Last fall, America thrilled to the exploits of University of Connecticut student Luke Gatti. All he wanted was some late-night jalapeno bacon mac & cheese, but then this happened:
After this video went viral and Mr. Gatti became synonymous with “rectal aperture,” he made a public apology:
It sounded good to me at the time: “The kid seems genuinely contrite. He was young, drunk, and full of himself, and he realizes he was wrong. Let he who is without sin cast the first elbow macaroni.”
A lot of people were willing to give this kid a second chance. And what has he done with it?
Luke Gatti, the 20-year-old who was ordered into substance abuse treatment program after he shoved a UConn cafeteria over Jalapeño-bacon mac and cheese last fall, was arrested after he fought with officers at a rehab facility in Florida.
A report from the Boca Raton Police Department says that officers were trying to take Gatti into custody for his own safety after he fled the Wellness Resource Center shoeless hours after arriving…
A clerk in the Palm Beach clerk and comptroller’s office confirmed that Gatti, of Bayville, New York, was arraigned on a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer. His case is scheduled for disposition on July 27.
This is disappointing, but I can’t judge this kid too harshly. There but for the nonexistence of the modern Internet go I. Back in my college days, I never behaved quite this badly. (And we had yet to discover the delights of macaroni, cheese, jalapenos, and bacon.) But if we’d had cameraphones and social media way back then, there’d be some pretty embarrassing footage following me around to this day. It definitely would’ve affected my job prospects. Why, I’d probably only be able to get a gig blogging on some teabagger website. My life could’ve been ruined!
I hope Gatti can get his act together. Unless he’s a really good actor, he seems like a good kid when he isn’t blind drunk. He’s still got time to turn his life around. But if not, at least he can serve as an example to the college kids of tomorrow: Don’t be like this guy. Always assume somebody’s recording.