A Firehouse Culture Where Taunts and Teasing Flourish

The New York Times ^ | January 5, 2004 | MICHELLE O'DONNELL

[TXFireman]

First came the teasing: one man made a crack about another's sexual orientation. Others may have laughed. The target of the teasing responded with a taunt, a firefighter familiar with the case said, and then, in a flash, a metal chair sailed through the air, shattering bones in the teased man's face and partly severing his nose.

In that horrifying instant last Wednesday, a verbal fight swiftly escalated into violence in a Staten Island firehouse, officials say, leaving one firefighter on a respirator in a hospital and another under arrest, his career in peril. While the details are still under investigation and more charges, against firefighters accused of covering up the incident, are possible, the fight has opened a window of sorts on New York City's firehouse culture, including certain aspects that may have combined to disastrous effect.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said last week that the fight at least partially stemmed from the close confines of firehouse living, where shared meals and sleeping quarters can lead to a boiling over of sibling-like relationships fueled by constant ribbing and full of all the tensions, personal feuds and intense competition of any family ties. To be sure, razzing is as much a part of firehouse life as communal meals and the shattering peal of alarm bells. But what set the Staten Island incident apart, surprising even longtime firefighters, was that it culminated in violence.

Other factors may have exacerbated the tense exchange between Firefighter Robert Walsh, who was injured, and Firefighter Michael R. Silvestri, who was arrested, including alcohol and a dispute over taking advantage of colleagues, which is considered taboo, firefighters and fire officials say...

[Agnes Heep]

What has the Bush administration done to curb the scourge of firehouse razzing?

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[StatesEnemy]

leaving one firefighter on a respirator in a hospital and another under arrest, his career in peril.

In peril? This punk should NEVER see the inside of a firehouse again.

And I hope the dude in the hospital sues the balls off this @sshole.

[trad_anglican]

Only the NY slimes could turn that into a "sexual orientation" issue.

They didn't. The article describes the "overtime" issue in detail.

[TXFireman]

Thanks for the link. Guess I didn't use the right words on my search.

[raybbr]

Has anybody noticed that razzing and "ball-busting" has become the way men in general seem to think passes for a relationship? Is it just me?

[50sDad]

All agression is being engineered out of American males by a Nanny-state that is sissifying any agressive behavior. Trying to change a 60-thousand years of human nature (or 6000 years of God's design, or both [Take that to another thread!]) in forty years of social engineering is stupid, and produces a generaton of ersatz-men with agression bubbling just below the surface. Columbine or chair-throwing, blame the Dems and social engineers.

[Simcha7]

This is why WE must continue to PRAY for our Firefighters and also for our Law Enforcement Officers too.

SHALOM!

Hi...Yehudah,

Once again the NY Times...errrr the "Slimes" TWISTS even this horrible story for their own Pathetic Homosexual Pushing Agenda...SHAME ON THE NY TIMES.

Concerning our Firefighters and Police Officers: Their Jobs are NOT easy, they are our BRAVEST and FINEST, after 9- 11-2001 ALL of their Jobs became a lot harder, tensions are on the rise and there is a whole different way of Life for them and for us since we were attacked.

**Please PRAY of our FIREFIGHTERS and POLICE OFFICERS all across this Great Land that we Love: AMERICA.

[raybbr]

All agression is being engineered out of American males by a Nanny-state that is sissifying any agressive behavior.

I agree. I read Rober Bly's Iron John and his entire thesis says this. He carries further. Says that our (American) society has no way of changing boys into men. That other cultures actually have a rite of passage that we don't have and men don't know how to associate with other men as a result.

[dljordan]

I kind of thought of my service in the military as a "rite of passage" but I could be wrong. Taunts and razzing were an integral part of the military existence that everyone accepted. Occasionally things would get out of hand and someone would get busted in the nose but generally things were pretty peaceful. Of course that was before people started realizing that such behaviour was "hurtful" to others.

[Khurkris]

"Has anybody noticed that razzing and "ball-busting" has become the way men in general seem to think passes for a relationship? Is it just me?"

Yeah...its a relatively new thing...I'd guess it started...oh maybe...30 - 40 million years ago. Yeah...sometime around then.

</sarcasm off>

[ItsOurTimeNow]

That other cultures actually have a rite of passage that we don't have and men don't know how to associate with other men as a result.

I thought taking an 18 year old guy to a strip club on his birthday was a rite of passage?

[Porterville]

I hope they had a paramedic... dumb-asses.

[Redcoat LI]

Hope the N.Y times does not send any reporters to a construction site.
That would really get their panties in a twist.

[MediaMole]

Wow! What a shock, firefighters taunt and tease each other. Who would ever have imagined such a thing to be possible?

Anyone who has ever spent time in a firehouse knows that you have to have thick skin and quick wits to survive.

[TalBlack]

Ever heard od atavisim?

That razzing and ball busting forces any male who is part of a group of males to be stronger in that he must not only secure his place but he is expected to attempt to move up in rank. This tendency is only a part of the male psyche that in ALL of its aspects was once the foundation and basis of the constant advancement of western society. The judao/Christian ethic HARNESSED the aggresson of males to vault the society ahead of the martrical societies which tended to remain at the stoneage level DESPITE having males who were aggressive as heck and not the sort of person you wanted to get into a fight with.

Today we deny that there is any such thing as masculinity because it is PC to do so. To define ANYTHING is to EXCLUDE all OTHER things. Can't have that can we?

One thing though: I don't get why the other firemen think of the arrested development case who brutally assualted a fellow, a "brother, "WITHOUT as the saying went back in the goldrush days, "giving him any show"---AHEAD, seemingly, of the other guy, you know the one in a coma? I don't know how the others refrained from beating him brainless. "Cold-cocking" should be addressed ON THE SPOT. No one is safe with a coward like that around. At the very least he should be fired and lose all pension benefits

[Protagoras]

What has the Bush administration done to curb the scourge of firehouse razzing?

A better question is what have the people who run this fire department done? Answer, either nothing or not enough.

[Protagoras]

Anyone who has ever spent time in a firehouse knows that you have to have thick skin and quick wits to survive.

Unnecessarily.