A firefighter has received “disciplinary action” after a Long Island fire truck was spotted sporting a confederate flag.
On Sunday, a Long Island town said it “condemns” a local fire truck displaying a Confederate flag on a fire truck that belonged to a local fire department. The town said, “racism has no home in our firehouse.”
“The unauthorized action was done without the knowledge of our leadership team and is condemned in the strongest of terms,” Brookhaven Fire Chief Peter Di Pinto Jr. said in a statement, via 101wins.radio.com. He went on to say that “disciplinary action for this matter has already commenced,” and that it was only one firefighter that was involved in the racist act. “Because this is a personnel matter and currently under investigation, we cannot give our any further details, except to say the incident involved a single firefighter, acting alone, during a non-response event,” he said.
This all stemmed from a photo of the fire truck which emerged online and went viral on social media. The truck was seen parked on the street with no firefighters visibly in sight. Many online responded to the indecent photos saying, “WTF Long Island? Confederate flag on a Brookhaven fire truck. Terrorizing the community & boldly showing off their racism. This is what Trump’s Long Island looks like.” Another person wrote: “Brookhaven Fire Truck in Suffolk County with a Confederate flag on it. I hate Long Island.”
In a statement, the Brookhaven Town in Suffolk County said, “It is our hope that those responsible for this hurtful display will be found, identified and be held accountable for their actions,” adding, “there is no affiliation between our government and this local fire department.”
They continued: “This afternoon, the Brookhaven Town Board was made aware of the display of a Confederate flag on a fire truck belonging to a local fire department. The Town Board condemns the display of this symbol of racism and hatred in the strongest possible terms, and is calling for this fire department to launch an investigation into this matter and take immediate and serious action in response.” They added that the “Brookhaven Town has been built upon a history of inclusion and diversity. Our cemeteries contain the graves of men who gave their lives fighting against this flag. This flag is a symbol of hatred, and there is no place for it, or the racism it displays, in our Town.”
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