NEW YORK (AP) — A union representing New York City firefighters is raising concerns about possible disciplinary action against its members after state Attorney General Letitia James was booed and a pro-Donald Trump chant broke out during a fire department ceremony last week.

The Democrat, whose office won a $355 million penalty against the Republican former president for lying about his wealth last month, faced a chorus of jeers as she addressed a department promotions ceremony Thursday in Brooklyn.

  • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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    8 months ago

    a pro-Donald Trump chant broke out during a fire department ceremony last week

    Donald Trump was on TV bragging about “owning the tallest building in downtown Manhattan now” while 343 of your colleagues were lying dead under the rubble of the twin towers on the morning of 9/11. He does not give a single shit about any of you.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I doubt most of those ones chanting were even there or were more than children when this all happened. They never got to feel the pain, but they’ve enjoyed the hero worship that NY put on firefighters after 9/11.

        • SynAcker@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I don’t know… Most firefighters I’ve met were decent. And you don’t hear many songs titled “fuck the fire department”.

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            There’s no pattern of firefighters getting away with shooting anyone. Hell, even with the police having that pattern, it took a long-ass time for them to lose their “hero” status.

          • ArtieShaw@kbin.social
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            8 months ago

            Far as I know it’s just the one song by Vincent E.L. And it’s, uh, not serious. But kinda fun.

            Fuck the fire department
            Dropping by unannounced just to fry your apartment
            If they can’t find a fire they’re like “Why don’t we start them?”
            I’m tired of arson
            Fuck the fire department

            I cry out in bargaining, eyes to the garden
            Begging release from the fire department
            I might get a pardon if I do what they ask of me
            Act passively
            And don’t do anything drastically

            Clap at their pageantry, bow and scrape
            Say it’s sour grapes from people out of shape
            You’re here for our sake
            And we’re grateful for all you do
            You’re still gonna burn my house down, aren’t you?

            I’m out of house, home, and every single possession
            Out of the frying pan and into depression
            Escaped physical aggression
            Into fiscal oppression
            Still don’t know what they meant by
            “Let this be a lesson!”

            We’re living in an infernocracy
            Things are not how we
            Think they ought to be
            It’s a mockery but I ain’t laughing
            My world’s on fire and I’m dying gasping

    • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Trump was a Democrat back then, but his personality has never changed. As you said, he does not give a shit about anyone. Left or right politics, it’s just who he is.

      • Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Trump has never “been” anything. He appears as what he thinks benefits him the most. He wanted to rub elbows with the city’s elite, and that meant pretending to be a Democrat.

        ETA: I’m not saying that he’s always been a Republican either. His entire existence is a self-serving sham. He is and always has been a Trumper. Citation: His current hijacking of the RNC to pilfer their funds and line his own pockets.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      8 months ago

      I suppose it just goes to show you don’t really need to have a lot going on upstairs to be a firefighter. Anyone who still supports Trump at this point needs examining for lead poisoning

      The uninformed and stupid and then there’s mind numbingly idiotic

      • Ferrous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Insinuating that an individual’s turn to trumpism/fascism is due to lead or stupidity completely disregards the decades of regulatory capture, dismantling of social safety nets, financial strain, alienation, and liberal capitalism that ultimately promotes fascism.

        If you don’t abandon this mode of thinking quickly, you’re going to find yourself more and more confused as more people start turning fascist. The only explanation via your current framework is “well, I guess these millions of people must just be… dumb”. This is the danger of liberal thinking - it doesn’t address the cause of fascism or how to kill it. If your framework were correct, we’d see volumes of work that show how lower IQ directly correlates with fascistic tendencies: obviously we know that idea is not only ableist but also incorrect.

        The marxist critique actually takes into account the economic systems and structures that lead to fascism.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          We do see that. Education level is a good predictor of voting intention the higher the education level the greater the chance you are going to vote liberal. This isn’t just a thing in the United States this is the thing across the world.

          The right prey on fear of the different fear of something that you don’t understand and there’s a lot more you don’t understand if you’re not well educated.

          • Ferrous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 months ago

            No, we don’t see “that”. You won’t be able to find me any science that shows a direct correlation between intelligence and fascistic tendencies. I think you are blurring the line between intelligence and education. Think back to the german liberal universities that, once the nazis started infiltrating, folded faster than superman doing laundry.

            Strengthening education as a means to minimize fascism is not at all incompatible with the marxist viewpoint. It meshes extremely well, in fact.

