The American Spectator

This should be a huge scandal. Even a decade past 9/11, few groups in the country enjoy the respect that the Fire Department of New York does. See what the Obama DoJ is doing to the FDNY, even AFTER Ricci v. DeStefano should have put this sort of thing off-limits. Heavily edited, this still gives the flavor of it:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s obsession with racial grievance-mongering could get Americans burnt to a crisp in their own homes. That’s because his Justice Department is trying to force the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) to hire flunkies who got 70 percent wrong on a basic, fire-related multiple-choice, open-book test. The exam was used to screen applicants to the fire academy. More than 90 percent of black and Hispanic test-takers passed, which isn’t enough for liberals addicted to affirmative action…. On Feb. 28, Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, submitted a proposed order for damages for rejected applicants who scored 25 or higher on the 85-question exams. New York’s taxpayers would be forced to pay compensation to the flunkies to make up for years of seniority supposedly lost when the city chose not to hire them. Minority rejects also would receive seniority over firemen who had been working all the while.

Here’s a good quote that sums it up nicely: “[This order] would serve well as comic relief if the stakes weren’t so high, and is a good example to support the contention that the Plaintiffs are apparently not concerned with the safety of NYC residents, visitors or firefighters,” wrote deputy fire chief Paul Mannix, president of Merit Matters, an advocacy group opposed to weakening entrance exams.

The earlier news on this was almost as disturbing:

The lead Justice Department attorney in the FDNY case is Loretta King, who ordered the dismissal of most voter-intimidation charges against Black Panthers in Philadelphia and who is hip-deep in other race-based legal controversies. On Sept. 30, she wrote a memo to Judge Garaufis pitching four proposals to require “representative” or “proportional” quotas. Ms. King glosses over the professional challenges of firefighting to focus on whether minorities feel “stigmatized” or if black firefighters could further their “sense of fairness in their place of employment” if surrounded by more workers of their own race. Firemen should be hired for ability, not racial bean-counting. The judge’s fiat, wrote Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather MacDonald in the City Journal, “was not just groundless, it was recklessly inflammatory.” The heroic FDNY doesn’t deserve to have its operations so inflamed.

Fire departments are there for our safety. A job at a fire department is a responsibility for brave and noble people, not a right for slackers. This abomination by the DoJ and Judge Garaufis must be stopped.