What is the name of your state? AL
Last night my brother, who is 16 years old, was involved in an altercation at his McDonald's which is his place of employment. While he was showing a new employee around, another employee basically went nuts. This employee, who is 40 years old and about twice my brother's size, yelled racially themed stuff at him and then pushed and struck him repeatedly both with his hands and with the ringer out of a mop bucket.
My brother did not fight back in fear of losing his job. Instead he tried to avoid the blows and then get away. While at least one manager on duty admitted to hearing him yelling for assistance, no one intervened. In fact, the managers wouldn't even call the police. My brother ended up going to the police himself at which point the person who had attacked him followed him there before fleeing.
The physical results of the altercation included a cut on his ear and visible knuckle marks on the side of his head under his ear. He also had a large bruise on his upper leg where the man kicked him after shoving him to the ground. There were many large red marks over his back and shoulder area from shots to the back as well as a cut on his wrist where he blocked the mop ringer as it was being swung at his head. Other than that he had a pretty bad headache.
Initially the police would not allow him to file a police report. They said he needed the man's last name and date of birth to do that. Once he returned home and got my dad to accompany him there a second time, the police again refused to file a report without that information. McDonald's was contacted but also refused to provide the information. At one point, they went as far as to say that it was against company policy for employees to know each others last name unless they had known each other previously.
This morning an officer I have known for many years allowed a report to be filed. He got the required information from the local housing office as the man lives in government housing. The report was for assault in the third degree and my brother was asked to come in after school to give a statement.
After the statement, the officer there said they were going to change the charge to harassment. He said the punishment would be the same and that there was not enough for an assault charge.
First I want to ask, does that seem reasonable? From what I can tell assault in the third degree involves on bodily harm but does not specify how much harm. Harassment only involves striking or touching. In this instance, there are visible marks and cuts which I have documented through pictures already. Assault in the third degree appears to be a Class A charge and harassment a Class C charge. That does not seem the same to me.
Also would McDonald's have any liability here? They refused to give any information and did nothing to stop the altercation. They didn't even call the police after knowing what had happened. All of the store is also supposed to be videotaped. At this time they are refusing to hand over the tape which would show what happened. Another thing to consider is that from the comment of one of the officers this man must have a decent criminal history which seems to make hiring him to work with mainly 16-18 year old kids a bad idea to start with.
Last night my brother, who is 16 years old, was involved in an altercation at his McDonald's which is his place of employment. While he was showing a new employee around, another employee basically went nuts. This employee, who is 40 years old and about twice my brother's size, yelled racially themed stuff at him and then pushed and struck him repeatedly both with his hands and with the ringer out of a mop bucket.
My brother did not fight back in fear of losing his job. Instead he tried to avoid the blows and then get away. While at least one manager on duty admitted to hearing him yelling for assistance, no one intervened. In fact, the managers wouldn't even call the police. My brother ended up going to the police himself at which point the person who had attacked him followed him there before fleeing.
The physical results of the altercation included a cut on his ear and visible knuckle marks on the side of his head under his ear. He also had a large bruise on his upper leg where the man kicked him after shoving him to the ground. There were many large red marks over his back and shoulder area from shots to the back as well as a cut on his wrist where he blocked the mop ringer as it was being swung at his head. Other than that he had a pretty bad headache.
Initially the police would not allow him to file a police report. They said he needed the man's last name and date of birth to do that. Once he returned home and got my dad to accompany him there a second time, the police again refused to file a report without that information. McDonald's was contacted but also refused to provide the information. At one point, they went as far as to say that it was against company policy for employees to know each others last name unless they had known each other previously.
This morning an officer I have known for many years allowed a report to be filed. He got the required information from the local housing office as the man lives in government housing. The report was for assault in the third degree and my brother was asked to come in after school to give a statement.
After the statement, the officer there said they were going to change the charge to harassment. He said the punishment would be the same and that there was not enough for an assault charge.
First I want to ask, does that seem reasonable? From what I can tell assault in the third degree involves on bodily harm but does not specify how much harm. Harassment only involves striking or touching. In this instance, there are visible marks and cuts which I have documented through pictures already. Assault in the third degree appears to be a Class A charge and harassment a Class C charge. That does not seem the same to me.
Also would McDonald's have any liability here? They refused to give any information and did nothing to stop the altercation. They didn't even call the police after knowing what had happened. All of the store is also supposed to be videotaped. At this time they are refusing to hand over the tape which would show what happened. Another thing to consider is that from the comment of one of the officers this man must have a decent criminal history which seems to make hiring him to work with mainly 16-18 year old kids a bad idea to start with.