FDNY Ordered to Develop New Entry-Level Firefighter Test

NEW YORK - The city must revamp fire department hiring practices that discriminated against black applicants and possibly pay damages to thousands of victims, a judge ruled Thursday.

What This Means

According to the NY Post, under the order handed down yesterday, Judge Nicholas Garaufis said he wants the city to hire two black and one Hispanic candidate for every five applicants who pass the test until there are 293 minorities added to the ranks of the FDNY. Read the NY Post Story.

In a written decision in federal court in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ordered the city to "develop a new testing procedure for the position of entry-level firefighter." He also said that about 7,400 minority applicants who were victimized by discriminatory exams were eligible to file claims against the city.

The order follows a decision by the judge earlier this month that found the fire department had intentionally discriminated against blacks. [FDNY] has about 350 black firefighters out of 11,500 total.

City officials have claimed there's no evidence the department meant to keep out blacks. In a statement Thursday, city Law Department lawyer Georgia Pestana said the order was legally flawed.

"An initial examination suggests that today's opinion does not fully address the complex constitutional issues presented, nor does it give proper weight to developments in this area of law," he said.

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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Regardless of color the best candate should get the job. Shouldnt that be the unbious (excuse the spelling) ruling from the courts. New Haven 20 ring a bell to anyone??? How long is the government going to promote racism?

I have tested for the FDNY and turned the job down. At the time I tested for many departments and found the FDNY written exam to be one of the most well rounded exams. Job oriented and non job oriented questions throught the test.
What happens when the FDNY "re-works" its exam and they get the same, end results?
Plus; if they "dumb down" the exam and one race still out-scores the others, will the judge come back and simply say, "I want this percentage of ethnic mix regardless of test scores?"
I thought this mind set was gone after the New Haven Decision, but then, we got a new President.
And all of a sudden, "hope and change" has entered a world where only the best candidates, regardless of race, should be placed into jobs.
I am currently working on a piece about Houston's problems.
But, we are seeing an uptick in racial discrimination claims once again.
Should be interesting.
The judge wants the FDNY to hire 2 blacks and 1 hispanic for every 5 applicants who pass the test it hires. Wtf. Why not 2 hispanics and 1 black for every 5 firefighters, or 3 asians, 1 black, and 1 hispanic and no caucasians etc. etc. etc. Why not just hire the most qualified firefighters who pass the test whether they are white, black, hispanic, asian, indian and so on. That comment by the judge in itself is racism at its finest and it doesnt make what happened anymore right than this practice is going to be.
RACE OR CREED SECTION:

Check box here: 70 points added for this race, 80 points that race, sorry no points for you...

This is going to get interesting...
The job goes to those that meet the same criteria as everyone else, not based on race, religious beleifs, colour, gender, etc. Seems pretty simple to me....

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