Millville Graft

One of the memories I have from when I was a boy was my mother providing a glass of lemonade to the postman. It was a hot day in the summer and the man, whom my mother knew, was drenched. He came in for a couple minutes, enjoyed the cool drink, and went on his way.

This courtesy is something that happens a lot. I ran a couple restaurants when I was younger. Beverages and desserts, if not complete dinners, were often provided free of charge to some. The auto mechanics who would pick the locks for the customers who locked their keys in the car would drink for free that night. A policeman who stopped in would get a couple desserts to take along for the ride. The judges always ate for free.

Businesses make these decisions out of self-interest. When it comes to public employees, they are supposed to be polite and refuse the gesture. Being human, few do.

I am okay with that. What I am not okay with is for a public employee to ask for the courtesy. At that point, it is no longer a courtesy.

This morning (a little after 11:00 a.m.) I stopped off at the local Wawa (convenience store; think 7-11, only much better). We tend to do our banking out of these stores as there are no charges and our one-branch bank is far away. I withdrew the money, picked up a soda, and stood in line. In front of me was a police officer. He had two packages of toasted ravioli and two sodas. The cashier rang up the purchase and announced $6.something. The officer fiddled with his bills. He had a five and some singles. Then he leaned in and said something. I caught the gist of it.

The cashier turned to another and asked if Millville police officers get free sodas. Indeed they do. She took off the sodas and the guy (Millville cruiser plate: MG56061) paid for the raviolis and left.

There I stood, a public employee in my own right, holding a soda. I was neither offered it for free nor did I have the audacity to ask for it.

The result may be the same as the examples I spoke of above, but the means were completely different. While Wawa will not protest giving this guy his sodas for free, I will. How dare he ask! Shame on you! Seriously.

You do not ask for something for free, in public, in front of taxpayers.

I am livid right now. Slough it off as $3 all you want, I call it for what it is: corruption.

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