Brooklyn firefighter gets fired over anti-affirmative action shirts
EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Buttaro, 44, allegedly wore offensive shirts with slogans like ‘MADD — Minorities Against Dumbing Down’ in his Crown Heights firehouse. Sources say the shirts bore the logo of ‘Merit Matters,’ a group that opposes giving minorities FDNY recruits an advantage over whites.
BY JOSEPH KEMP , CAITLIN NOLAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, February 13, 2015, 5:24 AM
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ELLEN MOYNIHAN/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSCrown Heights smoke-eater Thomas Buttaro allegedly wore offensive shirts bearing 'Merit Matters' logos while on the job.
A Brooklyn firefighter was given the boot for the “malicious actions” of wearing his thoughts on his sleeve, sources told the Daily News on Thursday.
The smoke-eater, Thomas Buttaro — who had been on the job since 1998 — wore offensive shirts bearing “Merit Matters” logos in his Crown Heights firehouse more than 50 times over a 10-month period in 2012, the sources said.
Some of the shirts Buttaro, 44, wore while on the job at Ladder Co. 123 included slogans like “MADD — Minorities Against Dumbing Down,” which blamed court-ordered outreach to add minorities to the FDNY ranks for weakening the department, the sources said.
“He was creating a hostile work environment in the firehouse,” the source said. “It was so disruptive, it was causing problems.”
Other anti-affirmative action shirts Buttaro wore insinuated that minorities didn’t earn their way into the department.
Merit Matters describes itself as a group preserving merit in FDNY testing and is opposed to giving minorities an advantage over white recruits.
SUSAN WATTSFDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro approved Buttaro’s termination.
Buttaro, who is white, confirmed his firing Thursday night and maintained he did nothing wrong.
“Our attire, off-duty to and from work, has never been regulated,” he told the Daily News.
“Rules are that at work, you have to be in proper attire. Our locker room is on the second floor. We have to be in proper attire by roll call. Not before, not when you get to work, not when you leave.”
Buttaro said two members of the department served him with termination papers Wednesday evening at his Long Island home.
An FDNY spokesman confirmed that Commissioner Daniel Nigro approved Buttaro’s termination.
ELLEN MOYNIHAN/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS'You're supposed to respect differences of opinion.' The 44-year-old defended his choice of attire.
The move followed a recommendation from an administrative court judge that the firefighter get canned for “malicious actions that were in the firehouse intended to harm and humiliate a fellow firefighter” and other discriminatory reasons, according to an internal FDNY document.
“You’re supposed to respect differences of opinion,” Buttaro said. “You can’t just say you’re offended ... it deflects a discussion.”
A long-running legal battle over minority recruits and supposedly biased FDNY entrance exams was settled last year when Mayor de Blasio agreed to have the city pay out more than $100 million to 1,500 minority firefighter applicants.
A 2011 federal court ruling found the FDNY — and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg — intentionally discriminated against minority applicants, but it was tossed prior to the settlement.
With Denis Slattery
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He should have known it wasn't a genius move. He all but called the other, minority firefighters incompetent jerks. You try openly insulting your coworkers, especially ones you expect to save your @$$ in a fire. See where it gets you.
If you are wearing it to work, that's at work. If he was warned to stop doing it, but kept on anyway then he quit that job.
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