FDNY Investigating Staffers Who Booed AG Letitia James at Event Last Week
“I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the commissioner it will be better for them if they come forward and we don’t have to hunt them down”
Lat week when Letitia James spoke at an event for the FDNY, a chorus of boos erupted followed by chants of ‘Trump!’ from the crowd. James seemed surprised by the reaction.
In her own mind, she probably thinks she’s a hero for her efforts to ‘get’ Trump.
FOX News reported at the time:
NY AG Letitia James booed at FDNY ceremony with chants of ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’
New York Attorney General Letitia James was booed at a firefighters’ ceremony on Thursday, drowned out by a crowd who shouted, “Trump! Trump! Trump!”
The booing erupted as James walked up to the podium to honor the swearing-in of the first African-American woman chaplain of the FDNY, the Rev. Pamela Holmes, as well as other first responders.
“Oh, c’mon, we’re in a house of God. Simmer down,” James told the rowdy crowd. “Thank you for getting it out of your system.”
James pressed away with her remarks, paying homage to first responders, but some in the crowd continued booing.
The crowd began to repeatedly chant “Trump!” Later in her speech, James said she prayed even for those firefighters in the audience booing her.
See the video below:
Now the staffers who booed are reportedly being investigated. No dissent of the left is allowed, apparently.
The New York Post reported:
FDNY boss hunts down staffers who booed NY AG Letitia James, cheered for Trump at promotion ceremony
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh is hunting down smoke-eaters and other staffers who mercilessly booed New York Attorney General Letitia James – and cheered in support of Donald Trump – during a department promotion ceremony this week, The Post has learned.
FDNY Chief of Department John Hodges fired off an email to other agency honchos warning a reckoning led by the department’s Bureau of Investigation and Trials was coming over the chorus of boos and chants of “Trump” that James received at Thursday’s event.
“BITS is investigating this, so they will figure out who the members are,” Hodges wrote FDNY chiefs Saturday in the letter obtained by The Post.
“I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the commissioner it will be better for them if they come forward and we don’t have to hunt them down,” he continued.
“The [deputy chiefs] shall direct the captain of the company to make a list of those who come forward and send it directly to [FDNY operations]. I realize members might not come forward but they should know that there is clear video of the entire incident and they will be contacted by BITS if they don’t,” he wrote.
This is outrageous.
The FDNY firefighters who booed NY AG Letitia James will be punished and face reeducation.
FDNY firefighters are now being asked to turn themselves in or risk being hunted down.
Memos and emails from the Uniformed Fire Officers Association (UFOA) & Uniformed Firefighters… pic.twitter.com/pBq8DccGf8
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 9, 2024
The Marxist Democrats in NYC are going to punish and "re-educate" the brave patriots at the FDNY for daring to express their free speech rights for booing the psyho-AG there.https://t.co/lOFmnk2y0h
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) March 10, 2024
The firefighters that booed Leticia James are being hunted down to be re-educated. You’ll see them move to Florida, Tennessee and Texas. Communism is destroying NYC.
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) March 9, 2024
The NYPD has been treated like garbage for years, and now the FDNY is facing this.
What is wrong with New York City?
Featured image via YouTube.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
For exercising free speech? It seems it would be easier to find the one person not booing.
Firemen are normally a conservative group. No surprises here…
Why does it seem like many of these hard leftist prosecutorial hacks are overweight black women….with mouths as big as their hind ends?
It would serve the city right if all the fire fighters quit and allowed the e-bike fires that are a daily happening now, to burn the place to the ground.
Political obedience is required in NY now. Stray from Dem orthodoxy and their brown shirts will hunt you down. A morale killer. Soon firemen will be joining police leaving the force.
NYC is in a death spiral.
They are not alone.
HEIL HITLER!
VIVA CASTRO!
~MAO~
Let the f’in city burn to the ground. It needs a total flush anyway.
I am sure that fires don’t give a damn about political parties.
