Judge: FDNY Exams Biased
A Brooklyn federal judge ruled last week that the New York City Fire Department’s recruiting exams were biased against “large segments of the city’s population.”
In his findings released on July 23, Judge Nicholas Garaufis said that FDNY tests administered between 1999 and 2007 had little to do with the actual duties of a firefighter and “required an inappropriate reading level,” according to published reports.
Garaufis sided with plaintiffs from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Vulcan Society, an organization of black firefighters within the FDNY.
The Vulcan Society, who were represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights in Manhattan, claimed that the FDNY test’s language inherently discriminates against black and Hispanic New Yorkers.
“If we have an exam that’s relative and inclusive, we have a greater chance,” Vulcan Society President John Coombs told reporters last week. “It’s a bad exam when the exam gives you the same results… results that are abysmal for diversity.”
Judge Garaufis’ decision follows a class−action complaint that was filed by the U.S. Justice Department in 2007.
City officials, however, said that they had used an outside expert to develop a new test that was first administered in 2007 −− the same year that the lawsuit was filed.
The city has also spent $2 million on an expanded FDNY recruitment drive that would be more inclusive toward minorities.
Officials said that there are more than 11,500 firefighters in the FDNY. Less than 1,100 are black or Hispanic.
Zipping up Los Zetas
Brooklyn prosecutors made an attempt to shut down a major drug trafficking operation by indicting the head of the illegal organization.
Officials said that they had indicted Miguel Trevino−Morales, 38, who also goes by the nicknames Z−40 and L−40, with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution and firearms violations.
Prosecutors claim that Miguel Trevino−Morales leads Los Zetas, a widespread drug trafficking operation that had its roots as a security company for another drug cartel.
Officials alleged that the Zetas are composed of former Mexican military members who have evolved into not only a security force but a powerful drug trafficking organization in their own right.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials allege that Trevino−Morales and his team −− 20 of whom were also indicted last week −− “systematically employed brutal tactics to protect profits gained from the sales of illicit narcotics.”
Los Zetas, which allegedly controls drug trafficking routes between Mexico and the United States, as well as throughout the world, is considered “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and violent of paramilitary enforcement groups.”
In addition to the criminal charges filed against Trevino−Morales, the indictment contains a $1 billion forfeiture allegation. If convicted on all charges, Trevino−Morales faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. “The joint efforts announced today are significant steps in the Department’s strategy to stop the flow of illegal drugs into our communities and the shipment of drug proceeds back to Mexico,” United States Attorney Campbell said in a statement.
