Daytona Lt. Major Garvin appears not concerned about the stereotype of cops and donut shops. When a Starbucks cut off free coffee, Garvin allegedly threatened the manager that he might also cut off prompt service. He is now under internal investigation after flunking a polygraph examination.
According to store employees, Garvin responded to the request for payment by 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.”
Nice. At least, he didn’t threaten to change the Tazoberry into the Tazerberry.
For the full story, click here.
UPDATE: Garvin is now out of a job, click here. I expect it would have been cheaper to just pay for the java –even at Starbucks prices.
Don’t tazerberry me dude!
I meant bro!
Jill: You have outdone yourself. I will now change the headline accordingly.
Why do so many stories come from Florida?
marie:
“Why do so many stories come from Florida?”
*****************
‘Cause it’s south of Virginia. It’s like a “sliding scale” of stupidity–sliding south.
The only thing shocking about this story is that anyones shocked by it.
This is routine for most police forces around the nation, and isn’t likely to change anytime soon.
Note this was no “beat cop”. This guy was a Lieutenant. If that was “his” modus operandi, then imagine what the men and women under him are doing in a given day.
Bartlebee:
Make that Lt. Major.
Oh.
Thought that was his first name, lol.
Lt Major, ay? Sounds like he’d be in charge of lots of people then.
Lots of people, who most likely do what he does.
In some ways, stories like this one and another recent story do a lot to explain why we get so little traction in protecting civil liberties. I’m thinking of the comment that reporter Linda Trest made when talking about the story she broke on “Sgt. Bill”, the phony DEA agent, when she reported that “people weren’t sure whether you still needed search warrants. You know, they said, “we know they can now tap our phones. Maybe they don’t need search warrants anymore either.” People were confused. Because he said he was a federal agent, they thought maybe he was allowed to play under different rules.”
If we as a culture think that Jack Bauer’s world is ours, that it is OK for the police to extort Starbucks, that Sgt. Bill probably doesn’t need a warrant any more, then we are well down the road to the rule of men, not the rule of laws.
These little stories should be making us as nervous and as determined to fix the Republic as the big profile things. All of a sudden John Yoo looks like he’s talking sense. That’s a scary thought.
Jim,
That’s an interesting observation. I suppose we don’t know our “rights” anymore. Thanks for pointing this out.
Jill
Paying for protection? Extortion.
The mindset of many in government today has more similarity to organized crime than to quaint notions of serving the public trust.