What the hell is this?

[my5thNewUsernameHere]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York firefighters have been forced to strip their lockers American flags, stickers expressing support for U.S. troops in Iraq and cards commemorating firefighters who died in the September 11, attacks, the firefighters' union said on Wednesday.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association threatened to sue the New York Fire Department, claiming it violated the free speech rights of New York's 8,800 firefighters and 2,500 fire officers. The action comes under an old policy more strictly enforced since early last month.

A fire department spokesman said flags and commemorative cards were allowed but offensive material was not.

"Over the past 18 months, the New York City Fire Department has made a concerted effort to eliminate offensive material from firehouses," said spokesman Anthony Sclafani. "However, American flags and mass cards of firefighters killed on September 11, 2001, are certainly permitted."

The union said it would distribute 10,000 American flag stickers on Thursday to firefighters to stick on their lockers in protest.

"They are proposing that these people who save lives on a daily basis can't be trusted to maintain their locker," said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy, who demanded the policy be changed or said the union would sue the department on January 21.

The fire department has enforced the policy more strictly since early last month when a slogan considered degrading to women was found in a Brooklyn firehouse, a department source said.

Cassidy said such items as American flags and stickers supporting U.S. troops helped maintain morale. Some 343 firefighters died in the September 11 attacks on New York.

"Firefighters by and large are patriotic Americans; they care about the country and they care about the city of New York," he said. "We consider ourselves a second family to Americans."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...src=rss&rpc=22

CBS) NEW YORK A locker room controversy is erupting within the FDNY. Firefighters have been ordered to remove all personal decorations from the outside of their lockers, including pictures of colleagues killed on 9/11.

"We're tired of being treated like children," said Stephen Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "It will not continue if we have to take legal action we will.

The fire union is at war with FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta over a regulation limiting what firefighters can have on the outside of their lockers.

"(The regulation) prohibits a firefighter from having an American flag, a 'Support Our Troops' sticker, a picture of their family, a mass card of a dead firefighter," Cassidy said.

A department-wide crackdown on locker decorations began several weeks ago after a sexually offensive slogan was found on the outside of a locker at Engine 230 in Brooklyn.

But the union claims this time the department went too far.

"Two weeks ago they began scraping American flags and anything else that was affixed to a locker off those locker doors," Cassidy said.

The union hired civil rights attorney Ron Kuby to fight the regulation.

"Nick Scoppetta seems more like an angry high school teacher saying well since one of you did something wrong none of you can post anything on your lockers. You're all going to be punished," Kuby said.

The FDNY defended its move.

"No city agency should permit the work place to display inappropriate stuff," said Mylan Denerstein, the FDNY's deputy commissioner for legal affairs.

After the union complained, the department told union officials it would relent on flags and 9/11 pictures, but on Wednesday officials refused to put that in writing.

"It's not necessary," Denerstein said.

The union said it's not satisfied with the fire department's response and what's more, Thursday it plans to give every firefighter a flag decal to put on their locker.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_010193817.html

http://www.drudgereport.com/

[Stone]

Thats a bunch of fucking BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!

[ss~zoso~ss]

+2 to that, i'd like to meet the asshole(s) behiend it and send them to the house of pain

[Knighthawk LS1]

Problem is that its the f--ks that are not even from this country. People who are not from this country are just tearing this all appart 1 piece at a time.