The incident in Victoria Street shared widely on social media

IT probably made little dent in the sales of Big Macs this week but McDonald’s has apologised and says it is “saddened” by a video shared on social media which showed a security guard at its Victoria branch soaking a sleeping bag used by a man experiencing homelessness.

There had been widespread horror at the footage taken by a passer-by in Victoria Street in the early hours of Saturday and a guard – employed through a third party – has been sacked.

None of these consequences would have happened, however, if the man with the phone had not got his device out.

It is through social media that incidents like this blow up and there are demands for action, but there is also a risk in thinking that they are terrible one-offs.

First of all walk through central London in the early hours and you might think the rows of people sleeping in shop doorways should be a national story every day; that even without a McDonald’s security guard losing his mind this should be written about, documented and discussed.

In reality we have a system in place which sort of accepts that some people are going to be on the streets in London tonight.

This is more or less confirmed by the fact our city has a cold weather protocol which cranks into place and tries to get everybody inside when the temperature drops by a certain number of degrees.

That’s a life-saving and ultimately well-meaning policy, but the flipside of the equation is the acceptance that people stay outside if it’s cold but not too cold.

It is only when a mean response to this homelessness crisis is recorded and shared, do people start talking about it and this outrage is realised.

Secondly, the social media flare-ups make it easy for people to think there are one or two bad guys out there who are willing to soak a sleeping bag or throw a tent in the bin, rather than seeing that these aren’t small isolated incidents. It’s happening every day, there just isn’t somebody with a phone camera every time.

In reality local authorities and governments are making similar decisions every day, unseen, creating a hostile environment for rough sleepers by designing benches that can’t be slept on, doorways with spikes, and telling the world that they are only out there as a “lifestyle choice”.

Aaron McCarthy – the man who was the victim of the McDonald’s soaking – has since spoken to national newspapers.

The Mail’s story ‘Heartbreaking past of homeless man’ is a painful read in which we learn he was “born a heroin addict” who has been on the streets since he was eight.

His story of being repeatedly let down should have been a national scandal before his sleeping bag was drenched.

There are thousands of similar life stories out there.

But when the brief anger dies down, more Big Macs will be sold in Victoria Street and Aaron will no doubt be alone on the pavement again.