NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Nine firefighters have been suspended without pay over racist messages they sent over the police killing of George Floyd.
The firefighters sent racist memes and messages in a thread mocking Floyd’s death, joking about how cops can “legally shoot Black children” and whether firehoses would work on protesters: “wild animals like water,” the New York Times first reported.
The suspensions ranged from a few days to six months and amount to the largest punitive action in the FDNY’s history. Suspended workers include those that sent the messages and others who oversaw the workers, according to the FDNY.
The agency began investigating the thread of messages after a few black firefighters learned of the messages and reported them.
“When these memes were reported we investigated in and the suspension were the result,” FDNY spokesman Jim Long told the New York Post.
Unlike other more quickly diversifying blue-collar agencies, the FDNY remains remarkably white compared to the city’s population at large.
About 75% of the agency’s 11,000 firefighters are white. Though that still represents a drop from the 93% white FDNY workforce of a decade ago, according to the Times.