Blaz – Bigot FDNY kid can atone, return

A FORMER city fire commissioner’s son becoming a firefighter — despite posting racist and anti-Semitic tweets — is a tale of redemption, Mayor de Blasio said Monday.

Joe Cassano, the son of retired Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, will be joining the FDNY Academy on Dec. 11.

He quit the department’s Emergency Medical Service in 2013, after he posted a string of hateful comments against Jews and other minorities on his personal Twitter account during his first year on the job.

“The original comments are unacceptable. The only way someone can continue in our employment if they think that way is, they’ve got to really reevaluate their thinking and what it means to be in public service in the most diverse city in the country,” de Blasio said.

Joe Cassano (photo) — who had written he likes “Jews about as much Hitler,” that Martin Luther King Jr. could “kick rocks” and that he was tired of bringing “Obama lovers” to the hospital — was allowed to reapply to the EMT Academy after he sought counseling from Rabbi Steven Burg, then a director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and toured the Museum of Tolerance in Midtown.

“My understanding is that he has performed appropriately” since then, de Blasio said.

“I also am someone who believes in redemption,” the mayor added. “If someone does something wrong and they fix it and they don’t reoccur, they still should have a right to pursue their career.”

That said, if the departmental heir’s tolerance training doesn’t stick, he’ll quickly find himself on thin ice.

“If there’s any further incident, it will be dealt with very harshly,” de Blasio said.