I'm pretty sure this encounter would have gone down differently at Cinnabon.

that makes it OK.




Just in case.

for a stray kitten rescue or AAA.

thank you for siding with the powerful.

doubt she woke up one morning and just decided to take people's cars.

She just sits blissfully unaware in a cage taking people's money until one day this hysterical blonde starts berating her?

at trying to get people to dislike you. There are damn good reasons why no one is siding with you.

I don't know, maybe she's likes to eat? But rather then praise her for finding some kind of work, let's condemn her for taking a job that you don't approve of, with a company that's not the best.

Dude, I hate Walmart with a passion. But if I end up there I still treat the people on the floor with respect. All they're trying to do is survive. But that kind of respect seems to be a foreign concept to you. So have a good day.

canvassing for signatures for right-wing ballot propositions?

I'm sure it doesn't.

good-bye

never a good reason to insult workers based on personal characteristics like their weight, their looks, their education, etc.

Like there's typically never a good reason to insult anyone for such things.

Most likely, she gets minimum wage or less.

If McHenry had just reparked her car (like you or I would both have done) after leaving the restaurant, the restaurant wouldn't have had it impounded.

McHenry had no right to keep her car parked in the restaurant parking lot once she had left the restaurant. And she had left it there for two hours.

There was no injustice here. Just a young rich white woman thinking she was entitled to special privileges because she has a nothing job on ESPN.

That is the definition of ransom. Do I care if somebody in this industry had their feelings hurt? Not even a little bit.

I know until the next sob story about some poor single parent losing their job because their car got towed wrongfully the noble tow-truck driver will be DU's infallible victim of the white and privileged.

The predatory towing industry is nothing but parasites. If you want to hitch your horse to them because somebody you find unsympathetic was mean to them that is entirely up to you. But I doubt it will be fashionable for very long.

The towing industry itself isn't the issue here.

The issue is that this rich white woman thought she should get special treatment. And thought she was entitled to verbally abuse the counter clerk, who only took the damn job because this is a recession and you take any job you can get in a situation like that, simply because she was blonde and barely famous and the clerk was a prole with a regular person's body.

The impound itself isn't the point. It's the attitude of McHenry, who thought she had special entitlements the non-televised among us would never expect.

If it was a single parent getting their car towed, this wouldn't have made the news and you wouldn't care. And McHenry herself would undoubtably think that that single parent had it coming for being an ordinary non-televised human.

company you don't like or feel has done you wrong? About their teeth, their weight, their imagined lack of education, or any other irrelevant personal quality?

Or you're saying people shouldn't work for companies that rob the public?

That wouldn't leave us many places to work, I'm afraid.

She had left her car in the parking lot of a restaurant for two hours after she'd left the restaurant and gone barhopping. That will get your car impounded anywhere.

McHenry had nothing to complain about. It was her own fault the restaurant had had her car towed, and she knew it. McHenry just assumed she was entitled to special treatment because she's a blonde on tv.

I've never even heard of her before this. Now every time I hear Britt McHenry I'll think of her acting like a total jerk. I suspect I won't be the only one.

in public.

What an ass.

Yeah, she's an ass but she's by no means alone in that.

Chris Christie came to mind.

thought it was so damn cheap and cowardly.

and the institution is blameless there's a decent chance you are witnessing an authoritarian in action."

+1,000,000

College educated and you don't read contracts?

whooopsie!

I

B level porn star potential

Doing to her what she did to the person in the video is not nice.

What do her looks have to do with the crap she said?

that her looks got her the job to begin with.

period.

Imagine for a moment if someone said something like that about Hillary Clinton — would you be ok with that?

Would you be ok with judging a woman by her looks?

I'm not.

You treat people that way and I don't feel sorry for any of the crap she has to deal with as a result. She should be fired not suspended for talking to that poor clerk that way. I don't want to see her mug on ESPN anymore.

And her looks are her qualification - see Fox News

What she said has everything to do with this.

Half time run-off interview
Reporter: Coach you are down/up by (insert number) what do you have to dointhe second half?
Coach: we gotta play defense and score more points
Reporter: Thanks Coach


(Turn to camera) (smile) Back to you ______ (insert name)

Using her looks to shame her is exactly what she did to someone else. two wrongs do not make a right.