The democrats/communists live in the rat burrows that exist in our large cities. If they fall to pieces like this maybe that would be a good thing for the rest of us. Cities are like parasites, they don’t provide much of any of their needs themselves. They rely on the rest of us to provide that. Communism in eastern Europe was defeated in the late 1980’s by general strikes. No workers/truckers….no food for the cities. Canadian truckers had the right idea but should not have blocked the roads giving the commies the power to arrest them. If they had just stayed home and not hauled anything to the cities those places would have been paralyzed in a week or less. The garbage would be incredible. We have a way to deal with them if we ever decide to use it.
American truckers tactics of not delivering to specific places appears to be a winner, maybe Canadians can do the same?
Wrong think is not tolerated.
I can’t believe this is happening in my country. what’s next. Is she going to throw them off the roof?
It is. All democracies decay over time from corruption and sometimes just suicide as more people grab for more power and control all in the name of preserving ‘democracy’.
Only the whites.
Yeah, try to be more racist.
Another racist commentator.
What would they do if all the firefighters quit en masse?
If the union was worth a squat that’s exactly what they would do.
“Keep up the witch hunt and abuses of our member’s civil rights and we walk”.
It’s the only clout they specifically control and they should use it.
It’s far more likely that the union will join in the witch hunts and abuse.. Most unions have been run by “woke” leftists for over 20 years, ignoring what the working members want. Unions for government jobs are worse – they succeed by politics, and leftist politics works best because unions are favored by Democrats and disliked by Republicans.
They’d probably institute a new policy. With a shortage of firefighters, we will give priority to burning buildings owned by people of color.
Alternatively, they could prioritize buildings of color.
They don’t have to do that. All they have to do is not go to the “re-education” classes and let the city do what it c chooses to do. If they run out of firefighters, it’s on the city, not on the guys who got tagged.
It takes a fairly brave guy to run into a burning building. Think they’re not brave enough to tell the fire chief to go fuck himself?
Gonna be interesting to see how this plays out and what the reaction from not just FDNY but NYPD and others. Intentionally attacking and PO the folks who save your ass from burning to death seems like a bad choice to me. Theses are skilled workers with very in demand training who can easily find new employment elsewhere in an environment that respects them. Florida comes to mind.
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh’s leadership style would fit in well in North Korea. Truly enlightened.
She intends to maintain her position and access to power.
She black?
Nope.
A quota appointment nonetheless.
She acts like her intellectual capacity might be the same,
No, but stupid.
Since she never has been a firefighter but instead has been a political hack and bureaucrat her entire ‘career’ she is the perfect FDNY commissar…oops, I meant commissioner.
Left-wing freedom.
Several questions:
1) Were the members of the FDNY required to be at this event? And to be in uniform?
2) Did non-FDNY people at the event boo and or chant?
3) James says in her remarks that they are there to “honor the first black woman named as chaplain.” That seems to be a statement based on “identity politics” but somehow the event was “non-political” in the eyes of leadership? If the event is not “political,” then why have a speaker making political statements?
4) In 2015, members of the NYPD turned their backs on then Mayor Bill de Blasio at funeral. The NYPD leadership said the actions were not appropriate, but did not hunt down cops who turned their back. If the FDNY members had stood up and turned their backs on James, would they be hunted down?
The actions of the booing / chanting FDNY members seems to be a “heckler’s veto” or at least very close to it. Heckler’s veto’s are generally not considered protected speech as it deprives the speaker of their right of free speech. It is a troubling trend today that people shout down those with whom they disagree.
That being said, the extent of the “hunt” and “re-education” is wrong.
If you think what occurred represents a hecklers veto… well you you need to watch some videos of conservatives trying to speak and the bullhorns, speakers and horn blasters used to override their speaking. What happen to James was Downton Abbey polite in comparison.
Sorry, I don’t play the “they do it too!” or “whaddabout……” game.
That’s something that I gave up as an excuse in second grade.
In essence, you seem to be saying that bad behavior is excusable when some people do it, but not when others do it.
Yah well my point was … and apparently flew right over your pointy head…there was NO hecklers veto… she kept speaking and didn’t really even have to raise her voice.. Boy you must be fun at parties…do always think you are so superior to others?… clue.. you’re not
Then you’re a retard
Was this an afternoon tea party? Did those nasty firefighters use the wrong forks? My, my. I’m shocked, just shocked.
