Paint it black. Massachusetts firefighter will follow that order and ditch the red, white and blue.
FF Richard Busa from NewtonFireDepart.com
Read our previous coverage and comments
The emails and comments STATter 911 received about Newton, MA FF Richard Busa’s attempt to keep wearing his red, white and blue helmet despite his chief’s orders to the contrary, confirmed my own assessment of the story. Generally, the people who wrote didn’t see the chief’s order as showing any disrespect for Busa’s service to his country as an Iraq war veteran or to the flag of our country.
What they saw is Chief Joseph LaCroix, a Vietnam vet, willing to allow the firefighter to show his patriotism but in a different way. In the end the message apparently got through to FF Busa. He will now wear a black helmet. The chief was backed up by his mayor who didn’t see this as an issue of patriotism or freedom of speech.
Mayor David B. Cohen said, “The helmet is designed to protect firefighters, and they are not canvasses for firefighters’ self expression.”
Here are excerpts from an article by Ben Terris at Boston.com:
Firefighter Richard Busa, an Iraq war veteran, had been wearing the spray-painted helmet for more than three years when his superiors objected. Facing a possible suspension, Busa decided it would be best to don another helmet, lest he jeopardize his career.
“I have been part of the Fire Department for over seven years, and I have never disobeyed an order, never been reprimanded for anything, and now was not a good time to start,” Busa said in an interview. “I have a family, I am getting married, and I am going to buy a house, and the money I get from this job is the only money that is allowing me to survive.”
Busa said he was disappointed with the decision, but had no regrets.
“Just because I am going to be putting on a black helmet, doesn’t mean this issue was a waste,” he said. “It’s opened the door for the public to see that the Fire Department isn’t all that it says it is. Now that the public is talking about the Fire Department, maybe the conversation will start to turn to the real problems we are facing, like the lack of good equipment we are provided.”
Not willing to pay the $225 for a new helmet, Busa said he will be borrowing union president Tom Lopez’s old one.