I don't care about her looks, I care about the nasty things she said. What she said lost her some employment.

Shaming her for how she looks is exactly what cost this woman (at the very least) a paycheck. She fat shamed someone. You are comparing her to porn performers that you think are b grade.

She decided someone was fat and uneducated and you think this woman is not top grade Porn industry material. Judge her on what she said, not on her appearance.

If you have proof that her looks got her a job, I would gladly read the link.

In the meantime, she said shitty things. She deserves being held responsible.

She is wrong.

Using her looks against her to prove a point only perpetuates sexism.

Her words are enough. Using her looks to shame is just as bad as what she did.

BECAUSE of how she looks.

I am also a female...I think I have seen more than one case of this over the course of my lifetime.

Would the "C" word be appropriate here?
Just a thought.....and here's the thing...
She'll gather herself ever so humbly and
make her public apology...simply because
she got caught....What a Princess!
A regular "Black Tongue Annie".....but I'm
sorry sweetheart when you spew that kind
of HATE; those of us paying attention, would
be hard pressed to ever give a shit about what
happens to you for a long time; if ever again....
have a nice life...

for any reason. Would you call your mother, sister, girlfriend, aunt that?
I would certainly hope not.

Not defending the creepy woman, either.

If you mean cold, callous, crude, classless, clueless...need I go on?

Having the same reaction many people who have while being robbed by some hillbilly?

Why should being in the media force one to be numbed in their encounters with many of the pieces of shit this country has to offer?

I have said far, far, worse in my encounters with the towing industry.

A joy to spend time with. LOL!

Maybe you need to figure out why you cant stop getting towed.

city, or the person (probably a man) who owns the towing company.

given their F with the BBB

her weight and teeth. That always works well.

If you're too lazy or cowardly to go after the person in power, lay down & die.

There was no better result to get than blowing off some steam.

If this type of interaction is highly traumatic to you, a towing company probably isn't the right place for you.

a suspension. She didn't get her car back any faster, she didn't get the company cited or fined or driven out of business, she didn't get shit except a big hit to her own reputation and possibly her livelihood.

But I don't think there is much cross-over between ESPN's audience and the Social Media eumenides.

she got suspended, the suspension has now been enlarged, and she's being taken to task across the internet. and in other media as well.

and it's certainly gotten back to her employer.

and I'm sure she's now aware that pretty blonds who can read are a dime a dozen; even ones who went to college.

but I seriously doubt very many of those venting their righteous outrage at ESPN had even heard of this woman before this episode.

And I certainly don't think people being "being taken to task across the internet" is one of this era's more redeeming characteristics.

taking minimum wage workers to task is one of this era's more redeeming characteristics either.

If you tow someone's car, they're going to get angry. If you are the towing company representative, they're going to get angry with you.

That is as predictable as the sun coming up.

She had left it in the restaurant parking lot for TWO HOURS after she departed the restaurant. Once she had paid her check and left, she was legally obligated to remove her car from the restaurant lot. Any restaurant in any large city will have your car towed if you leave it there for hours after you've left and especially while you're barhopping around the neighborhood.

The point is, she had no right to take her anger about the situation out on the counter clerk at the lot, especially since that clerk was simply an employee and had nothing to do with the decision to impound her car.

McHenry felt she was entitled to special treatment and special privileges just because she's a blonde on ESPN.

I don't really care what the circumstances of her towing were. I merely don't find a massively flawed character in somebody losing their shit in that situation. And I don't have any sympathy for those who work in that industry.

If she wasn't legally parked, there was no injustice in her being towed.

And your anger should be directed towards the owners of the towing companies, not the people who end up with no alternative in a tough economy but to take that work. The clerk at the counter wasn't to blame for the sins of the towing industry itself.

McHenry had no right to verbally abuse the counter clerk for a situation that McHenry herself caused by knowingly keeping her car parked where it was no longer legally supposed to be parked. McHenry only lost her guano because that clerk didn't give her car back free just for being rich, blonde, and slightly famous.

It's just going to happen and nobody will be at their best in that situation and I'm not inclined to judge anyone too harshly in that situation.

All she was guilty of was doing her job. There was no excuse for McHenry bashing her personally about her education, her looks, and her weight.

McHenry just assumed she was entitled to get her car back for freeIor to get away with illegal parking in the first place) because she was rich, blonde and thin, and because sometimes appeared on tv.

