Homelessness and lack of affordable housing have become real problems in the United States. In fact, last December, The Guardian reported: “America’s homeless population has risen this year for the first time since the Great Recession, propelled by the housing crisis afflicting the west coast.”
Because of the skyrocketing costs of homes combined with nationally stagnant wages, many people find themselves living on the street— and with street life, unfortunately, comes a stigma.
This past May, a police officer from Horry County, South Carolina, made national news for the way he handled a complaint about a homeless man.
Officer CJ Mullinax had been on patrol when he got a call about a homeless man “asking for scraps” at the local Hardee’s restaurant. According to Fox News, employees at the store had been feeding the man for days. But staff member Victoria Summer believes a disgruntled customer made the 911 call.
When Officer Mullinax got to the restaurant and heard the man was hungry, he handled things in a surprising way.
Instead of kicking the homeless man out of the store, he bought him two cheeseburgers instead.
When Victoria Summer saw the officer’s kindness, she decided to record what was going on.
“I was thrilled that the officer had so much compassion so I thought a should take a video,” she later told WMBF. Afterward, she uploaded the video to Facebook, where it immediately went viral.
“Police were called to our restaurant today because a homeless man was asking people for their scraps to eat,” she wrote.
“This police officer bought the homeless man food and handled the situation amazingly!”
When people saw Victoria’s video, they were thrilled by Officer Mullinax’s kind response. Locals commented on the post, drowning the officer in praise.
“CJ is a cool guy. I went to school with him. Horry County got a good cop on their police force.”
“Great job officer Amen. God is good! God Bless this officer and Lord please watch over these man that needs some help and kindness dear lord! (sic)”
“He’s a good officer… always has been.”
Another commenter revealed Mullinax had also gone viral a few years ago when he was captured playing football with local kids.
According to Fox News, a Myrtle Beach resident identified the homeless man in the video as a veteran named Donald: “He served in the Army from 1978-1981 then got out, worked construction and then hit a wall which brought to a point in his life that walked him down the road to homelessness… His family doesn’t talk to him and he’s the nicest guy.”
With the stories we hear on the news every day, cops can get a bad rap. It’s refreshing to see an officer who knows what it means to “serve and protect”.
See the heartwarming video below!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
