According to reports, the police officer, whose name was not disclosed, ordered a sandwich at a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. When he bit onto his lunch, he heard a crunching sound and felt a "grisly texture." His mouth was bleeding, as, it turned out, he had just bitten down on shards of broken glass.
The officer was taken to a hospital, and the restaurant has been closed by local police. It is unknown whether the food contained glass by accident or on purpose. Columbus Public Health officials will visit the restaurant on Tuesday to investigate possible violations.
Some suggest that the incident is another case in a row of violence against police officers that has swept across the United States recently. Five officers were killed in Dallas on July 7 and three were killed in Baton Rouge last weekend. There have been numerous other incidents of attempted violence or other, less-violent, displays directed toward police.
A day before the Columbus glass incident, a cashier at a Florida Sunoco gas station, refused
service to a police officer. According to the filling station employee, the cop had a "bad attitude." Reports suggested that the cashier asked why the police officer detained a friend, a question the officer refused to answer. The cashier has been fired, and Sunoco publicly apologized to police for his actions.
Two days prior to the glass incident, two Sheriff's deputies in Lee County, Alabama, were refused service at a Phenix City Taco Bell fast food restaurant. According to the wife of one of the deputies, when the officers entered the restaurant, they were refused service and told that the restaurant "doesn't serve cops." The deputy's wife also asserted that a woman waiting for her food asked for a refund, because she didn't want to eat somewhere that serves police. The restaurant employee was fired following the incident and Taco Bell's corporate office issued an apology.