Heat’s on us, but not him?!
Axed FDNY ‘bigots’ rip double standard
FDNY firefighters who were fired for allegedly racist behavior blasted the city for its “double standard” in hiring the ex-fire commissioner’s son following his bigoted outbursts.
Former FDNY firefighter Thomas Buttaro offended a black colleague by wearing T-shirts showing his opposition to minority hiring quotas.
Ex-firefighters Jonathan Walters and Robert Steiner wore blackface on a Queens Labor Day float in 1998, and disgusted the city by mimicking the killing of James Byrd Jr., a black man dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas.
All were axed and fought in court, in vain, to keep their FDNY jobs.
None got a do-over like Joseph Cassano, the son of former Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who posted racist and anti-Semitic rants on Twitter. Mayor de Blasio defended Cassano’s hiring as a firefighter this month, saying he believes in “redemption.”
“What I did was not as offensive as using racial slurs,” Buttaro, 47, said.
Buttaro, a 17-year FDNY veteran, was fired in 2015 for wearing T-shirts to and from work with slogans by Merit Matters, a firefighter group opposed to special treatment in hiring.
Buttaro was terminated by FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro, who has now granted the son of his predecessor a coveted firefighter post. Nigro and Sal Cassano both joined the FDNY in 1969, and Cassano has called his successor “a good friend.”
“Cronyism and nepotism are alive and well in the FDNY,” Buttaro said, calling the two commissioners “buddies.”
Famed criminal-defense lawyer Marvyn Kornberg called Joseph Cassano’s resurrection “a double standard” and “inconsistent.”
Kornberg represented one of the firefighters who wore blackface on a repugnant “Black to the Future” float in Queens. Despite apologizing — as Cassano did — the two firefighters and an NYPD cop who took part in the ugly skit were terminated.
A judge later overturned the firing, but the city appealed and won.
“They’re both equally reprehensible,” Kornberg said of his client’s conduct and Cassano’s. “The city took a stand against it in one case, and are consenting in the other,” he said. “Fire everybody for doing the same thing, or if you keep one, keep them all.”
Cassano resigned his EMT job in 2013 after The Post exposed his barrage of tweets. He referred to blacks as “schwoogs,” posted “I like jews about as much as hitler,” and mocked poor people.
But the city rehired him as an EMT in 2015. Last December, he took the city’s “promotion to firefighter” exam. He’s set to be sworn in Monday.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, City Councilmen Andy King and Mark Levine, and Brooklyn state Assemblyman Walter Mosley have all voiced opposition to the move.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long said the department has given second chances to “many members who would have been terminated by a different administration.” They include ex-felons hired as firefighters, The Post has reported.