Years ago I joined the Emergency Response Team at work. The first thing I had to do was shave my beard of many years. For this judge to make the ruling he did, he must be brain dead or trying to kill these firefighters. My guess is the former but you never know....
Political Correctness trumps common sense, tradition, patriotism, unity, and safety every time.
It really doesn’t matter if bearded fire-fighters start dropping by the score from smoke inhalation or if they get exposed to the toxic byproducts of chemical and electrical fires. All that matters is that they FEEL good about themselves and that the judge FEELS good about his ruling. That is all that matters in today’s PC world.
Safety and performance take a big back seat to political correctness and self esteem.