Firefighters Who Wore Blackface Defend Their Actions
The firefighter, Jonathan Walters, 29, testified that he and a fellow
firefighter, Robert Steiner, also 29, were both wearing blackface on a float
in the Labor Day parade in Broad Channel, Queens, when he spontaneously
decided to hang off the back of the truck. As he was dragged, he testified,
he referred to the June 7 killing of James Byrd Jr. in Texas.
Mr. Walters and Mr. Steiner both contended that they did not mean to
offend black people when they covered their faces in black lipstick, donned
black wigs and joined friends who tossed pieces of watermelon to the crowd,
posed next to fried chicken cartons and parodied break dancing while on a
float called ''Black to the Future: Broad Channel 2098.''
Both firefighters, who live in Broad Channel, testified that they simply
wanted to mock their virtually all-white neighborhood and its attitudes
about race by appearing on a float that depicted what they called an
''integrated'' Broad Channel a century from now.
But attorneys for the Fire Department argued that the actions of the two
men, and the negative publicity it has generated since Labor Day, had
brought discredit to the department and violated the department's rules of
conduct. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called for their ouster days after the
incident came to light.
William M. Feehan, the First Deputy Fire Commissioner, testified that he
was concerned that the parade incident had tarnished the department's
reputation. Furthermore, he testified, it could hamper the mostly white
department's efforts to recruit more black and Hispanic firefighters and
harm its relationship with residents in black neighborhoods.
Judge Rosemarie Maldonado, who presided over their administrative trial,
which ended yesterday at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings in
lower Manhattan, said that she would make her recommendations in the case to
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen as early as next week.
Firefighters Walters and Steiner both testified that they believed their
off-duty conduct had not violated departmental rules. Testifying about the
dragging incident, Firefighter Walters said, ''If it was perceived to be
offensive, or was represented by the media in an offensive manner, then I
apologize for that.''
The incident came to light the day after Labor Day, when WCBS-TV
broadcast what it described as an amateur video of the float. Firefighters
Walters and Steiner both testified that they had been egged on by the man
and woman who shot the videotape.
''They were yelling 'Throw the watermelon! Do this! Breakdance!' ''
Firefighter Steiner testified. ''They wanted to get it on film.''
Firefighter Walters said that after he dangled briefly from the back of
the truck, the woman with the camera asked him to do it again for the
camera, and that he complied.
Marvyn Kornberg, the lawyer representing Firefighter Steiner, charged in
an interview that WCBS-TV staged some of the scenes it broadcast.
Bill Carey, the station's news director, said, ''We're comfortable with
our story and we stand by it.''
''I just held on to the tailgate of the truck and dragged there for
approximately five seconds or so,'' Mr. Walters testified. As he was
dragged, he said, he shouted: ''This is what happened to our brother in
Texas! We shall not allow that here!''
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