She Was Asked to Take Out the Trash

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So, maybe I am admittedly armchair quarterbacking a bit here. But we have the story of the McDonald's manager who shot a woman in her store and there are many moving parts to it here. Violence is one of them. Insubordination is another. The shooting is also a part. So is a "mob mentality." As the story goes, the manager asked a juvenile female employee to take the trash to the dumpster. A perfectly reasonable request for a manager to make to a subordinate. The employee refused with some harsh words, and so the manager told the employee to clock out and go home. Also, an extremely reasonable managerial response to someone who is paid to do a job they are refusing to do. Next thing you know, mom shows up with her other teenage daughter, the manager is confronted with an altercation at the counter that carries the entire situation to the back end of the restaurant and ultimately into the manager's office where the manager is then beat by both parties. At some point the manager produces a gun and shoots the mom in the leg. Look, regardless of what anyone thinks, we have multiple issues going on here. One, I think the manager, right or wrong, was simply acting in self-defense. Did she need to produce a gun? Probably not. But at the same time, what does one do when she has two unruly people in a place they do not belong, having put themselves in business that is none of theirs, who are using physical violence to get their point across? Both women were charged with felonies, but the one paying the biggest price with the steepest possible penalties is the manager. For defending herself. After asking an employee to do her job. She will not only face jail time, but she will also undoubtedly now be unemployed with a criminal record. For defending herself and doing her job. This cannot be stressed enough, here. Again, perhaps the gun being involved was unnecessary. But when do we acknowledge that refusing to do one's job is wrong? Or acting like a mob, such as the mother and her other daughter did—when is that condemned? Okay. Technically the other party's actions are condemned, right, because they are being charged, although there really is no consequence for the employee who refused to take out the trash. But the bottom line is that the manager is the real victim here, having her entire life altered simply because... She did her job. I'm sorry, but this is backwards. This is wrong on so many levels. At some point we need to stop holding people to account for reacting to situations they did not ask to be part of and frankly... Did not even cause. Ultimately, the manager did absolutely nothing wrong to wind up in the situation that she did. Nothing. She became a victim of an insubordinate employee and two other entitled people who sought to remedy a just situation with an unjust response... And the manager has to pay the price? Literally, give me a break. This manager's life is not forever altered because she shot a woman in the leg in her store. It is forever altered because she asked an employee to take out the trash. Let's be clear, that's the ultimate end of story for me here.