An ax-wielding man smashed up a McDonald’s and terrorized patrons the day after CEO Chris Kempczinski warned Chicago that the corporation wouldn’t tolerate the Democratic city’s astronomical crime rate.
Michael Palacios, 31, brought a hand axe to a fist fight in the dining room of a New York City McDonald’s on Thursday, after he assaulted a man and ended up getting pummeled when his two buddies joined the fight.
The three twenty-something’s beat Palacios into the trash cans, then backed off when he stopped fighting back and another patron urged them to relax. They yelled at him to leave the restaurant, and Palacios seemed to comply, but stopped and rifled through his green backpack on the ground, before emerging with an axe.
“Bro please, back up,” one of the young men pleaded as he backed away with his hands up. Palacios smashed a table another patron was dining at and forced him to flee into a bathroom with a young woman, when he hacked into the wall and shattered a glass fixture while advancing on them.
The incident was caught on video and captioned “just another day in NY” by a user on TikTok.
The incident occurred one day after Kempczinski issued a thinly veiled warning to Mayor Lori Lightfoot about rising crime rates and McDonald’s willingness to move their corporate headquarters out of Chicago if it continues to escalate.
In a Wednesday speech at the Economic Club of Chicago the conservative CEO warned that “the city is in crisis” and must “face facts” that companies headquartered in the liberal city were fleeing rapidly, according to Fox Business.
“The fact is that there are fewer large companies headquartered in Chicago this year than last year. There are fewer this month than last month,” he stated.
Kempczinski also noted that it’s “more difficult” to recruit top talent because they’re scared to travel through the city. “One of the things that I hear from our employees about maybe reluctance to come back to the office is, well, I’m not sure it’s safe to come downtown, not sure it’s safe to go ride the public transportation,” he explained.
He said that crime has had a “corrosive effect” on the city and its residents, and has made it “increasingly difficult” to operate their global brand there. He reported that he has been getting calls from mayors and governors trying to lure the corporation to their cities and states.
“Make no mistake, though, McDonald’s commitment to the city of Chicago isn’t corporate altruism,” Kempczinski warned. “It’s not open-ended. It’s not unconditional. As a publicly traded company. Our shareholders wouldn’t tolerate that. They wouldn’t support that.”