But the story does not end. Giarrizzo, according to the Newsday article, supervises secretarial and janitorial employees in Coram and apparently a number of them are black. So Van Johnson, the Coram Fire Commissioner, sees no problem with a white employee saying to a black firefighter's face that he does not like black people despite the fact that the same white person must supervise black employees? This may not be surprising when one considers Johnson's bizarre logic. Johnson claims that Giarrizzo's "joke" was not racially charged. He said that he was just stating a fact. Johnson asked a crowd of about 50 people at a departmental meeting that if he had stated he did not like Polish, Jewish, or Catholic people, would that be racist? Jews: yes, because technically they are a race. Polish and Catholics? No, but only because they are not races. It would just be highly prejudiced and bigoted. It also turns out that Sal Giarrizzo and Van Johnson are buddy-buddy and many are saying that this is the reason that Giarrizzo was not punished. Johnson says that this is not the case and that Curaba was violent and has been in the past. If this is so, then why a measly two week suspension for a repeat offense, and why hasn't Giarrizzo filed assault charges? Seems kind of week. Chief Ronald Curaba has threatened to resign from his post if Van Johnson and the remainder of the brain trust that is the Coram Fire Commission do not step down. Hopefully Sal Giarrizzo will be fired for his outright racist remarks, Van Johnson will step down from any occupation requiring simple logic, and all three assistant chiefs resume their duties with Curaba's suspension wiped off his record. Peace.
Photo - Coram Fire Department Badge (bfc500patches.com)
Here it is several years later and Sal the racist district manager was able to retire with incredible benefits and pension but the same corrupt commissioners are still running the department using puppet chiefs who do what ever they are told to do by the commissioners ...scary that the public doesn't care that these corrupt commissioners are in charge of over 5 million dollors annual budget...that's why they all have family members on the coram fd payroll but no politicians would dare call for an investigation into money fraud!!! Shame shame shame
ReplyDelete