At the start of the 50-second film, the staff member is seen baiting a down-and-out seemingly homeless man from the drive-thru counter window. The man is heard shouting: “Hey Willy, come here, do you want a sandwich. Come on man, I’m going to give you a sandwich man, come on man.”
The McDonald’s server holds out a burger box to tempt “Willie the vagrant” to walk nearer but then hurls a cup of water at him instead.
After the clip went viral, online users have called for the worker to be fired. A man named Christoper Charlton took to Twitter and wrote: “Hey @mcdonalds please find this employee and fire him Foul: McDonald’s Worker Throw Drink In Homeless Man’s Face!”
Memo to the Folks: Although the definition varies from State to State, generally a “hate crime” is a crime committed against an individual because of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability. Some statutes take it further to include crimes based upon homelessness, gender identification, gender expression and political affiliation. Regardless of the specifics, the idea behind “hate crime” legislation is that crimes which are motivated by bigotry or bias are not only crimes against an individual victim but also pose a significant threat to society. Florida Statute 775.085 (which is re-produced below and available by clicking here) delineates Florida’s take on hate crimes. Essentially, if proven then the underlying offense is reclassified for punishment purposes by “bumping” it up a level (i.e. a 3rd degree felony is normally punishable by a statutory maximum of five (5) years but if it is proven to have been committed while evidencing prejudice to “race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, homeless status, mental or physical disability or advanced age of the victim” then for sentencing purposes the offense will be treated as a 2nd degree felony and will instead be punishable by up to fifteen (15) years in state prison).
775.085 Evidencing prejudice while committing offense; reclassification.—
The video of this incident was recorded (and subsequently uploaded to the internet) by a person who was in the drive-thru line and witnessed the same. When s/he posted the video it was accompanied by the caption: “Videographer states that he (the McDonald’s employee) did this as payback because the panhandler had earlier argued with a McDonald’s customer.”
https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelhaberlaw / http://habercriminallaw.blogspot.com
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Top notch, very skilled, and highly attentive. Mr. Haber is a fantastic criminal defense attorney. 
- Thanks again. You are second to none when it comes to defending your clients. For that, I thank you
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