Another Black Eye for FDNY

The arrest of Firefighter Sean Murray for the brutal beating of Police Officer Ahmad Kessba shows that the Fire Department must reconsider its policy regarding employees with prior criminal convictions.

Before joining the department, Mr. Murray had been arrested twice, for disorderly conduct and drunken driving. These were written off as youthful indiscretions.

It is one thing to take a chance on hiring someone with that kind of background. It is another to give him a clean slate and place him on the same level as those who have never been in trouble with the law.

After he joined the FDNY, Mr. Murray was arrested for reckless speeding while driving in Virginia. He informed the department about the incident, and no disciplinary action was taken.

It is just that sort of laxity that will give someone a sense of entitlement and invulnerability. Firefighter Murray's account of last week's incident - that it was simply a street fight rather than a case of him savagely attacking a cop who was escorting home his former girlfriend after he had been ejected from a bar for harassing her - is unlikely to convince any jury, and he is probably headed for a long and deserved stretch behind bars.

But his case should make clear to the FDNY that those whom it hires despite past criminal convictions should be kept on a short leash, and subject to meaningful discipline, if not firing, the first time they get into trouble with the law.