A federal judge attributed the conduct of the firefighters who booed New York Attorney General Letitia James at a promotion ceremony to “race,” not politics.
James was at that ceremony on March 7 to honor the Fire Department of New York’s first Black female chaplain, Rev. Pamela Holmes. As soon as she took the podium, several firefighters heckled her and chanted, “Trump! Trump! Trump!” during her remarks.
In light of that incident, the Vulcan Society of Black Firefighters president, Regina Wilson, openly vilified the fire department, stating the firefighters’ “vile” behavior at the ceremony represents a widespread agency culture.
“This behavior is who this department is,” Wilson said, according New York Daily News. “Not all of them, but a large portion of them. So when Black people go to work and have to deal with this and you don’t get any help or support really from the department, it’s horrific.”
She also criticized the growing backlog of equal opportunity complaints the department has yet to investigate or resolve.
Now, Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis has ordered the FDNY commissioner and the city’s top attorney to appear before him to supply some answers to why those complaints haven’t been addressed. City policy dictates EEO complaints be fully investigated within 90 days of submission.
Garaufis also commented on the firefighters’ conduct toward James at the ceremony, which took place shortly after she obtained from a judge a fine against Trump of $454 million for illegally inflating his assets on official financial documents.
“I’ve lived in New York City all my life. I know what the problem is. And believe me, front and center is what happened the other day,” Garaufis stated. “This doesn’t have to do with politics, this has to do with race.”
Some people went on the offense against Garaufis for his remarks.
“These heroes that run into burning buildings, and save lives, are being suppressed by a tyrant government in New York City,” Republican secretary of state candidate Valentina Gomez wrote on X. “When I’m Secretary of State in Missouri, I will happily higher these brave heroes. Freedom of speech will never be suppressed.”
“New York judge says FDNY booing of Letitia James, pro-Trump chants not about politics, ‘has to do with race. Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis sees the entire world through one and only one lens,” Legal analyst Phil Holloway also posted online.
In 2011, Garaufis found that firefighter exams intentionally discriminated against Black candidates. A federal appeals court overturned his finding but did implement the solutions he proposed to mitigate the discrimination.
“We put our lives on the line every day but we got to go to work about our fists balled or worried about who is the next person who is going to say something and then the (officers) don’t protect them?” Wilson remarked. “Why do we have to do this day after day, it’s horrific. I don’t know how else to say it. This is bad. It’s been bad for years.”
The city reached a $98 million settlement with the Vulcan Society in 2014 to resolve a discrimination lawsuit filed in 2007. That settlement was awarded to minority firefighters to pay them back pay and benefits.
The New York Daily News reported that Garaufis also ordered the city to assign lawyers from other city agencies to handle the fire department’s EEOC caseload.
“Get the EEO office straightened out. Take some of your brilliant lawyers from the Corporation Counsel and put them in there and start holding hearings,” Garaufis demanded. “That’s not a request, that’s a direction. You have 900 lawyers sitting doing other things in the Corporation Counsel’s office and lawyers all over the city government. Put them on detail, they already work for you, and do it.”
FDNY officials said their investigative attorney workforce was cut in half during the COVID-19 pandemic, but EEO cases have been re-assigned to other department bureaus and the Law Department.
“The FDNY takes every EEO complaint seriously, diligently investigates each complaint, and is committed to addressing the complaint backlog,” Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci said.
After the ceremony, FDNY spokesperson James Long said the department was actively working to identify the firefighters who booed James at the event for “grossly inappropriate” and “unacceptable” behavior. They encouraged anyone who engaged in the heckling to report to their superiors. Long recently said the top brass are “having ongoing conversations with our members about decorum during department events.”
