Recently there was a viral video of a middle aged man having a meltdown in a fast food restaurant over a smoothie. It made the front page of Reddit and was posted in numerous subreddits. It was all over twitter and digital lynch mob has been quick to judge.
The man identified in the video was James Iannazzo. He swore at the Robeks employees, used racial epithets and threw a drink at one of the employees.
I’ve identified this man as James Iannazzo of @MerrillLynch being racist and assaulting a minor pic.twitter.com/O8Ic6jyh3p
— Danesh (@thatdaneshguy) January 23, 2022
The internet was swift in identifying Mr. Iannazzo and demanding his immediate termination. Which, Merrill Lynch was swift to provide.
“Our company does not tolerate behavior of this kind. We immediately investigated and have taken action. This individual is no longer employed at our firm,”
Merrill Lynch said in a statement after terminating Mr. Iannazzo’s employment.
There is always more to the story than a short video clip can show. Mr. Iannazzo’s son had an allergic reaction to the smoothie. Which contained peanut butter despite requesting it’s removal. One can understand how a parent could be angry and frustrated with a group of lackadaisical teenagers who almost killed their child. One can also understand how a teenager may not know all the ingredients of all the products used in the smoothie. Especially if it contained some sort of powder mix. I am not claiming it did, or didn’t. I’m merely pointing out that there are many things we don’t know at this point.
Without a doubt, Mr. Iannazzo’s behaviour was abhorrent, and the situation could have been handled better. (And I imagine in litigation happy America there will be multiple lawsuits pending.)
However, the internet’s quick piling-on doesn’t help the situation. The speed with which the internet locates and judges individuals is frightening. And you should be scared that your may end up on the wrong end of the pitchfork. Especially when all you have is a sound bite. For example, the video starts halfway through the conversation. We don’t know what was said prior. We don’t know how it escalated to this point. All we know is the short video clip shared on Tiktok.
It reminds me of the woman, Stella Liebeck, who sued McDonalds for millions for spilling hot coffee on her lap back in 1992. This was pre-internet days but I imagine social media would have the same response. I remember thinking that was crazy until I learned the whole story. Watch this:
Now granted the two situations are nothing alike, however in both cases it behooves us to withhold judgement until all the facts are clear. That is why we have a legal justice system.