NY City Councilman to Solve Greatest Concern When House on Fire: Lack of Diversity

Like many of you, I suppose, I fear situations that may require emergency services. None of us want to be in that position where there is a personal emergency and we are forced to look into the abyss and face that terrible question as the rescue team approaches. The question of, “Will this emergency team be diverse enough?”

Thankfully, Leroy Comrie, the Deputy Majority Leader of the NYC Council, is doing what he can to ease fears in those situations.

From Comrie’s press release:

New York City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) hosted a City Hall press conference yesterday to respectfully urge his colleagues to pass legislation he has introduced which would allow any candidate for the position of New York City Firefighter, who possesses a high school diploma (or its educational equivalent) from a New York City High School, to become eligible for an additional eight point credit on the open competitive firefighter exam.

He was joined by several of his Council colleagues, as well as members of the members of the FDNY’s fraternal organizations of color, the Vulcan Society and the Hispanic Society, and representatives of the Local 375/Civil Service Technical Guild and the Grand Council of Hispanic Societies in Public Service.

“Today I am urging my colleagues to pass legislation that will allow any candidate for firefighter that possesses a high school diploma (or its educational equivalent) from a New York City high school to become eligible for an additional eight point credit on the open competitive firefighter exam,” stated Council Member Comrie. “Although the population of New York City includes more than 65% minorities, the racial composition of the FDNY is made up of only 11% minorities, thus making the FDNY the least diverse fire department of any major city in the United States.

This is wonderful news. Although there are some spurious claims of a need for years and years of specific and sometimes quite difficult and complicated training to become truly superior firepersons, other more reasonable voices such as Comrie believe that any high school grad can reasonably pickup a hose and point it at the fire, and as someone not trained in these matters, I say we just go according to the latter opinion, since it promotes diversity.And nothing is more important than that.

In a city as widely diverse as ours, this trend is unacceptable and we must do all we can to ensure that our most noble institutions reflect our great city.

Damned straight! After all, if you had a fire, wouldn’t you want the most diverse team possible? And they are all high school grads, right? And once the fire department is more diverse thanks to a lowering of standards, we can then demand that the leadership of the fire department reflect that diversity, and lower standards for promotion.

It’s just life and death, people. And diversity must come first.