Whatever you can say about the towing industry(and I don't like them much myself) the problem is the predatory owners, not the people like that poor clerk who was just doing what she had to do to keep her job. You're not comfortable judging McHenry? I don't think either of us is entitled to judge that clerk. If she'd handed over the car for free as McHenry probably expected, the clerk would probably have been fired.

Her car was towed and she was mad. People can say terrible things when they're mad. But on a scale of Zero to Mel Gibson losing your shit over your car getting towed is among the more forgivable of public outbursts. As I said, if she regularly has interactions like this in her day-to-day life. Okay, we have a deranged individual. But someone spewing vitriol when they're absolutely furious is something else entirely. I am sure if the male owner of the towing company were in the cash cage she would have had a similar diatribe for him.

I am not going to form an opinion of someone's character based on how they behave after getting their car towed and I'm certainly not going to join a lynching mob.

you sit and kindly take it?

Shit is being lost in my general proximity all the time and has been since the price of oil plunged. I interact with people who are basically guaranteed to lose their businesses in the next couple of months every day. They lash out, we're supposed to be helping them but we can't and nobody could.

If they want to rant about me being some incompetent douchebag from California who knows nothing about oil, I will hear them out on that.

I hate it when people are nasty to me because they are under stress and I'm trying to help them. Luckily I can stop working for such people, as they take up too much time and it's not worth the stress.

Outside of the Righteous Outrage Brigade I suspect most people would either sympathize with her situation or just don't care.

So, you "have said far, far worse" in your encounters with people doing their job according to rules someone else is holding them to? Parked your car in the wrong fucking place and had it towed?

You sound like a real peach of a man there, Walter. People like you are the reason I'm glad there are cameras everywhere.

As far as the hillbilly who was robbing her goes; I'd ask where in hillbillyland this happened?

Years ago, someone posted on DU on a Saturday about how they just got back from the Post Office and gave a postal employee What Fucking For after being asked a question on a form. Someone who was doing a job according to rules they were given concerning how that job was to be performed. It was a hoot of a thread. You remind me of that poster.

The tow truck driver had already been arrested and was running his mouth at me, the landlord and the cops and after sufficient goading I said something pretty awful.

Sadly all the lowlife was nailed for was trespassing.

Plural. Expand on that.

My old office had a huge parking lot, 462 parking spots for about 80 people. There were supposed to be two more buildings in the complex that were never built. People who lived in the townhouses across the street would park on the far edge of the lot.

We did not care, our landlord didn't care. The residents would sometimes come into the office and ask about renting a spot and we would just say that we aren't in the parking business and they could go right ahead and park. However tow truck drivers and towing companies would also come into the office offering to tow those cars. One dude even came in with a video of people walking from the townhouses to the parking lot. One guy offered a $20 kickback per towed car.

Confronted by one of these individuals I would usually suggest some other alternative services they could provide in that would represent a more honest living.

In the late 90's I worked at a computer store and I would often have heated exchanges of words with the characters trying to tow our customers cars from our designated parking spots. I would sometimes have to tell these guys to fuck off half a dozen times a day.

While I am sure videos of these encounters would not put me in a very good light, I'm not terribly troubled by them.

If your entire livelihood is dependent on inconveniencing and extorting people, you're going to run into some hostility.

Lets see your state of mind and cadence after you had to sprint into the parking lot in 110 degree weather for the fifth or sixth time that day to stop a customer's car from being towed.

It's almost blue collar-ish.

Keep digging.

Be sure to mention it when your trying to negotiate down the "drop fee"

Check out the fine bunch of folks you're carrying the water for:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/advanced-towing-arlington
http://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/towing-automotive/advanced-towing-company-llc-in-arlington-va-8501/

Last edited Fri Apr 17, 2015, 04:37 PM - Edit history (1)

I've yet to meet a tow truck driver who owned either his truck or the company whose name was on the door. You are aware that tow truck drivers keep logs, right? And that they have to log times and mileages? AND that they don't set rates for their services?

The Server at the restaurant you ate at last didn't price your meal, nor did they prepare it. I'm betting they'd get the same grief from you though that you give others whose jobs/services you don't like. Not liking a service or a business gives you license to act the way you do. I'm guessing Servers are just as likely to experience your wrath as tow truck drivers.

