Members of the University of Connecticut community have begun a couple of fundraisers hoping to offset the negative image generated by a video of a student berating food service workers who refused to sell him jalapeño-bacon macaroni and cheese.
Advertisement
‘I want to start by apologizing to all the staff involved in my incident, especially the manager, ‘ Gatti says in the beginning of the video.
Following the October 4 incident, Gatti is set to be arraigned on charges of second-degree breach of peace and criminal trespass on Tuesday according to the Hartford Courant.
Gatti allegedly entered the dining hall with an open container of alcohol, according to the cafeteria manager in the video. A 9-minute, obscenity-laced video clip went viral, showing Gatti arguing with and eventually shoving a manager at a food court inside the school’s student union. His mac-and-cheese meltdown was captured on video and has been widely viewed online.
Gatti said the incident was a “serious wake-up call”.
“He’s a kid that made a bad mistake a college jerky mistake”, Vincent Gatti said. This isn’t what I’m all about.
He ends the video by saying for those who wish to send him mac and cheese donations, “Please just send it to your local food pantry”.
Following a long argument, a declaration of his rights as an American citizen, a few uncomfortable close-talking and repeated shoving of the manager, Gatti was taken to the floor by food court employees and held until he was arrested by a police officer. “There’s a lot of hungry people out there”.
The video was subsequently devoured by the Internet, which reacted with predictable outrage and humor.
“Can I have beer here? Is this America?” Gatti said, hands cupped over his mouth and a lanyard trailing out of the pocket of his sweatpants. He had already left University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass., when he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in 2014 after refusing to leave a party and yelling “f– you” and the N-word at a white detective, the Only in the Republic of Amherst blog reported.
“Generally speaking, any UConn student found to have violated the provisions of the Student Code may face penalties imposed by the Division of Student Affairs that range from probation to expulsion”, a spokesperson said in a statement.
In just three days, Rumsey and her friends exceeded their goal of $1,000 and are now inching towards $2,000.
Advertisement
This was not Gatti’s first brush with the law.
