It appears that New York’s hard-left attorney general, Letitia James, isn’t very popular among New York City’s firefighters, a sentiment they expressed when they booed her at a fire department promotion ceremony last week.
But booing so august a personage as James just isn’t allowed.
So department chieftains sent out an email and a memo to warn that such impertinence is forbidden. And now the department’s gumshoes are on a manhunt to bring the perpetrators of the disrespect to justice.
The firefighters also chanted for Donald Trump, which might be their real crime.
Problem for the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY): Its Vigilance Committee is unconstitutional, leftist legal scholar Alan Dershowitz averred.
“Trump, Trump, Trump!”
Things got hot for the firemen at Thursday’s event at the city’s Christian Cultural Center. As the New York Post put it, the crowd “mercilessly booed” and “erupted in jeers” when James took the stage.
Why James was speaking at a firefighters event is a question for another day. She appeared to take the insult in stride, but even after she acknowledged it, the crowd didn’t stop.
“Oh, come on. We’re in a house of God. First, simmer down…. Thank you for getting it out of your system.”
As James continued her speech, the booing swiftly turned to chants in support of former President Donald Trump.
“Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!” the crowd bellowed.
Not surprisingly, in its account, New York magazine scratched its chronic itch to bash Trump:
James is a frequent target of Trump’s ire on social media, where he has consistently hurled a variety of insults at the state’s first Black woman attorney general, including calling her “racist,” “corrupt,” and “Peekaboo,” which some say is an allusion to an anti-Black slur.
Officialdom: We’re Going To Find You
Afterward, FDNY chief John Hodges, who reports to a petticoat boss called Laura Kavanaugh, emailed subordinates to say the department’s Soviet-sounding Bureau of Investigations and Trials (BITS) would round up the suspects, the Post reported.
“BITS is investigating this, so they will figure out who the members are,” Hodges wrote. “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.”
Investigators are watching video to identify the perpetrators of the evil deed, Hodges warned:
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.
A memorandum the Post obtained reinforced Hodges’ ominous threat. It said to keep your political opinions to yourself:
When you’re not on duty, feel however you want about politicians. Vote. Protest. That’s your right. But don’t do it on the job’s time, on other members’ time, or on their families’ time. Do it on your own time.
And the memo “reinforced that the department’s Bureau of Investigations and Trials was going after the offenders, the Post reported:
Firefighters “should understand that BITS is gathering video and identifying members that brought discredit … to the department,” the Sunday memo said. “We want the members to come forward. They will come to HQ to be educated [on] why their behavior is unacceptable.”
Not So Fast
A retiree said that most attendees weren’t in uniform, the Post reported. “It was a political stunt for the city to have the AG there,” he told the Post. “When it backfired, they sent their fascist pit bulls after guys for exercising their First Amendment rights. Most were off-duty and not in FDNY uniform.”
The Uniformed Firefighters Association backed the jeering James opponents as well.
Though he agreed that the ceremony was not the place for politics, “we will strongly defend any of our members who face discipline,” union president Andrew Ansbro told the Post.
GOP Councilwoman Inna Vernikov backed the firefighters. “As someone hailing from the Former Soviet Union this is incredibly freighting [sic],” she wrote on X:
Since when are we “hunting down” & investigating firefighters for expressing their political disappointment of an attorney general while mostly off duty and out of uniform?
Genuine question for @FDNY and Comish. Laura Kavanaugh: If they cheered for Ms. James would they then be hunted down & investigated? I guarantee the answer is no. Which makes you all political hacks and hypocrites.
@FDNY tell us which policy the firefighters violated? If anything, this cheap play is a gross violation of their First Amendment. The city cannot shut you up, so stand up and lawyer up! This is not the United States of Soviet Republic!
Councilwoman Joann Ariola, chairman of the Fire and Emergency Management Committee, said likewise. “First Amendment rights aren’t only for some,” she wrote on X:
As we watch thousands of protesters across our city shouting vile and violent rhetoric on a daily basis, our First Responders should not be held accountable for exercising their First Amendment rights.
“NYC firefighters and officers have the right to speak their minds,” Councilman David Carr wrote. “@FDNY needs to end this ‘investigation.’ This is also a good opportunity for @NewYorkStateAG to showcase her 1st Amendment credentials by asking FDNY to stop this now.”
Dershowitz said department bigwigs can’t silence or hunt down anyone. “Firefighters have an absolute constitutional right to boo the attorney general, and the government has no power to punish them for it,” he told the newspaper. “So efforts to get the names of the booers is an effort by the government to chill free speech and is unconstitutional.”
