Call it a postcard from the entitlement culture.
Shelby Parham is a 20-year-old mother of a 1-year-old child who lives in Michigan. Apparently, the momâs electronics benefits transfer, or EBT, card didnât have as much money on it as she thought it did.
So, she did what any sensible person whose remaining dole portion wasnât as large as their purchase was: She apparently knocked out the cashier. In front of her kid. Good parenting there.
According to WJBK-TV in Detroit, the 20-year-old is facing a charge of aggravated assault after she rendered the 49-year-old clerk unconscious at the St. Clair Shores, Michigan, Kroger grocery store on Tuesday.
Parham, police say, was in the self-checkout lane when her EBT card â called a Bridge card in Michigan â didnât have enough money to cover her purchase.
She asked the clerk for help in deducting some items, which the clerk couldnât help with at that moment.
âThe employee walked away from her. ⌠the defendant was upset and followed her and struck her in the face,â St. Clair Shores Police Detective Gordon Carrier told WJBK.
âThe victim did lose consciousness for a bit, and was transported to the hospital for treatment of head injury.â
The cashier was, as of WJBKâs Wednesday report, taking time off from work due to her injuries.
The incident was caught on the storeâs security cameras. As you can see, Parhamâs child is in the cart as she decks the cashier:
Carrier told the station that the 20-year-old will now face âa misdemeanor charge. However, it is an enhanced charge of aggravated Assault.â
âItâs obviously very clear-cut. Thereâs no questions as to whoâs at fault here,â he added.
The aggravated assault charge carries a one-year sentence if sheâs convicted. Sheâs been released from custody on a $1,000 bond.
The lesson here? According to WJBK, Carrier said heâs âasking the public to take an extra second this holiday season before doing something they will regret.â
âEverybody can be stressed out, right?â he said. âThereâs got to be better resolutions than violence.â
Yes, one might indeed say that. One might also note another obvious lesson for the average person: that entitlement culture breeds, well, entitlement.
I would guarantee that 99 percent of the people reading this â and thatâs a conservative estimate, really â have had a frustrating experience with customer service somewhere at some point. If you arenât reading this from prison or while you wait for your parole officer to see you, chances are you havenât dealt with it by splaying the customer service representative on the floor with a knock upside the head.
In most cases, I would also venture to guess, that frustrating experience with customer service had something to do with goods bought and/or services rendered using money we or someone in our household earned. Not Parham. Her money came from taxpayers.
And, when it didnât cover what she wanted to buy and there wasnât someone available at that very moment to help her subtract items, her decision? Apparently, to punch the person who wasnât available for not being on hand at the snap of her fingers.
Itâs almost as if thereâs a connection between entitlement meaning handout and entitlement meaning the belief one deserves special privileges they havenât earned. Funny how that works.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.