Cop Refused Service at Wendy's, Police Department @s the Company on Twitter

An emerging fast food trend to keep your eye on this year—other than Nutella burgers and Trump burgers—is the hard-working men and women of the fast food industry refusing to serve the hard-working men and women of law enforcement.

The Fort Worth Police Department took to Twitter this week to figure #whatsthebeef with Wendy's employees who refused to serve a police officer with a presumable hankering for spicy chicken sandwiches, chili cheese fries, and a milkshake. According to local media, staff turned their backs to a FWPD officer and walked to the back of the restaurant instead of taking his order.

@Wendys at Trail Lake and I20 would not serve one of our uniformed officers tonight? #whatsthebeef

— Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) January 6, 2017

Other than the surprisingly deft use of social media by a police department here, the situation isn't entirely shocking. This is hardly the first time a cop has been refused service in a major fast food chain. Similar incidents happened recently in a Florida Arby's and a North Texas Whataburger, forcing both chains to address and redress these PR nightmares by inviting police officers back and offering them burgers.

Wendy's social media team, who have been on one hell of a roll recently, followed suit here by responding with the following tweet.

@fortworthpd We are aware the incident and are abruptly handling the situation. Could you please DM us, so we can gather more info.

— Wendy's (@Wendys) January 6, 2017

Needless to say, taking this grievance to Twitter unleashed a string of political tweets, both for and against police.

Thomas Ragster stood in the cold yesterday afternoon to tell us how he feels:#thankyou #respect pic.twitter.com/Z7VTsKK5oH

— Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) January 5, 2017

Even "avid Trump supporters" got involved:

@Wendys @fortworthpd FWPD…. I will be happy to buy the officer and their family a real meal elsewhere.. may I send gift card? #BACKTHEBLUE

— Avid Trump Supporter (@GOTRUMPORGOHOME) January 6, 2017

And then, the obligatory pig/pork jokes:

@Wendys @fortworthpd they serve beef not pigs

— RB (@sel8nneteemu) January 6, 2017

With tensions between police and minority communities dangerously high in the wake of a number of high-profile civilian shootings and controversies, this is probably not the last we will hear of incidents like this.

MUNCHIES reached out to Wendy's for further comment on the issue and received the following response: "In response to the media inquiries in regards to the service of a police officer at Wendy's, please know this appears to be an unfortunate misunderstanding. In fact, this restaurant welcomes and offers free meals and discounts to all members of law enforcement in uniform in recognition of their service. We value and respect our local police officers and what they do to protect our community, we have been in touch with the police department and we hope to resolve this matter quickly."

Sure, it feels good to (attempt to) stick it to the Man sometimes, but if these fast food workers really wanted to feel empowered, they might want to fight for higher pay from the massive corporations they work for to make a few bucks before they get replaced by robots.