If it wasn’t a political event why was the AG, who has nothing to do with the FD, standing at the podium and speaking?
Because she’s a public official, that’s why. She was there representing the state, not the Democrat Party or herself.
That doesn’t make it better.
Or, rather, that wouldn’t make it better. She sure as shinola was representing both the party and herself.
No, she wasn’t. That’s simply a fact. She was there in her capacity as a public official and nothing more.
Pretty rare for an AG to represent a government,unless the government is a totally political swamp.
Repeating it doesn’t make it so.
It’s not rare at all. The AG is an elected state official, so she gets invited to such events. It could just as easily have been the Lt Governor, a congressman, or any similar public person.
What a lucky coincidence that this public official happened to be woman, and a black one at that. Seems a good tie-in with a ceremony to honor the first blacfk woman chaplain to the NYFD.
Heckling at political speeches is generally protected speech. The “heckler’s veto” is not. The difference is whether the heckling is so loud and prolonged as to silence the speaker.
This was not a political speech, but nevertheless, had they not been on the job and in uniform they would have been protected. But when you’re on the job and in uniform, at an official event, you have no freedom of speech. You’re not there representing yourself, you’re representing the department, and you’re no different from an elementary or high school teacher in the classroom.
After I watched white shirt management level employees, including police lieutenants, captains, etc., in full uniform take a knee to BLM and antifa riders in 2020, I no longer care to hear this explanation. They weren’t disciplined, but these guys will be. In labor law that’s called the disparate treatment, and it rescinds your discipline. The firefighters Union likely cannot strike without losing bargaining rights, but every other officer can publicly come out and boo her, which would then force the management to discipline everyone or let it slide.
Donnie, the people you describe did not violate department policy. These people did. Government entities are not required to be value neutral. Government entities, just like anyone else, are entitled to have opinions, and to require their employees, when speaking for them, to support those opinions.
You tell us, Democrat.
Make us understand why the left is always right!
And once again you are a liar, in the service of your king, the Prince of Lies.
Of course the people I described violated policy, they just weren’t punished for it. You can’t create a policy that says we at the department endorse this political idealogy and not the other one. The BLM movement was specifically about the defunding the police due to their alleged bad behavior, and the police supervisors, Lts, Corporal, etc were publicly supporting it, in uniform. Tell me, if that same management went out and bad mouthed the department generally, would they be subject to discipline? Of course they would. So in that situation, would you punish the officer that opposed BLM, opposed the defunding of his own department? Do you see how back ass wards that rational is?
That was non-political the same way last week’s state of the union was non-political.
Tell me, in what way was it political? She hadn’t even started speaking, hadn’t even made it to the stage, when they started booing.
James is a controversial political figure persecuting innocents on behalf of the illegal administraion in the White House.
But you knew that, Democrat, that’s why you’re here defending the Maoist tactics of your masters.
Nope. You made the claim. You make your case that it was non-political. Gonna have to do better than side-issues: “She hadn’t even started speaking…” & etc.
So, only the words of the speaker at the podium can be political? CongressCritters dressing funny to make a point at SOTU’s would beg to differ. As would The Supremes, from time to time.
Maybe torch a few less straw men — er, persons. I am told that global warming is a thing.
She wasn’t wearing any kind of costume either. You are reduced to claiming that her mere presence was political! Which means that any public official, making any kind of appearance at any event, is inherently political. Which is obviously false.
And no, she is not a controversial figure. Maybe she should be, but she isn’t. That you and your small cohort don’t like her doesn’t make her controversial.
If Trump had been invited, would you have been OK with him being booed, by public employees on duty and in uniform, merely for showing his face?!
Milhouse: “she is not a controversial figure”
She twisted the law to persecute an opponent of her political cohorts. She so enraged those from outside of her little in-group that many truckers now refuse to deliver anything, even food, to NY. She so worried the actually politically neutral to mildly left management of many corporations that they are looking to remove their business to other states. But _you_ say she’s non-political. Your saying that doesn’t make it true. It either makes you a lying propagandist, or so biased that you cannot see the truth right in front of your eyes.
