Roger Gaffney

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Roger Gaffney is a fictional police officer of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street. He was played by Walt MacPherson. Gaffney first appeared as a detective in the homicide unit, and had been transferred out of Homicide to Missing Persons for incompetence by then-lieutenant Megan Russert. Gaffney, a bigoted officer (he is heard referring to African American detective Frank Pembleton as "Boy" and "Sambo") was regarded as an incompetent bully and was mutually disliked by the Homicide unit's detectives. Despite his belligerence and ineptitude, he was eventually promoted to shift commander, and soon thereafter to Captain (both positions which, ironically, were once held by Detective Russert before her double-demotion). His promotion surprised the unit, and upon his appointment, he issued thunderous orders about how Homicide was going to be run by the book under his command, citing among other things various infractions of department rules that Homicide unit Lieutenant Al Giardello had chosen to overlook.

He was chosen for promotion to Captain over Lieutenant Giardello by Deputy Commissioner James C. Harris, for two reasons: Gaffney was loyal to the chain of command throughout the department and thus unwilling to pull renegade acts involving the media in the department's troubles, Harris chose Gaffney for retaliatory promotion because he was a "fat Irish ass" very similar to Giardello's first partner, a racist officer named Mickey Shea who had forced Gee to ride in the back of the patrol car. Gaffney fulfills his role as Deputy Harris' lapdog commander often showing little to no moral objection to interfere with the Homicide Unit's investigations on request of the department's upper commanders. This is best seen during the conflict with the African Revival Movement and former police officer Marvin Lee Robinson (Harris' former partner) whom Deputy Harris wants killed. Giardello, who is shown routinely leaking information against his superiors to the Baltimore media, learns about Harris' history from Robinson regarding stolen narcotics. The Lieutenant then sends a letter that leads to an investigation certain to end with Deputy Commissioner Harris's departure, causing Gaffney to lecture Giardello for effectively ending Harris's career and giving Giardello the last word on his nemesis. Gaffney held a cautious, even fearful view of Giardello following Harris' resignation, and would later attempt to bait Gee's son FBI agent Mike Giardello into turning against his father. Gaffney was later shown to be upset over his son's discovery of Homicide detective Tim Bayliss's website. Gaffney came to Giardello requesting that Bayliss shut down the website which promoted bisexuality and Buddhism amongst other things or be subject to disciplinary action. Gaffney appeared sporadically throughout the remainder of the series working under Colonel George Barnfather.

[edit] The Movie

After Gee was shot, Gaffney takes the side of a hotheaded younger detective over that of Pembleton and Bayliss when the long-inactive and retired detectives, respectively, stop the younger detective from abusing a witness during a pointless interrogation. Gaffney outright says that he can do what he wants because power is arbitrary. Pembleton and Bayliss later ignore Gaffney. The new unit Lieutenant Stuart Gharty who worked alongside Pembleton, dislikes him but respects his work. Since Gharty also despises Gaffney he looks the other way as Pembleton and Bayliss work around him and solve the shooting (eventually murder) of Gee.