Judge Demands Answers on Fire Dept. Concealing Racist Actions

The Federal Judge overseeing the implementation of a 2014 race-discrimination settlement with a fraternal organization for black Fire Department employees used an Oct. 8 hearing to blast the city for not immediately informing him about racist behavior by nine firefighters and the penalties that were imposed by the department.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis told Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro and City Corporation Counsel Georgia Pestana, whom he had summoned, that he was “deeply troubled” that he belatedly learned about the discipline cases from an Oct. 1 New York Times story that reported firefighters “were subject to pervasive harassment motivated by race and gender.”