“If Trump had been invited, would you have been OK with him being booed, by public employees on duty and in uniform, merely for showing his face?!”
They were chanting ‘Trump’, Democrat. He would not have been booed.
But, your kind has booed at, screamed at and heckled Trump before, all without anyone seeking out and trying to re-educate the offensive leftists in question.
I’ve got a better question for you, could the firefighters have reported to the ceremony and simply stood silent? She ascends the stage gives her speech and no one says a damn word. Nobody applauds and nobody boos. Do you think they wouldn’t be pursuing discipline in that situation? Of course they would. She was there for the applause and she didn’t get it. And if the officers can applaud, and not face discipline, then why can’t they boo? They may hate her personally which has nothing to do with her office or her politics.
The Democrat, Milhouse, tells you why it’s wrong for people to publicly disagree and heckle Democrats
Obey!
The filthy slanderer Azathoth once again shows his true colors and those of his Master.
Milhouse, you told everyone you were a registered Democrat.
I have quoted such a few times before.
I will not go seeking through old posts again just to respond to your Democrat lies.
Democrats lie, we all know this. Ever and always, it is their breath. They lie to spread the wishes of their masters, as you do continuously, forever coming here to tell us that what the leftists or Democrats did was actually legal and right.
Now, come, hurl invective. Lie to us some more, Democrat.
Your mask is gone, you will not vex us any longer.
Where are the union bosses hiding? They need to step up and protect their union members. But, nah. Useless as the hind teat on a transbull.
Every single NY fireman needs to step forward and admit they booed. Unity.
I am Spartacus. Love it!!!
Or they could just take off for a week of contemplation and let the Commissioner figure out how to put out real fires instead of chasing political retribution.
“Where are the union bosses hiding?”
Co-opted. See also Lifestyles of UAW Officials, while their membership ends up unemployed.
Large, unionized private organizations devolve into Kabuki of company-side and worker-side “leadership” pretending to contest until they make a “deal” that leaves them all slopping more from the trough. Public sector “unions” get to skip the Kabuki.
What law(s) did they break?
They hurt the feelings of a quota appointment.
No laws, which is why they are not under investigation by law enforcement. But they certainly violated departmental regulations.
Yes, hunt down the dissidents! Call 1-800-DEM-NKVD with any tips that you may have regarding these traitors to the Motherland, comrades.
Another woman in charge …. when there is no rational justification to have women fireighters, as they do nothing but endanger everyone around them.
This is insane … but now we can see part of why it is happening.
Laura Kavanaugh should be airdropped onto 5 terrorist supporters in Gaza as “aid”.
This CRUNT has never been a fire fighter, has no idea about the effort to train to be a firefighter.
She’s a political witch.
Stay in your lane stupid and let the professionals handle the fires.
Au contrare, Pierre.
My elder sis (an RN) was both a volunteer ambulance and volunteer firefighter for her small upstate NY community (Cleveland NY). She went thru both the regular firefighter training and the certification. This definitely involved tasks such as firefighting your way up a multistory (concrete) burn building and shoulder carrying a 22o pound “victim” out of danger, She was the First Lady in the area to be a regular firefighter and not just an “auxiliary member” of the firefighter corps.
Now granted the average female is less upper-body strong than the average male, and her then husband (also a volunteer FF) could carry more than she could. But she was not the weakest active member at her station, and if she meets the same criteria as other male members, WTF should she not be allowed to serve?
If you’re curious, yes, there was some macho push back at the time, including from some female auxiliaries worried about their hubbies being faithful, but she was a take-no-crap kind of person – and there’s never too many FF responders rather than too few, so she served for years,
Outside of the rush from saving lives and property, she also enjoyed the PR role, her station would send her and a male FF together to the schools to teach fire safety to the kiddoes,
Now, affirmative action recruits is another matter entirely, in the army my BT company was one of the first mixed-gender training companies, and not only did the female of the species have lower physical requirements, but the DS’s were ordered to pass female recruits who didn’t even meet those lower standards to meet quota.
