Longtime St. Petersburg official Goliath Davis told the media in St. Pete Friday afternoon that Mayor Bill Foster fired him earlier this week because David had failed to appear at the recent funerals of three St. Pete police officers who were killed in the line of action over the past month.
But Davis seemed to infer during the presser that it was as much his attending the funeral of Hydra Lacy Jr., the man who killed officers Thomas Baitinger and Jeffrey Yaslowitz, that doomed him, adding that vitriolic criticism from shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge added to the toxicity that led to his firing.
Davis, who seemingly has always had the term "controversial" placed before his name in newspaper stories, said the reason that he did not appear at the police funerals was that they would have been too emotionally painful for him.
Davis said he was told on Wednesday that he would be fired, which was his 60th birthday.
His termination marks the end of a tumultuous career with the city that began in 1973, and included a four-year stint as police chief from 1997-2001. Since then he had served as liaison for Midtown economic development, overseeing the city's and community's efforts to revitalize central and south St. Petersburg.
In the press conference, which was filled with reporters as well as many supporters from the St. Pete African-American community, Davis said the reason he didn't attend the police funerals was that it brought back the memories of the last officer killed before the recent shootings, back in 1980. He mentioned losing his best friend in Vietnam as well as family members he has lost. Saying he doesn't take his private life into the public spectrum, Davis added, "I've had to live with a series of deaths that have taken a toll on me."
Davis said that unlike many other St. Pete officers, he's torn between two communities because "those of us in uniform who cross Central Avenue daily, we don't return back to the south side as tourists. We live here," a comment that elicited cheers from the audience. He also received cheers when he questioned why of all cabinet members in the Foster administration, he was singled out for his failure to attend the police funerals.
Later Davis ripped into the media, saying, "In my years of service, I've been subjected to more bad publicity, more printed lies in the media," adding that he never complained but always stood firm.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.