Free Speech in FDNY

To the Editor:

My last letter had impeccable timing because as I stated and Firefighter John Coombs, President of the FDNY Vulcan Society, confirmed in his Feb. 15 letter, if you are a white male and have an opinion, other than that of the Vulcan Society, you are a racist and a bigot.

Now let's dissect his rambling letter. He starts with a history lesson about racism in the early 1900s. Well, there was racism in the early 1900s. Get over it. We are now in the early 2000s. Women who passed the written exam in the late 1970s were not met with stiff resistance. It was the women who failed the highly-competitive physical and were appointed anyway who were met with stiff resistance.

Firefighter Coombs then spoke about past Vulcan Society presidents who are well-respected and a perfect example of how men should behave. "They set a standard that would make us proud." Well, now we finally agree on something. They certainly did. They had a desire to become firefighters and fire officers and they succeeded. No special preferences, no test for dummies, no quota. Just hard work. Amen.

Then John tells us about how the Vulcans hired some one knowledgeable of testing strategies, which are used in fire departments throughout the country. Wow. And you expect me to believe that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services couldn't pass these same strategies down to the FDNY recruitment unit that was assisting all candidates? Or was DCAS clueless about the testing strategies that the Vulcans' consultant was well-versed in? It's amazing that only the Vulcan Society had the wisdom to hire someone who nailed the testing format on the head.

He further reminds us, as I stated in my previous letter, that racism is alive and well in the FDNY. Let's call it the "racism card." Then, hypocrisy rears its ugly head. He has the audacity to state, "Those who speak half-truths and lies only do it because they are afraid. They are afraid to openly compete." Are you kidding me? Let's listen to the Vulcan cry: We don't do well on standardized tests. We don't do well on competitive physicals. We are going to the Justice Department to file a lawsuit. Who's afraid to openly compete? Not I.

But the most disconcerting part of his drivel is something I haven't heard from the Vulcans before. Firefighter Coombs wants the FDNY top brass to make a public statement denouncing the remarks of firefighters, other than those of the Vulcans, of course, which appear in The Chief, as ridiculous. Well, here's a news flash, John Coombs. We have a right to send our letters and opinions to The Chief. Do you know why? It's called the First Amendment. Now you wouldn't want the department to get involved in First Amendment issues, would you?

Firefighter Coombs then uses the same terror tactics that Battalion Chief Delbert Coward accused Chief Paul Mannix of. He says, "Simply stated, the disproportionate distribution of city employment is not acceptable and has to change if the city's administrators are concerned about the city's future financial welfare." Translate that to, "The people of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem and the Lower East Side, where homes are selling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, will be running for the hills unless the FDNY diversifies." I think not.

And finally Firefighter Coombs has the gall to quote the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Let me quote Dr. King this time. "Let us not judge a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character." I hate to say it, but can the Vulcan Society please bring back Captain Paul Washington as its president? At least Paul was entertaining with his rhetoric. Firefighter Coombs is just plain boring.

MICHAEL F. GALA Jr., Battalion Chief, FDNY