed to be strip searched. If the managers went along with that the caller would keep going, often for hours, to see how much he could make them degrade the 'suspect'. And he succeeded in getting managers to go along with this more than 70 times before he got caught.

Seventy. 7-0. And those are the ones who reported it to police.

This is one of those news stories where each new detail I read makes me feel even worse. What's it say about our culture that McDonalds has to have a special section in its employee manual specifically stating that you shouldn't stripsearch people? What's it say when the best argument a defence lawyer can come up with for her client is that he was too stupid (83 IQ, the paper faithfully relates) to realize there was something gitchy about the situation?

I think it shows that we have a bad habit of acting like sheep when we hear an authoritative voice, is what I'm afraid it says.

Comments

[anadandy.livejournal.com]

What really got me boggling (okay, ONE of the things that got me boggling) was the fact that the manager is actually suing McDonald's saying she's a victim because they didn't inform managers of the hoaxes. When is actual common sense supposed to kick in here?

[sistahraven.livejournal.com]

Wow... now that's impressive

[malterre.livejournal.com]

I read that on customers_suck and you know what, the manager who sodomized the other person...yeah, people just need excuses for bad behavior.

[aquagirl.livejournal.com]

What does it say about our society that some of the people doing the "strip searching" (many of whom were merely customers or friends of employees!) raped and sodomized these girls because 'a police officer on the phoen told me to'?

I watched that on MSNBC the other night and was so sickened.

[fightguy.livejournal.com]

we have a bad habit of acting like sheep when we hear an authoritative voice

Milgram's 47, my friend. Also explains why the country was cowed into voting for Dubya twice...

[bad-gustav.livejournal.com]

Gah! This is sad and disgusting. It also points out that folks merely need something to justify their behavior on top of being sheep. I hope they nail the asses who followed through on the "police orders" to the wall.

Faith...in humanity...fading...

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Hey, didn't I read this on mcstories a few years back...

[anadandy.livejournal.com]

Seriously, and sadder still is that the guy that finally put a stop to it was a maintenance guy with an 8th grade education that I'm sure people thought was "ignorant".

[trickofthedark.livejournal.com]

Sure wish the schools all taught Milgram in elementary school, eh?
http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm

=(

[marefromagf.livejournal.com]

I think it says people that work at McDonalds are morons.

[ah-creator.livejournal.com]

I really agree with your take on this. I've feared for a long time that we, as a species, take the power of authority and our latent herding instincts for granted. It's just too easy -- to hide behind the anonymity of a crowd or to glom onto the nearest alpha male for safety. And I'm glad people still remember Stanley Milgram. His methods were, at the risk of being too generous, questionable. But his work revealed something that we should consider more deeply, more often: "Who the hell am I when nobody's watching?"

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

*boggles*

I'm not really sure who deserves the longer/harsher punishment, the Wanna-Be-Cop-Pervy or the Ex-Fiance-Mr.Sodomy jerk....Maybe a joint sentence and they become Cell Mates for 30+ years with no phone privvies. How's That Sound?

Milgram's...Oh my gosh how that was screaming in my ears as I read/watched that. How disgusting.

Way back in college I got an evening call from someone claiming they were from the city police on reports of some moron in a trenchcoat had robbed a convience store in the town....After I got ordered by this guy to come down to the station and such, I had the gaul to say "Is this {person}?, and he said, quite authoritatively, that No, and that he was an officer and I shouldn't question his authority, et cetera...Either way I said I'd be right down, hung up, and called the actual police station, and asked the dispatcher if there were any reports (at the time I did have a trenchcoat, but I'd been at my room all nite), and the dispatcher said no reports and that it was a prank, which I totally agreed with, said thanks, and sorry for taking up his time, and had no other problems...But I tell ya, there was a moment when I went into a cold sweat and almost got ready to drive down there....Almost...But I guess my DUH nerve clicked on.

Looking back at it, I could have used *69 and see if the pranker said "hello" instead of "Police" and then he could've gotten nailed for Impersonation or Stupidty...Ah well.