FDNY commissioner Laura Kavanagh jeered at NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade after call to ‘hunt down’ NY AG Letitia James hecklers
New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh was heckled at the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade after her department vowed to go after Trump-supporting FDNY members who booed New York Attorney General Letitia James at a promotion ceremony, video shows.
“You suck,” one protester yelled at Kavanaugh as she marched past Trump Tower on 5th Avenue on Saturday, according to video obtained by Fox News.
“Firefighters are the hunters,” he screamed.
After she passed, city service members were seen waving and giving thumbs up to the loud group as they repeatedly chanted former President Donald Trump’s name. Some even stopped to shake their hands, video shows.
The Post has reached out to FDNY for comment on the demonstrators.
The angry outburst from the protesters comes after a chorus of smoke-eaters mercilessly hailed James with boos and cheered for the ex-president when she took the stage at a department promotion ceremony at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn on March 7.
In response, FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens sent an email to agency heads warning that the department’s Bureau of Investigation and Trials [BITS] planned to “hunt down” those involved.
“BITS is investigating this, so they will figure out who the members are,” Hodgens said in the email, obtained by The Post. “I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the Commissioner it will be better for them if they come forward, and we don’t have to hunt them down.”
Elected officials, union leaders and civil rights lawyers blasted the directive as being authoritarian, claiming it would be unconstitutional and violate free-speech laws.
Hodgens later walked back on his comments in an email to battalion chiefs on Tuesday, admitting that using “hunt” was “a poor choice of words.”
“It was not meant to be taken literally and was never uttered by anyone on the executive staff,” he wrote. “Specifically, there was not, and is not, an investigation into members booing.”
Hodgens also said in the email that it was not the booing that was the issue, but “allegations of other violations of department regulations,” without explaining further.
FDNY on Friday declined to explain what those violations were. The department also refused to say how many firefighters or others at the ceremony, if any, had come forward voluntarily or been disciplined in any way.
James was invited to speak at the event to honor her friend, The Rev. Pamela Holmes, who was being sworn in as the department’s second female chaplain, and the first Black woman to hold that title.
The attorney general has drawn the ire of Trump supporters since bringin a civil fraud case against the 45th president.
Last month, her office won a $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump, who was found guilty of inflating his wealth by billions in order to secure favorable loans from banks and investors to grow his real estate empire.
An appeals court has allowed Trump to stay at the helm of the family company and apply for loans from Empire State banks to help post the bond.
