There’s a new song racing up the blues charts, but it’s a song no one really wants to hear.
It’s called the Waffle House Blues and the chorus goes like this.
When you go to the Waffle House, you better watch what you do.
When you go to the Waffle House, you better watch what you do
‘Cause if you’re black, they just might arrest you.
Okay, that was a made up song, but it may as well be real given the experience of a black couple at the Waffle House in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Sean King, a journalist for The Intercept, posted police body cam footage of the incident on Facebook, but the fact that the police were called at all is as bad as the fact that the couple was handcuffed and hauled away for no good reason.
The police were summoned when a dispute broke out as the couple was paying for a takeout order and the man noticed that he had been overcharged 50 cents for an orange juice listed as costing only one dollar on the establishment’s menu. For some reason, the Waffle House cashier refused to change the $1.50 charge on the bill, whereupon the customer demanded to speak with customer service.
Instead, the Waffle House employees called the police with the results shown in the video below.
After explaining to the police what the issue with the charges was, the police ask the couple to step outside where they then say that the bill needs to be paid or they will be arrested for theft and trespassing. When they complain that they were ready to pay but needed to first resolve the issue of the overcharge, the police decide to handcuff the couple. They left with the police while their food order remained on the counter at Waffle House, uneaten.
In the end, no charges were filed against the couple and the Waffle House gave them a full refund on their order, which begs the question: what exactly were they handcuffed for if they had already given the Waffle House their payment?
If only they had heard the Waffle House Blues before they decided to patronize the chain that’s getting quite a reputation as an unfriendly location for people of color.
When you go to the Waffle House, you better watch what you do.
When you go to the Waffle House, you better watch what you do.
‘Cause if you’re black, they just might arrest you.
Better check your bill, it just might be too high.
Better check your bill, it just might be too high.
And when the police come, the cashier just may lie.
You can watch the footage of the encounter in a Twitter post from Shaun King in the clip below.
Here is the body camera footage of this outrageous wrongful arrest of a Black couple @WaffleHouse. They were arrested for theft & trespassing. They never even received the food. They were overcharged a $1.50 for an orange juice and asked to call customer service. pic.twitter.com/c7a74NhKoH
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 13, 2018
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