Shake Shack manager sues police after being falsely accused of poisoning their milkshakes
Manager was ‘falsely arrested, and suffered emotional and psychological damages and damage to his reputation,’ according to new lawsuit
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The manager of a Shake Shack restaurant is suing New York police officers and a local police union after three NYPD officers falsely alleged that their milkshakes had been laced with bleach.
Marcus Gilliam, who runs a Manhattan branch of the popular fast food chain, filed the case against the Police Benevolent Association, Detectives’ Endowment Association, unidentified NYPD officers and the City of New York on 14 June.
The lawsuit states that the allegations that the milkshakes contained bleach caused him to be “falsely arrested, and suffered emotional and psychological damages and damage to his reputation”.
The unverified allegations came after three NYPD officers ordered milkshakes during their patrol of an anti-racism rally a year ago on 15 June 2020.
Their order was placed through a phone application, according to the documents, which meant, “Mr Gilliam and the other Shake Shack staff could not have known that police officers had placed the order”, the lawsuit reads.
The documents say that due to the bad taste of their drinks, the officers threw them out and complained to Mr Gilliam, who handed out vouchers to make up for it.
However, the police officers told their own boss that there had been a “toxic substance” added to their beverages. The officers were taken to a hospital for treatment and police investigated the incident, including detaining Mr Gilliam and other Shake Shack staffers.
NYPD Chief Rodney Harrison tweeted on 16 June 2020, “After a thorough investigation by the NYPD’s Manhattan South investigators, it has been determined that there was no criminality by shake shack’s employees.”
Despite the bogus bleach claims, the Detective’s Endowment Association posted a tweet that read, “Tonight, three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack at 200 Broadway in Manhattan. Fortunately, they were not seriously harmed. Please see the safety alert.” This tweet has since been removed.
The New York City Police Benevolent Association also tweeted, and then deleted, “When NYC police officers cannot even take meal without coming under attack, it is clear that environment in which we work has deteriorated to a critical level. We cannot afford to let our guard down for even a moment.”
In the court documents filed by Mr Gilliam, it mentions that the wave of protest that swept across the US and the rest of the world was one of the largest to date.
“Floyd’s murder and the police murder of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in addition to recent police murders of other Black people in the United States sparked the largest movement for social and racial justice in history and has included peaceful protests around the world against anti-Black police violence, systemic racism, and inequality,” the documents read.
It went on to note the opposition the protests faced from the authorities, such the NYPD and the city’s mayor.
“City officials, particularly Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea, and Chief of Department Terence A. Monahan, openly expressed hostility toward their viewpoint. They moved to suppress the protests with well-orchestrated operations corralling and violently arresting the protesters,” the documents read.