You use "Sen." in your nick... yet you're NO Champion of Regular People.

Yelp reviews? Of a towing service? Really? Expecting more than a handful of decent reviews for a business like that is like expecting Vin Scully to talk about what an awesome team the San Francisco Giants are when they're beating the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

It doesn't really matter what I say here, I'm positive you're going to continue berating people whose service you aren't happy with. Leopards never change their spots, right?

Nothing prevents the towing company from providing corroborating documentation to the BBB. If you have an F with the BBB, accounts of credit card fraud and illegitimate tows on Yelp, one pretty blonde girl people want to kick the bucket out from under so they can feel better about themselves isn't the problem here.

The tow truck driver I had arrested was "on the clock", does that absolve him of all responsibility?

First, I don't care who "Walter Sobchak" is (or isn't as the case may be; didn't see the movie and fictional characters have a way of remaining fictional with me).

Second, "one pretty blonde girl people want to kick the bucket out from under" most certainly IS the problem. You don't like what the pretty little blonde girl does for a living, so you'd kick a bucket out from underneath her just to make yourself feel better? You'd do the same to a Hostess or Server I bet. Fuck me runnin'.

I'm a Trash Man. I use a truck called a front-loader to empty commercial dumpsters at stores, hotels, resorts, apartments, and such. I get shit all the time from people... people who seem to think much the same as you do. I get it all from why isn't my trash dumped at the exact same time every day to hey asshole you put the bin down three inches too far to the left and YOU FUCKING CUT ME OFF IN YOUR SLOW TRUCK ASSHOLE!

Just recently the owner of our local AM/PM ran out to the parking lot and started shrieking at me about always coming at a different time. I calmly (I even shut the truck down, so I didn't have to shout over it) told him I service a different group of businesses every day and the company, in the interest of efficiency decides which order I pick them up in so that the company minimizes its cost/mile. His response (and I paraphrase) was "what the fuck you know? You're only trashman!" I told him my boss's number was on the side of my truck, my name was Chris, and that he was more than welcome to talk to my boss about the quality of my service. "FUCK YOU!" was his response.

Before the encounter was over, he was screaming about occasionally being charged for an overfilled dumpster. Now, the rules I was given when I started say if the container's lid doesn't lay flat on top of the container, and is held up by excess trash, they get charged an overage. Simple. And not my call... usually.

The owner of the local donut shop runs a cup of coffee out to me every morning. Even on mornings I when I don't service her business she comes out and waves for me to stop. Hot or cold, raining or snowing. The manager of the 7/11 brings me a sweet tea every afternoon, and sometimes even a hot dog. Other businesses treat me well, with Christmas presents or discounts and such. Do you think those businesses get a break on the occasional overfill charge, or that I open the enclosures to their bins even if I'm not supposed to but maybe the weather is bad? Guess.

The guy who screams at me "You're only trashman!"... do you think he ever gets the occasional break? As far as I'm concerned, he can go fuck himself and if there's so much as a piece of paper between a lid and the dumpster he's getting charged for an overfull dumpster.

You're that guy. The guy that tow truck drivers who're doing their job HATE to see running in their direction. No wonder you have such a rough time with them.

Someone in the predatory towing industry has a reasonable expectation they are going to be in persistent conflict with the general public all-day, every-day. The "service" you are providing is going to make your involuntary customer very angry. There aren't very many other potential outcomes.

In your line of work it should be reasonably difficult to come into conflict with the general public on a daily basis.

The only reason I ever had to run in a tow truck drivers direction is because they were about to tow one of our legitimately parked customer's cars. The only reason I called the police was because they were attempting to tow a company vehicle from our loading dock. For the record the vehicle was vinyl wrapped in our logo. Then there was the wonderful experience from my youth where a friend's legally parked car was towed and the towing assholes came right out and threatened to steal the stereo.

Sorry, short of violence I am going to empathize with the motorist every single time.

for saying what I'd like to in this thread.

Not very smart. I don't think it was her degree that got her on television, but it might come in handy for a future job search.

And he was somewhat polite about it without insulting the poor girls appearance or education,
he didn't he place himself in a position of superiority, and he wasn't in a high profile public position.
Look what it got him.

I hope she suffers the same fate.

Fuck both of them.