Cyborg mann & the fast food place in another country

[Only me]

Hi

Found this article on line when friend pointed it out.

What was not clear to me was that the employees thought the guy was filming them and there is a store policy about that. However when the employee's really took it too far IMHO, epecially when they "elidedgly" destroyed his medical documentation.

it was an interesting read. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1228500--toronto-cyborg-steve-mann-says-he-was-assaulted-in-paris-mcdonald-s

Onlyme

[jmarvellous]

I think they took it way, WAY too far from the start, but he probably should have just gone elsewhere (like, say, to a police station) when they started harassing him.

I read an article from a different paper yesterday that included stuff from his blog about him wetting (or defecating?) in his pants in the midst of all this. That really changed the scene for me and convinced me he should have left rather than trying to convince anyone on cyborg rights at that time.

BTW, the documentation they "allegedly" destroyed? I wonder how it was worded and why his cameras could possibly be considered medically necessary. Just idle curiosity, but that was what struck me most about that other article.

[WillyNilly]

BTW, the documentation they "allegedly" destroyed? I wonder how it was worded and why his cameras could possibly be considered medically necessary. Just idle curiosity, but that was what struck me most about that other article.

I followed the posted link, which had a link to the guy's blog.  It wasn't clear what the glasses do exactly beyond "help people see better" but as for the medically necessary part - they cannot be removed without special tools.  So IMO anything that is essentially permanently affixed to a person's skull, is at that moment medically necessary because its necessary to not remove the item without causing a medical issue/injury.

There are also photo's - from the eye device - showing the people rip up the documents.

This is craziness straight and simple to me.  No where in the story does it say he was simply asked to leave.  To me that would step 1, step 2 and step 3 that should have been taken before physically assaulting him or even questioning him.  Just a simple "I'm sorry sir, but we do not allow such devices in the restaurant and we must ask you to remove the device or leave."  Then a manager "sir, you have been asked already, we are telling you, you must leave, now." and then finally "sir the police have been called.  If you do not leave this instant we will have you be forcefully removed by the authorities."

[sweetonsno]

While I don't think the employees were behaving at all, I'm a bit disturbed by the idea that Mann thinks he should be exempted from the rules. If an entity (person, company, museum, etc) has a no-camera rule, then someone should not expect to be allowed to use one. Mann very clearly thought that this rule should not apply to him.

I agree that the employees should have started with asking him to leave, but I wonder if perhaps they did and he didn't understand.

[princessdolly]

People who have disabilities are routinely exempt from rules. I don't see anything entitled about that. If they had kicked a blind man's guide dog then thrown him out everyone would be in an uproar.

I think the difference is that we don't know the exact details of this condition and that makes it seem like he's hiding something.

Also, he apparently invented this himself and the cynical part of me suspects there may have been a smaller incident (or none at all) and he is using this as publicity for his device.

[Twik]

From what I understand, he doesn't have any condition at all (at least physical). He's wearing this contraption because he wants to. Which means that he does not require "accommodation" of any sort.

While he shouldn't have been roughed up, it sounds like he has an attitude that "No one should interfere with what I'm doing, and if they have rules, well, I'm going to ignore them."

[Wulfie]

I am hearing a few more reports that are hinting that he may have either staged this to create drama or my have blown this out of proportion. McDonald's also issued a statement that says that their staff did not touch him.

 http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/mcdonalds-claims-employees-didnt-assault-cyborg-893938

[Jones]

I hope that it didn't really go down the way he described, because if people will destroy medical documents and then try to take away the medical device, this world will be a very sad one in which to live. He does have pictures of them ripping up some sort of paperwork though, so I don't know what to think.

For those who are curious about the incident in the blogger's own words, here's a link to the blog.