This week a video showing a Denver food inspector pouring bleach on a vendor’s table of food went viral, which elicited angry responses towards the city and inspector. People called for the inspector to be fired, charged and arrested.
It turns out the vendor, according to the city, has repeatedly skirted rules that require food to be stored at safe temperatures. The city provided photos of meat stored at 54 degrees. The vendor, according to the city, also hasn’t obtained the proper license to sell food in Denver and has had repeated encounters with inspectors.
When city inspectors encounter food stored in unsafe ways, they will sometimes either seize the food or destroy it so the food won’t be resold.
“If we can’t take it away to destroy it, then we have to destroy it on site. And unfortunately, that looked like using bleach, which, I know in the video, looks extreme, but the situation in which the food is being held is also pretty extreme,” Emily Williams with the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment told me over the phone this week.
Understandably, when this video went viral, those who watched it immediately sided with the vendor-the David in this Goliath incident-without knowing the backstory. It is human nature to side with the underdog.
Here was a taco stand employee just trying to make a living while the city villains come in and destroy their livelihood for what appears to be for spite, revenge and control.
Adding to the emotional soup of this viral video is the fact food prices remain high. We are just emerging from the news cycle in which SNAP benefits were impacted by the government shutdown.
People are angry.
That bottle of bleach might as well have been gasoline poured on flames.
On the day the video began to circulate, I made my own brief video that relayed the city’s rationale for destroying food with bleach. My intent wasn’t to defend the city, but to rather share more information from the agency that employed the inspector.
I was accused of covering for a racist and even a doctor characterized my video as “hear-say.”
This viral video became like a runaway train with passengers on board who believed the video already contained enough information to justify the arrest of the inspector. Few wanted to hear more context or perspective.
Even as I write this, there are AI voiced videos that are clearly misleading people by claiming the city inspector is going to be charged and arrested. These videos have thousands of likes as people in the comments call for justice.
As I read the comments below these videos, it often feels, as a local journalist, that I’m merely watering the ocean when I make attempts to add more context and information.
The truth doesn’t move at the speed of a viral video and by the time the truth does come out, people have moved on to the next thing or they don’t want to hear it.
Maybe some people prefer the truth to be bleached itself.
JEREMY JOJOLA 