Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
Fox News is questioning why FDNY is investigating a firefighter who started a fundraising effort to help a suspended deputy chief.
Deputy Chief Paul Mannix was suspended recently for 50-days without pay for his involvement in leaks about unqualified minority firefighters reportedly getting special treatment. Chief Mannix was the moving force behind Merit Matters, a group dedicated to maintaining his merit based standards within FDNY. On July 24, Firefighter Anthony Henry created the GoFundMe campaign to help Chief Mannix pay his bills. In roughly a week, 660 people donated over $40,000.
New Haven Firefighters IAFF Local 825 Vice President Frank Ricci was interviewed by Fox to offer his perspective on the allegations. Frank was the lead plaintiff in the reverse discrimination suit, Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. 557 (2009), that made it clear that efforts to address race discrimination can themselves cross a line and become discriminatory violating white firefighters’ rights to equal protection.
