OPINION:
Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens was so angry at Burger King employees for botching his order, he called for police backup and faster than he could finish singing “have it your way,” three siren-blasting cop cars arrived on the scene.
Now that’s service. If only individuals being robbed in the streets could get such a show of police response.
Technically, all this sheriff wanted was the name of the fast food manager who ran the joint. Technically, too, Owens wasn’t in uniform and wasn’t in his sheriff vehicle at the time of his burger order.
That being said: his deputies responding to the scene were.
“Hey,” Owens said, News Nation reported, citing video of the event, “do me a favor. I need to get — all I need is the owner name of whoever owns this damn facility or the manager. I wanted [to get my female passenger] a Whopper, no mayo, cut in half, right?”
Apparently, the order was wrong. So then Owens said he wanted to “find out who owns this place so I can an official complaint.”
Well and good.
Good and well.
But why call deputies? There are BK headquarter offices with posted numbers for consumer feedback. Owens could’ve easily jumped online to search for those contacts.
Yes, the customer service lines for BK, as with most companies today, are probably quagmires of automated messaging. Yes, calling customer service, particularly to lodge a complaint, is time-consuming and can lead down rabbit holes of bureaucratic booting to other departments. But such is life.
Such is life for the average citizen.
That Owens didn’t want to go that route is human nature.
But that Owens didn’t go that route and instead chose to dispatch his deputies to do that dirty work for him shows a) a waste of tax-payer dollars and services and resources and b) an arrogance of the public servant class.
Owens, as a member of the tax-paid civil servant sector, ought to realize his job is one of humble service; he is not above the citizens who provide his salary, but rather below, at least in layout of an organizational chart — i.e., he’s the employee, not the employer. As such, he’s supposed to be super sensitive to how he spends his work day; how he spends his time; how he uses the resources given him by the taxpayers; how he oversees the way those he manages spend their time and resources.
Tasking his deputies to look up phone numbers for him is not proper use of time or manpower.
Worse, perhaps, is the fact this matter took more than a year to come to light.
“A Georgia sheriff up for reelection in his county was seen on body camera videos asking his deputies for help after Burger King got his order wrong,” News Nation wrote. “The footage from March 4, 2023, was obtained by WSB-TV last week and was also posted on Facebook by the sheriff’s opponent in the upcoming election.”
In other words: The incident was kept hidden — until someone seeking the seat held by Owens found it and saw that it was political gold.
That’s not how a transparent government is supposed to operate.
That’s not how a system of governance where individuals — taxpayers — rule and politicians and public employees serve.
It’s impossible to maintain a government of, by and for the people when the people aren’t informed of their governing officials’ actions.
And in today’s America, far too many public servants think they’re the rulers, and the people, the peon class. Owens is just one example of thousands and thousands and thousands of others in government, in law enforcement, in the education system, in the agencies and departments and offices and bureaucracies who think they entitled to just a little bit more, just a wee bit more, than the average Jane and Joe American. They’re from the government; they’re here to help. That’s not a free pass for bad behavior. That’s a warning for Americans to keep them in check and to remind them to stay humble.
Public service is just that: service by servants to the private citizen.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on X @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.