NY’S DEPRAVEST
Ex-commish son back after ouster for racist tweets
A former fire commissioner’s son who resigned his EMS job in disgrace over his racist and antiSemitic rants on Twitter has been hired as a city firefighter.
Joseph Cassano, 28, quit his former FDNY job as an emergency medical technician in March 2013 after The Post exposed his barrage of hateful tweets against blacks, Jews and the poor people he was summoned to serve.
“MLK could go kick rocks for all I care, but thanks for the time and a half today,” Cassano remarked on his social-media account regarding the Martin Luther King holiday.
He referred to blacks by the derogatory term “shwoogs,” and tweeted, “I like jews about as much as hitler.”
Yet, Cassano’s name is front and center on the list of new probationary firefighter recruits who will begin training this month at the Fire Academy on Randall’s Island.
“He’ll be sworn in Dec. 11,” confirmed an FDNY source.
Cassano’s dad, former FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, refused to come to the door of his Staten Island home Saturday.
“He has no comment,” said a woman who answered the door before slamming it shut.
The Post exposed the younger Cassano’s bigoted posts in 2013, prompting his resignation as an EMT, a job that he once called “the worst.”
He wrote of the patients: “Getting sick of picking up all these obama lovers and taking them to the hospital because their medicare pays for an ambulance and not a cab.”
Amid a furor over the vile tweets, his dad — who presided over both firefighters and EMTs — let him resign instead of firing him. Critics blasted the move as a violation of protocol and a double standard. It also paved the way for Joseph’s rehiring as an EMT in July 2015.
He was last posted on Staten Island, where he resides.
Last December, he took the city’s “promotion to firefighter” exam for EMTs and paramedics. All those who pass get first crack at coveted firefighter positions before any outsiders who take the “open-competitive” exam.
Cassano and other sons of FDNY brass often join EMS as a shortcut to becoming a firefighter and to sidestep court-ordered minorityhiring rules.
Cassano tweeted about his eagerness to make the switch.
“I hate ems,” he wrote before his resignation. “Everybody wanna be a firefighter, but don’t nobody wanna be a damn EMT.”
Even after getting a second chance, Cassano didn’t stay out of trouble. He and partner Michael Gala, the son of the FDNY’s thenpersonnel chief, were briefly restricted from duty after leaving an injured black child at a scene with his parents and instead trans- ported an injured adult to the hospital before another ambulance arrived.
An FDNY spokesman said, “EMT Cassano has passed all requirements for promotion to firefighter and is scheduled to enter the upcoming probationary-firefighter class.”
Some see Cassano’s rehiring and promotion to firefighter as “a nice favor” for his dad.
His salary will be upped from the EMT average of $38,614 per year to firefighter pay that starts at $45,196 a year and jumps to more than $100,000 within five years.
Current Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, who was appointed by Mayor de Blasio, “is the worst offender of all for taking him back,” a retired paramedic said.
“All that bulls--t about diversity and inclusion, and what happened to the ‘good moral character’ the FDNY says it requires?”
When he resigned, Cassano sued this statement:
“From the bottom of my heart, I’m truly sorry and I apologize for my offensive remarks. My intention was never to hurt anyone, or any group, and these tasteless comments do not reflect the person my parents raised me to be. I know my actions have hurt and disappointed many people, especially my family. I would like to move forward.” is-