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#BLM shirt worn at FDNY firehouse raises ‘double standard’ complaint

#BLM shirt worn at FDNY firehouse raises ‘double standard’ complaint

September 12, 2020 | 4:48pm

The FDNY’s racial divide has come full circle.

Firefighters at the majority-black Engine 234/Ladder 123 in Crown Heights are sporting T-shirts with an FDNY logo marked with a black power fist symbol. It bears the words: “Black Lives Matter.”

And using a phrase often associated with 9/11, the shirt says “Never Forget” at the top of the symbol, and “400 Years of Slavery” beneath it.

It’s the same engine company where white Firefighter Thomas Buttaro was fired in 2015 for wearing a T-shirt marked “Merit Matters,” a group opposed to FDNY racial hiring quotas.

When a black firefighter complained about him, Buttaro wore the shirt only to and from work, off-duty. But that led to charges of insubordination and “creating a hostile environment.”

Buttaro, who is still fighting his termination in court, said a photo of the new T-shirt circulating on social media shows a black firefighter wearing it in the Engine 234 kitchen.

“This is a slap in the face,” Buttaro told The Post.

“My off-duty dress to and from work was regulated. The photo of the BLM shirt was taken while the wearer was on duty,” he charged. “I find it a divisive shirt to be worn in the firehouse.”

Apparently in response to the photo, FDNY Chief of Operations Thomas Richardson sent out a department-wide memo on Sept. 4 reminding members about the dress code, which states that “at no time may a T-shirt be worn” in lieu of department-issued work shirts.

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Engine 234-Ladder 123-Battalion 38 in 1352 Saint Johns Place, Brooklyn, New York.

J.C. Rice

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The memo did not specifically mention the Engine 234 T-shirt.

Engine 234/Ladder 123 is led by Capt. Paul Washington, a leader in the Vulcan Society, a fraternal group of black firefighters.

Some rank-and-file firefighters are outraged by what they see as leniency toward the group.

“The double standard is clear. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing,” a veteran FDNY member said.

The FDNY, which is under court order to hire more black and Hispanic firefighters, shut down the Merit Matters group in 2015.  Its founder, deputy Chief Paul Mannix, was forced to drop his blog, which argued that firefighter candidates should be held to the same standards, regardless of race or gender.

“Once again, the FDNY’s Equal Employment Opportunity office proves itself to be a farce and a joke,” said lawyer Keith Sullivan, who is not involved in the Buttaro case. “These double standards create divisiveness.”

Sullivan represents Lt. Dan McWilliams — one of three firefighters in the iconic 9/11 Ground Zero flag photo — in a state Human Rights Division complaint. McWilliams was kicked off a color guard ceremony in 2017 because Regina Wilson, then president of the Vulcan Society, wanted an all-black procession. Cecilia Loving, FDNY’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, defended that decision.

The FDNY would not comment on the new Engine 234 t-shirt.

“All members are instructed to follow uniform regulations and wear approved work duty attire while on duty,” a spokesman said.

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