        • It’s really hard to not think of people who consistently vote against their own best interests as not dumb. Democrats aren’t the pro-Union, pro-blue-collar champions they used to be, but they’re a damned sight better than the “trickle-down” Republicans. And Democrats have long foreseen the demise of the coal industry and other low-wage industries in the US, and while they haven’t consistently found good solutions to the issues, they’ve done more than ignore the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist.

          The Republican party have been lying rat-fucks since Reagan who dissemble and displaced the blame for blue-collar woes, which lets them come up with “solutions” that only line the pockets of special interests. And, again: yes, the Democratic party has had it’s share of weasels, failures, and terrible messaging, but comparing the two parties is like saying chocolate and shit are both brown and are therefore equivalent. And you do have to be a special kind of stupid to not see that.

          That said, your point about making that the message (“Trumpers are stoopid”) is on point; it does not help the left. But god damn it, it’s true and it’s also OK to recognize that.

          Edit: correcting autocorrect

    • gdog05@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Don’t fret. Fear not the terrorist firefighters. We have terrorists at every level and in every position of our social fabric. I’m sure that’s going to work out well for everyone.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      NY firefighters, like cops have been hailed as golden heroes since 9/11 and it really went to their head. Most of these guys weren’t even there, but they act like the city needs to suck their dick constantly.

      • PopcornTin@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Hopefully they will be arrested very soon. The whole institution is corrupt and needs to be defunded.

        • Unskilled5117@feddit.de
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          I don‘t think that article says what you think it says. First we need to accept your comparison and generalize the study to question wether law enforcement will treat you differently because of political views. And then it clearly states that the LOE treated the participants differently (negatively), because of the political views:

          „Nevertheless, he concluded that it is statistically unlikely that this number of previously ‘safe’ drivers could amass such a collection of tickets without assuming real bias by police against drivers with Black Panther bumper stickers.“

          Note that the “Nevertheless“ is in the context of the police only using the political bumper stickers as reason for citation only once. The rest of the citations were for other reasons. The participants had not been cited in all their driving in the year prior without the stickers. This leads to the mentioned statement by the author

  • Magnetron@lemmy.zip
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    8 months ago

    Disclaimer: I am not, nor will I ever be a T supporter. I’d rather not even spell the rest of the name.

    However, I have to agree with the union here. If these ceremonies tend to have a certain carnivalesque nature, can these firefighters be charged with more than bad taste?

    It’d be a different story if these people were standing and chanting on the ashes of somebody’s newly ex-residense.

      • IdiosyncraticIdiot@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Ah yes, “respect my authority and ignore the first amendment or I’ll ‘investigate’ you and put you in jail”… Where have I heard that before…?

      • Magnetron@lemmy.zip
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        8 months ago

        In a courtroom, sure. Anywhere else, she’s nothing more than a politician, and getting booed comes with the territory.

        • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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          In fact it is part of the very first amendment of the Constitution. The right to freedom of religion. The right to freedom of speech. The right to public assembly. The freedom of the press. The freedom to redress our grievances with our government.

          Personally I think it looks like a financial assassination attempt, and not a good precedent. I think it’s short-sighted and it’s going to come back around and bite some Democrats in the ass too.

      • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I disagree, I’m as left as they get but to have my job threatened because I nonviolently disapproved of someone is a terrible precedent to set. Would it really be okay for someone to dig up all the negative comments about supreme court justices on here and fire anyone who posted them?

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          They’re not in danger for expressing their opinion. They’re in trouble for being disruptive rabble rousers on the clock.

        • Wrench@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          You must be self employed if you think causing an aggressive, divisive, disturbance at a work event is acceptable behavior.

          We are again trying to accept less from our public servants than from any standard private job

      • StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Oh would you stop clutching your pearls? You mean to tell me that if Ken Paxton walked into the room you’d clap out of absolute deference?

    • Avanera@kbin.social
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      It’s not explicit from the article one way or the other, but the “investigation” seems to refer to officials from the fire department, which doesn’t imply that charges are being considered but instead that questions about policy adherence have been raised.

      It’s a poorly written article, with polarizing ambiguity.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      However, I have to agree with the union here. If these ceremonies tend to have a certain carnivalesque nature, can these firefighters be charged with more than bad taste?

      When I read the word “carnivalesque” I think “like a carnival.” Every carnival I’ve gone to has been about having good time. Never once have I been to a carnival and have it been about politically heckling people you don’t like.

      So I’m not sure how that’s really an excuse. But ultimately, this comes down to what their policy says. I suspect, because they’ve been making a stink about it, the policy does say that they can’t be overtly political while in uniform.