The New York Fire Department has ordered one of its ladder companies to remove an American flag that honors six of their own who died during the attacks of September 11. The change was made after a local resident in East Village, a swank neighborhood in Manhattan, charged that the flag was a symbol of fascism.
Sources told The New York Post that the move came after a staff member working for Democratic Manhattan Councilwoman Carlina Rivera attacked the firefighters at Ladder Co. 11.
The man pedaled up to the East 2nd Street firehouse on a bicycle and told firefighters he worked for Rivera and that the councilwoman’s office “complained” to the FDNY three days earlier about the flag – which features a red stripe in tribute of firefighters injured or killed in the line of duty.
He called it a “fascist symbol” and demanded to know why it was still up, sources said.
In a March 19 email to FDNY Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator Madison Hernandez, Rivera staffer Lisander Rosario said the councilwoman’s office was contacted by the “constituent” twice about the ladder company’s flag and asked if it’s violating department rules.
“[FDNY staff] claimed it was to honor deceased firefighters, however, [the constituent] brought up that they could’ve used an FDNY flag rather than a politically charged symbol,” Rosario wrote. “It is to both his and our understanding that private political symbols aren’t permitted to be displayed on public vehicles.”
Rivera previously voted to defund the NYPD of $1 billion.
New: FDNY Firefighters forced to remove “red line” flag from fire truck hung to memorialize their fallen brothers in 9/11
A politician in Alphabet City came by the fire house and confronted NY’s bravest for having the flag on their rig stating, "isn't that flag in support of the… pic.twitter.com/u0fXSAPy2k
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 22, 2024
The move comes on the heels of students at Columbia University, miles away from Ground Zero, holding an event that celebrated the tactic of terrorists hijacking airplanes under the guise of supporting Palestine.
New Conservative Post reported that “the group’s leader, Charlotte Kates, a member of the Israeli-designated terror group Samidoun, applauded the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, and Khaled Barakat, a Palestine activist, glorified airplane hijackings as ‘one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.’”
The university is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, approximately seven miles away from Ground Zero.
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