New York Attorney General Letitia James tried to deliver a DEI victory speech at a swearing in ceremony for The Rev. Pamela Holmes, a black, female chaplain: the first in department history.
And the crowd just wasn't feeling it. At first, the firefighters booed her, and then they chanted "Trump" during her speech.
That's so beautiful. We Need to see it from another angle.
According to an email reviewed by the New York Post from FDNY Chief of Department John Hodges to the firehouses, FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh had begun a hunt for those responsible.
"BITS is investigating this, so they will figure out who the members are," Hodges wrote FDNY chiefs Saturday in the letter obtained by The Post.
"I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the commissioner it will be better for them if they come forward and we don't have to hunt them down," he continued.
"The [deputy chiefs] shall direct the captain of the company to make a list of those who come forward and send it directly to [FDNY operations]. I realize members might not come forward but they should know that there is clear video of the entire incident and they will be contacted by BITS if they don't," he wrote.
"We want the members to come forward. They will come to headquarters to be educated why their behavior is unacceptable."
The commissioner, who was a community organizer but has never been a firefighter, also made an official apology for the firefighters who chanted "Trump."
"We have decades of training and discipline that none of us want to see tarnished by the unprofessional behavior of a few," Kavanaugh said
Famed constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz immediately flagged the threat:
"Firefighters have an absolute constitutional right to boo the attorney general, and the government has no power to punish them for it," Dershowitz told The Post. "So efforts to get the names of the booers is an effort by the government to chill free speech and is unconstitutional."
Recent reports seem to indicate that that the FDNY has reversed course and backed off the investigations.
However, the reports are mixed with some obvious gaslighting from the top, as they now say there was never an investigation in the first place.
"At no point has there been an investigation into members booing," an FDNY spokesperson told Fox News Wednesday, appearing to contradict reports of an internal email from brass that generated half a week of bad press for the department.
Which could mean there's still an investigation for all we know.
But as always in these confusing times, at least we have The Babylon Bee to point and laugh at the absurdity for us.
Thanks for being there for us, Bee.
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