When I read about this yesterday, it was deja vu all over again. From Turley and Mike at C&F, the “funny” story of Major Garvin, a Daytona Police Lieutenant. From the Orlando Local 6 News,
An internal police investigation found that Daytona Lt. Major Garvin received free coffee for about two years from a city Starbucks coffee store.
However, when recently denied free coffee from new management, Garvin allegedly told managers that he could change the police department’s response time if they refuse to give him complimentary drinks.
Garvin is accused of saying, “If something happens, either we can respond really fast or we could respond really slow. I’ve been coming here for years and I’ve been getting whatever I want. I’m the difference between you getting a two-minute response time, if you needed a little help, or a 15 minutes response time.”
While this may sound like a funny story, prompting a pun from a commenter at Turley’s that was so cute that he changed the title of his post to include it (“Don’t Tazerberry Me, Bro”), I’m having a hard time finding a chuckle in all this.
Does anybody remember Serpico? Does anybody remember the Knapp Commission? New York City cops had developed a culture of extortion and shakedowns, walking from store to store to take whatever “freebie” the owner was giving that day to make sure that bad things didn’t happen to him. It was the mob with shields, and it was so much a part of cop culture that Frank Serpico’s life was worthless when he decided to reveal it.
Since then, there has been one rule of thumb that is no longer in question in the NYPD. You don’t take a freebie. Not a free cup of joe. Not a free hot dog. Nothing. This of course doesn’t apply to large sums of cash or narcotics, which falls under a different set of rules altogether.
It’s certainly a sign of the times that Lt. Garvin’s beverage of choice was the mocha frappucino, which he scarfed up around 6 time a day. There’s always something funny about Starbucks beverages, because they have those crazy names and seem so effete. But there’s nothing funny about street cops returning to the ways of commonplace, low-level extortion.
And while one might contend that the fact that Garvin was caught shows that the culture of the old days is gone, bear in mind that he got away with it for 2 years before anyone found out, and the only reason this came to light is because a new manager refused to go along with the grande extortion. Had the new management been sufficiently intimidated by Lt. Garvin, it would have never come to light.
Things tend to go around in circles, with old ways finding new audiences. This is one blast from the past that I hope to never hear about again. I just don’t find anything humorous about it.
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Yup, to all of that.
It’s pretty cheap “protection”, even without the scare quotes, for a coffee shop owner to comp the cops. After all, if your clientele isn’t largely criminal, having squads parked outside is going to deter at least some ne’er-do-wells.
Win-win . . . except, of course, that it’s corrupt, and inevitably is going to lead to worse corruption.
I’ve always been of the view that one of the things that should distinguish police from criminals is the absence of corruption. Their whining aside, they have a pretty good job and should be happy to do it without need for comps.
I don’t believe that it would “lead” to worse corruption. I think this incident is indicative that the worse corruption is already in place. Habitually accepting a free cup of joe is one thing (the Starbucks in question says they give free regular coffee to police) and bad enough by itself for many reasons. Insisting on nonpayment for a product and threatening reduced police service is another. It sounds worthy of at least an investigation into the extortion aspect.
If former (news reports indicate he has now been fired) Lt. Gavin was daring enough to demand free beverages and threaten police retribution if he did not freely receive the drink, he already had a deep seated characteristic of abusing his police authority. There is no doubt in my mind that his character flaw was evident elsewhere in his law enforcement career and that others would have been aware of it.
The Chief claimed to have passed over other officers for promotion, in favor of promoting Major Garvin. The Chief is either completely out of touch with his agency and the character of his officers or a proponent of the good-old-boy system, or both. In my view, the only reason Major Garvin was fired was because of the publicity. Had this remained in house, Garvin would still be a police Lt. maybe with only a slap on the pinky.
I think you’re absolutely right, and very well said. Thanks.
This is an example of the value of an activist press to alerting us to abuses of government authority.
Gavin’s attitude, like entitlement-minded ADAs, goes right to the top. I think. It is a culture, which the chief abetted, wittingly or not. The buck stops with him.
cops,coffee and … power corrupts? Lt. Garvin(does he have a first name?)fired from his cushy job for strong arming starbucks. How could Chitwood not know?Daytona’s has a long proud and very profitable corrupt past,from McCoy,s rum running to moonshiners racing on the beach.Even the current mayor elected out side of the sunshine laws. Good old boys rule.
The Return of the Freebie at Starbucks
Is it Starbucks?
The Return of the Freebie at Starbucks
Is it Starbucks?
The Return of the Freebie at Starbucks
Is it Starbucks?
The Return of the Freebie at Starbucks
Is it Starbucks?