Yes, by all means. broadcast to the whole world that LI commentators think that women should not be firefighters. If you want to wallow in the filth of your misogyny, go for it. But don’t pollute your misogyny here on LI.
Dude, do you never get tired of your ideological preening? And, frankly, and as everyone knows, you have zero say over who comments here or is welcome here, so just stop with the crazy.
Your “I’m triggered by everything” crap is tired. It’s old. No one here (including me) cares what triggers you; frankly, we are astounded that you are so easily triggered and whine so much. Stop being a sad beta whiner, please.
JR is nearly Biden’s age, and frequently forgets his medication. At times, his handlers allow him to walk about the rehab unit, and somehow he gets to a computer to spew his “racism” and “misogyny” screeds, followed by demanding that we all stop coming to LI.
What a dick!
I have known a few women had size and strength to be able to do the job, but the vast majority do not.
Beg to differ. My firefighter captain sister-in-law saved people around her. And the company that taunted her colleagues when she finished training and was assigned to her first station, were crying a month later when the man they were assigned turned out to be a lazy slacker.
And I’d still trust her to haul my ass out of a burning building.
I wonder if she is also praying for Donald Trump.
Hope this backfires on them.
I’m not advocating shooting anyone (AG Flynn can arrange that lawfully in Jan)
But the purpose of the 2nd amendment was so tyrants will think twice
I’m not a person of fighting years and I haven’t plotted anything with anyone, however more and more all of the humans in my orbit say “I wouldn’t start it, but once it begins I’m all in”
So the question is: Can the republic be restored from the treasonous traitors and the cabal outside civil war?
No! I think we have gone too far for this to be settled peacefully. How the democrats/communists have take up the justice system as a political weapon for their side to use, cannot be reconciled in any kind of meaningful peaceful way. They do not understand “detante” only the use of raw naked power and that is the only thing that I think can stop them. Time will tell.
They’re there under color of being members of FDNY so have public restrictions on them as to behavior that can be enforced.
The out is that if they’re going to force this stupid woman on them then all bets are off.
Which stupid woman? It seems that everyone in leadership involved in this affair is a stupid woman in a position she doesn’t belong in – the commissioner, the Ag, and the new chaplain.
Identity politics. I have a vagina so therefore I am WOMAN hear me roar.
The only thing missing is a woman with a cock.
LOL! Good one!
“The out is that if they’re going to force this stupid woman on them then all bets are off.”
Yeah, this-ish. The rank and file having their behavior constrained because they are representing the department in a department function requires a department function-only event.
— A preening, partisan apparatchik as the “speaker” makes it political.
— “Celebrating” a policy approach claimed by a particular party makes it political.
— The speech she made, and the way she made it makes it political.
It’s the same shtick as Marine security at the White House, positioned as props in the Riefenstahl-inspired speech where Dark Brandon threatened half the country.
How do you even know what was in her speech, or how she gave it? Did you watch it? Read a transcript? Or what?
In any event, the people booing her had not heard her speech and had no idea whether she was going to be political.
Squirrel!
Ah, so you concede each of my points. Good form, old chap.
I see a bad case of the “Blue Flu” coming in the next few days.
Marxists H8 opponents, lucky they are not killing them, yet
NY becomes an even more dangerous place for the individual.
Everyone that booed her can expect $355M “fraud” judgements in their future.
“The booing erupted as James walked up to the podium to honor the swearing-in of the first African-American woman chaplain of the FDNY”
“Black fatigue” meets “Democrat ‘first pride’ fatigue.”
It’s like, left half of the plutonium grapefruit meets right half.
The ONLY people allowed to have pride in their ancestry are People of Color.”
Apparently, White people have no ancestral culture, according to liberals, and therefore are forbidden to have pride in their white washed, supremacist background.
Oh, and White Lives Matter.
FugOff BLM.
That is not true at all. White people are equally allowed and encouraged to have pride in whatever their ancestry happens to be. But there is no such thing as a “White” nation, identity, or culture, any more than there is an “African” one.
There is a “Black” identity and culture, but that means Black Americans only. In that sense Africans are not “Black”. In my opinion that culture is nothing to be proud of, but obviously some people think it is.
when are they going to rename NYC to “Illegal Craphole City”?
