An investigation by Raleigh police finds a Facebook post saying employees at a Garner restaurant sang the NWA song ‘F the Police’ to Raleigh officers last week is fake news.
“There was no singing,” the Raleigh Police Department said in a statement issued Wednesday.
WRAL News reports the controversy began last week when a Facebook post claimed people at a Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q restaurant sang vulgarities to officers who were eating at the restaurant.
The truth is — it never happened.
“Two officers witnessed one employee make eye contact with them and mouth the words ‘F the Police,’” the statement continued. “There were no other employees involved. Because of the subtle nature of this act, it was not witnessed by anyone else in the store.”
The restaurant’s owner said his company has respect for police.
WRAL reports owner David Harris responded on Facebook, saying the company respects law enforcement. Harris’ lawyer Mark O’Mara said Wednesday that surveillance video shows an employee near the officers at one point, which is when the alleged incident happened.
“There was no singing, there was no banging on anything and there were no other employees involved,” WRAL reports O’Mara said.
O’Mara said the Facebook story was nothing more than a complete fabrication.
O’Mara said the officer who saw the employee mouth the words told someone else, who put the story on Facebook. The incident then spiraled out of control from the “embellished’ Facebook post, O’Mara said.
The police say the restaurant and the department and the community as a whole are victims of misinformation.
“Ultimately, the Raleigh Police Department, Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q and our whole community were victims of misinformation and misunderstanding causing the original reporting of the story to be wrong,” the RPD statement said.
Harris said the fallout from the misinformation campaign is very devastating.
“My dad taught me to respect everyone in uniform,” Harris tells WRAL. “It’s been very emotional, and probably the hardest thing for me to think is there are law enforcement officers who think we allowed or condoned this.”
According to WRAL, police union spokesman Rick Armstrong agrees the incident was exaggerated, but still believes something inappropriate happened.
“The officer did tell me, he’s a member of ours, that he walked in to Smithfield’s and the manager of the establishment did say several times, ‘F the police.’ He was very clear about that,” Armstrong tells WRAL.
The employee who allegedly mouthed the vulgarities toward the officer no longer works at the restaurant, O’Mara tells WRAL.
© 2017 Bright Mountain Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
The content of this webpage may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of Bright Mountain Media, Inc. which may be contacted at info@brightmountainmedia.com, ticker BMTM.
