The FDNY’s top chief explains how Director Laura Kavanaugh plans to “go after” the firefighters and other employees who brutally booed New York State Attorney General Letitia James at the department’s promotion ceremony. He is criticizing the Post’s report that exposed Taka.
In an email to battalion commanders on Tuesday, Chief John Hodges retracted a previous internal announcement and acknowledged that the use of the term “hunt” was a “poor choice of words.”
“This was not meant to be taken literally and was never said by anyone on the executive staff,” he wrote. “Specifically, there has been no investigation into member booing, and no investigation is currently underway.”
In a March 9 email from Hodges to FDNY deputy directors, the agency’s Bureau of Investigation and Trials (BITS) was asked to identify which staffers booed James and chanted “Trump!” He warned that an investigation would be carried out. —When James took the stage two days earlier at a promotion ceremony held at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn.
“The commissioner told me it would be better for them if they came forward and we didn’t have to go after them,” Hodges wrote, as audience members hissed at James. It warned me that the footage was on BITS.
“They will be coming to our headquarters to educate them on why their behavior is unacceptable,” the email said.
Elected officials, union leaders, and civil rights lawyers quickly dismissed the directive as typical of communist China, arguing that it was unconstitutional and violated free speech laws.
Pam Bondi, a former special adviser to former President Donald Trump, sent a letter to Kavanaugh on Tuesday demanding that he end the “political witch hunt.”
Trump-aligned think tank America First Policy Institute, where he now heads the litigation center, will provide legal aid to FDNY employees “adversely affected by your misconduct.” “I’m ready,” she warned.
Hodges insisted in an email Tuesday that the booing was not an issue.
Instead, there were “allegations of other department code violations” at the ceremony that needed to be resolved, Hodges wrote, but was not specific.
“We are reviewing these charges and discussing appropriate actions with our members,” Hodges added. “[The event] We were at a church we visited as guests. We want to remind our members that their actions matter, both in and out of uniform. ”
On Friday, the FDNY did not explain the “other violations” and “charges.”
The department also would not say how many, if any, of the firefighters and other employees who attended the ceremony came forward upon request or who received any discipline.
“FDNY leadership has ongoing conversations with our members about etiquette at department events to ensure that the core values that make FDNY the best fire department in the world are upheld,” the spokesperson said. said Amanda Farinacci. “It is an honor to be a New York City firefighter, and we continue to impress upon our members that their actions impact everyone who wears the uniform. .”
She added that “there has never been an investigation into member booing,” but did not explain the initial communications warning about just that.
City Councilwoman Joanne Arriola (R-Queens), who chairs the Fire and Emergency Management Committee, said she believed the FDNY “withdrew” its investigation because FDNY leaders were embarrassed by the protests. He said there was.
“Politicians are going to get booed. That’s part of the game,” she said. “The FDNY should not be in the business of protecting politicians from criticism, and such a statement should never have been made in the first place.”
