Social Media: Freedom of Speech or Verbal Abuse

TORONTO, ONT (August 27, 2013) -- Just 2 days ago, Toronto Fire Chief Jim Sales announced that 2 city firefighters had been suspended indefinitely for sexist remarks made about colleagues on Twitter. And believe me, these firefighters made some very nasty comments.

Toronto's top firefighter said,  'In the public domain it's important for all of us to demonstrate a positive image of the Toronto Fire Service.'  The same is true for fire departments throughout North America.

With the introduction of FACEBOOK and TWITTER (and other social media sites) what happens behind closed firehouse doors is no longer a well-kept secret. In the past, Fire administrators were very careful about what information was released to the public.  Today, they no longer have the ability to strictly control information flow about department activities.

 In today’s media environment, citizen journalists have the ability to instantly post commentary, images and video of emergency incidents without the necessity – nor the desire -- to interview participants or confirm details. Once a biased story is posted, the onslaught continues as no named commentators weigh in on tactics, staffing, equipment…even personalities of fire officers.

 The information – whether it’s accurate or not – is often available online even before companies take up. The SHARE button allows that same mismanaged story, complete with demeaning comments from arm chair Battalion Chiefs, to be published throughout the fire-rescue community...and seen worldwide. I see it happen every day.

 Fire-rescue agencies need to beat the “citizen journalists” at their own game. In many cities, department PIOs now publish working alarms as they happen, giving readers informed commentary thus heading off biased remarks. It is a wise practice to implement, because the citizen journalist is here to stay – and here to say!

It seems that larger departments are making the greatest strides in social media. But unfortunately, Volunteer agencies have been slow to adopt an effective social media reporting method. Dealing with social media in the volunteer fire service doesn’t require a by-law change or the addition of an elected officer.  Every station has young men and women who are extremely knowledgeable in the ways of electronic distribution, and their input should be sought when determining the best way to deal with social media.  

 The post 9/11 love affair with the fire service is over, and much of that break up can be attributed to negative information published via social media. Fire-Rescue-EMS organizations, union locals and individual departments and agencies need to take advantage of the positive aspects of social media, the most important being the ability to inform the public and influence opinion.  

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Racial Hoaxes (within the Baltimore Fire Department ) and the NAACP

Guest commentary by:

Walter E. Williams

originally published: Wednesday December 12, 2007

(Baltimore. MD) Last May, firefighters at a Baltimore , Md. , fire station came under scrutiny for displaying a deer with an afro wig, gold tooth, gold chain and a cigarette hanging from its mouth. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, went ballistic, charging,

"There is now and has been a culture of racism and white supremacy within the Baltimore City Fire Department." As it turns out, it was a black fireman who dressed up the critter. Cheatham refused to apologize for his accusations of fire department racism, maintaining "there is now and has been a culture of racism and white supremacy within the Baltimore City Fire Department."

On Nov. 21, a hangman's noose was found at the fire station with a note, "We can't hang the cheaters, but we can hang the failures. No EMT-1, NO JOB." The noose and note turned up on the heels of an investigation into allegations of cheating on the test that emergency medical technicians must take for certification.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a black, in a written statement said, "I am outraged by this deplorable act of hatred and intimidation. Threats and racial attacks are unacceptable anywhere, especially in a firehouse." Doc Cheatham said, "We're going to demand that this be handled as a hate crime. This thing really needs to end here in Baltimore city." The incident prompted a federal investigation.

Last week, Donald Maynard, a black firefighter-paramedic, confessed to having placed the noose, note and drawing depicting a lynching on a bunk in the firehouse. City officials said Maynard was recently suspended, prior to his confession, from the department Friday for failing to meet requirements for advanced life-saving training. A spokesman for Mayor Dixon said there would be no criminal charges filed.

In response to Maynard's confession, NAACP President Cheatham still blamed white racism, saying, "It really saddens us to hear that evidently things have reached a stage that even an African-American does an injustice to himself and his own people as a result of a negative culture in that department."

Doc Cheatham is a poster boy for demonstrating a much larger problem, namely that the once proud and useful NAACP has outlived that usefulness and has in some instances become an impediment to black progress. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black liberal-to-moderate Washington-based think-tank, reported that 88 percent of blacks favored educational choice plans. A Gallup Poll found 72 percent of blacks support school choice. The NAACP, acting as handmaidens for the teachers' unions, is solidly against school vouchers. A Gallup Poll shows 44 percent of blacks are for the death penalty and 49 percent against it, but the NAACP is solidly against it.

The major problems confronting a large segment of the black community have little or nothing to do with racism -- problems such as unprecedented illegitimacy, family breakdown, fraudulent education, crime and rampant social pathology. If white people became angels tomorrow, it would do nothing to solve problems that can only be solved by blacks.

But I'm somewhat optimistic. More and more blacks are seeing through race hustlers such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Doc Cheatham. An even more optimistic note is the financial decline of the NAACP. Declining black support is good evidence that the civil rights struggle is over and won. That's not to say there are not major problems but they are not civil rights problems.

Today, most civil rights organizations get their financial support from white businesses and foundations caving in to intimidation or seeking to sooth feelings of guilt. For them, I have a cheaper alternative, "Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to All Persons of European Descent," available at walterewilliams.com.

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Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

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