Former employees file lawsuit against Buffalo Fire Department alleging racism, ageism

Three former recruits – a Hispanic man, a Polish man and a Black man – have joined several other firefighters nationwide in speaking out against inequality.

Three former recruits have filed a lawsuit against the Buffalo Fire Department, alleging they experienced discrimination because of their race, ethnicity or age.

The trio – a Hispanic man, a Polish man in his 40s, and a Black man who said a fellow firefighter called him a racial slur – have joined several other firefighters nationwide in their efforts to speak out against inequality.

According to WIVB News, former Buffalo Fire Deputy Commissioner Shannon Street backs the men’s bias claims. In an affidavit, Street swore he was demoted from deputy commissioner to his civil service rank of captain after bringing several instances of racial and gender prejudice and political favoritism to the attention of Buffalo’s Black mayor, Byron Brown, who appointed him in 2018.

Street says he finished out his career as a captain “and promptly retired.”

“Throughout my career, I have observed systemic racism and politicization at the BFD Academy, which is charged with the training of new cadets,” Street wrote, WIVB reported. “I have observed great preference being shown to people with family ties to the BFD, and worthy candidates drummed out of the Academy who were minorities and women and who were not politically connected.”

Elsewhere, in Kansas City, Missouri, the federal Justice Department is investigating allegations of racism and sex discrimination within that fire department. In New York state, a Black firefighter is suing the city of Rochester, alleging his superiors forced him to attend a Juneteenth party that featured various racist tropes.

Derek Chapman, Maryland’s first Black deputy chief fire marshal, last month got the green light to proceed with a lawsuit against the state police that alleges a long history of institutionalized racism and discrimination against him.

“It made me feel good because someone’s listening,” Chapman said, theGrio previously reported. “When you look at the whole entire case, and you see it, it blows people away. But this is what happened, and now someone’s listening.” 

The defendants named in the Buffalo lawsuit, filed last week in New York State Supreme Court, include Mayor Brown, Fire Commissioner William Renaldo and Battalion Chief Robert Bourgeois, who oversees the Fire Academy.

A spokesperson for the city said the defendants had not been served yet and that officials don’t comment on pending litigation, according to WIVB.

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