They weren’t even booing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kpb8eu1pEY
I watched the entire video and the conclusion I draw is that the event was “mostly peaceful.”.
You realize there are 20 k of illegals ready to replace them.
Someone gonna need to train them first though. Unless you are proposing that NYPD fire everyone tomorrow and replace them with untrained illegal immigrants.
Suppose it were Trump, during his presidency, giving a speech at an official event like this, and government employees, on duty and in uniform, were to have booed him. Perhaps the official reaction might have been less strict than this, and if so that would have been wrong. But what I’m absolutely certain of is that almost every one of the LI commenters yammering now about freedom of speech would instead have been howling for their blood.
If your view of right and wrong depends on whose ox is gored, then you’re automatically wrong and evil, no matter what. Even when you happen to be right about something you’re still wrong, because it’s just a coincidence.
As I commented above, I no longer accept this rationale. After watching management level employees in full uniform I might add, take a knee during the BLM rioting in 2020, this rationale no longer holds any weight. Try it with someone else.
As I commented above, they were agreeing with department policy and acting with its permission. Government departments are entitled to have opinions.
So you can applaud a political figure, but not boo them?
Maybe torch a smaller straw man. They say global warming is a thing.
Now, I know you Democrats like echo chambers, but there can’t be an echo chamber deep enough to ignore all the heckling and screaming you guys did during Trump’s speeches and rallies and official actions –hell, you crowed about them.
I know your sense of right and wrong depends on what your masters tell you to think, but even you can’t pretend that the things you leftists were bragging about didn’t happen now.
Shut up, you filthy liar. You are just like the Hamas supporters, accusing the Jews of everything that they actually do.
Milhouse, there are things you don’t say –even in a heated argument.
I have never done ANYTHING like a Hamas supporter. It is a disgusting comparison –particularly when applied to one who has ripped apart anyone who has shown the slightest support for those animals.
YOU said you were a registered Democrat. You claimed that you did this because you live in a very blue area.
And I have taken you, and Fuzzy, who made a similar admission, to task for it since.
With that comparison, Milhouse, nobody else will read anything else you put in this argument. Godwin called. You have *lost*.
So, booing has long been part of political speech. Even if James had not begun to speak, booing is free speech.
The argument that government entities should remain neutral is correct. However, members of that entity retain the right to free speech.
For the FDNY to instigate a search for those that boo is less than bright. FDNY’s leadership has no other pressing problems, such as budget and manning issues.
As for James, stating that it would be better for those that boo to come forward so that we don’t have to hunt you down would be shocking. It’s not. Rather than protect speech, she and the commissioner are offended. Only in communist countries and dictatorships are you hunted down for offending the political elite.
No, you have it backwards. When you are speaking for your employer you do not have any freedom of speech, even if your employer is the government. Government entities are not required to remain neutral. They have the same freedom as anyone else to have their own opinions, and to require their employees, when speaking for them, to reflect those opinions.
Had these firemen been in the fire house, having a conversation and expressing their own opinions, even while on the job, they would have had the freedom of expression, and could not have been disciplined for expressing uncomplimentary opinions about public figures. The Supreme Court ruled that in such a context, even an employee who expresses a wish that the president be assassinated cannot be disciplined for it. But not when facing the public as a representative of the department.
“punish and ‘re-educate’ the brave patriots at the FDNY for daring to express their free speech rights for booing the psyho-AG…”
What?!
They only call in their enforcers when you step on their flex,
The considered and rational response by the FDNY Commissioner would have been a strongly worded notice of official disappointment at the behavior of the “few”, along with a reminder of FDNY policies when fire fighters are in uniform. End of story.
Hunting down the miscreants simply highlights how political the hierarchy of the department is today. And badly managed, I might add. This is a huge misstep. It is no business of the Department’s what their employees’ politics might be. They should be focused on recruiting from wherever they can. Or the day will come when one of those empty business office towers will catch fire, and there will be no one available to put out the fire. They should ask the US military how it goes when they discourage their traditional recruiting pool.