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It took officers from four precincts and the elite Emergency Services Unit over a quarter of an hour to break up a massive bar brawl at McFadden's on 42nd Street and Second Avenue around 10:30 on Saturday night. Police say a crowd of about 20 people were involved in the melee when it erupted out onto the street. Five people were finally arrested, including two firefighters, and another two firefighters were given summons for disorderly conduct after they went to the stationhouse and harassed cops about the arrests.
The Times reports that John Tew, 37, of Rescue 4 in Queens, and Matthew Veitch, 27, of Ladder 173 in Queens, (both from Long Island) were drinking at the bar with friends for several hours before the group spotted 22-year-old Christopher DiForte of Staten Island wearing a T-shirt with the department's logo. An NYPD source tells the Daily News, "It was a run-of-the-mill T-shirt. The real firefighters took umbrage that he wore it." One firefighter asked DiForte which unit he was in, and when he replied that he was not in the FDNY, they started harassing him.
They NYPD source added that in the ensuing scuffle DiForte began "swinging his pint glass wildly... and shattered the glass on the head of 25-year-old Matias Acevedo, a friend of the firefighters, who suffered a nasty gash." DiForte and two other men were also charged with assault; all five of the arrested men were released Sunday. As for the T-shirt, you can buy yours at the FDNY Fire Zone, "a not-for-profit corporation established to fund Fire Safety in New York City and the professional development, training and education of members of the FDNY."
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What the hell is wrong with these fireman? You can buy the FDNY shirts everywhere. Did these morons think that maybe that guy was trying to show support for the FDNY by wearing that shirt?
Maybe if firefighters take such umbrage with civilians wearing their attire, noone should buy them, so their "professional development, training, and education" program (read: keg parties) can get their funds elsewhere.
Dirk,
Spot on, so spot on I suspect there may be more to this. Well there was more, booze. A wise crack about a shirt a few too many pints and it's on!
"hey you! yeah, you. what? you think it's cool to support where I work by buying a t-shirt and wearing it out bro?"
ridiculous show of machismo
And note that both instigators were from LI. Clearly the city's border enforcement missed these two at the checkpoint.
Two guys from Lawn Guyland and one from Staten Island.
And they wonder why we want to toll the bridges.
i live right by this shit hole. this place attracts the worst kid of people, every single night of the week. nothing but meatheads ready to fight. the crowd is the worst and there are always tons of idiots outside, at all hours, drunk as hell. fuck mcfaddens, only tools who drink bud light aluminum bottles go there.
Ha ha ha, what a bunch of idiots, i am marching home, getting the FDNY shirt my fiance got me and either taking it to the nearest station and giving it back OR burning it, you know to pay respect with fire... douche bags. Def makes me second guess donations, apparently they don't want them.
Maybe if firefighters knew what the word umbrage meant, none of this would have been a problem.
*kind, sorry
As if their job isn't hard enough. I reckon they were worried that NYPD was getting all the recent press and wanted to grab a few headlines.
Re-tah-ded!
Bar brawls: repressed homosexual tendencies aching to burst out.
repressed homosexual tendencies aching to burst out
Repressed?
Excellent last paragraph by the way Mr. Del Signore.
I had an FDNY Keep Back 200 Feet t-shirt but stopped wearing it after 9/11.
^#15, you stopped wearing it because you thought it was disrespectful for a non-firefighter wear an FDNY shirt?
Ah, New York's drunkest...
But what was that guy doing wearing an FDNY shirt in the first place? If society continues this downward decline, next thing you know people are going to start wearing shirts with a professional athletic team's logo on them...even if they don't ACTUALLY play for the team!
Thespis, won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!
HEROS!!!!
Drunken brawl at Irish tavern.
In other news, unrest in the Middle East.
Plaxico's gonna gun you down if he catches you wearing that Giant's T.
over a quarter of an hour to break up
Wow, the hatred is amazing. You know how to tough the academy is? Do you know what it's like to risk your life for a living instead of sitting in a chair pushing around papers? Perhaps these guys feel as if they've earned their badges through blood sweat and tears, and it seems like a bit of a dig to see civilians wearing their letters as fashion accessories.
By the way, when your house goes up in flames and an FDNY officer kicks in the door to drag you out so you can continue your days of pushing papers and posting snarky internet comments, stop for a minute and let him know that you think he's an uncultured meat head with a low IQ.
Nah, let's stick with the stereotypes. So while we're at it, I'm sure that Staten Island kid was polite with regards to the inquisition, and begged them to let him buy a round so they could talk about the issue like gentlemen. I bet.
Oh, and I am not a firefighter.
I agree with comment #20.
huh, i have a bright red, FDNY jock strap--wonder how they'd react to that.
No, you're just an idiot.
23- who cares if it is a fashion accessory? it's just a plain t-shirt!! if people with no connection to the fdny were wearing around shirts that said "Ladder 173 - Queens" then I might think otherwise, but it's not like this guy was trying to impersonate a fire fighter
it didn't seem to bother them after 9/11. I see a person wearing one one of those shirts as support.
Now if Christopher DiForte of Staten Island was wearing a firemans uniform that would another thing.
People are just so fucking stupid!
@23
Then perhaps they shouldn't sell the T-shirts anymore. How much money does the department make off of merchandise? Yeah, let's limit the sale of these shirts to only firemen.
Who's knows if they guy that got beat up gave the fireman lip or whatever. It doesn't matter. Just because the academy was tough or that they risk their lives daily doesn't give them the right to beat someone up because they're wearing a t-shirt.
JohnnyBates: So when FDNY t-shirts or hats are worn on 9/11 by 'civilians' (ridiculous term since FDNY employees are civilians as well) that's OK because it shows support, but wearing that same t-shirt while hangin' at a bar is not OK? Get a grip.
The firemen involved were asshole bullies. If they were as heroic as everyone seems to like to blindly label some of these drunk morons they would have not made an issue of this.
Yeah,23, I remember when those bastards the Mets and Yankees had FDNY & NYPD logos on there caps. They didnt earn it!! They were totally "diggin" on
the FDNY & NYPD. right on!
//sarcasm
i was a firefighter in Virginia before i moved to nyc, so would they want to fight me if i wore a FDNY shirt? Funny enough I was given a Rescue 4 t-shirt when i was leaving my unit to move to queens (since I was moving into a building by the station, but no i have never worn the shirt) Did the two firefighters act out of line, yes. Do i think the kid from staten island disrespected them, probably. Was he trying to get some women wearing the fdny shirt, i tend to say probably only because this kids from SI and he's drinking at 42nd street irish bar, probably trying to impress some tourist or something stupid. But again, this goes back to what someone said earlier, since when was a fight in an irish bar newsworthy? and at the guy who was talking about bravery and courage and so they can do what they want, thats complete shit, because then you start excusing the police for shooting unarmed people, war veterans for coming back and beating their wives or anything else. They're normal people just like anyone else, they just have a different job to do. If you're looking for special treatment because you are or were a firefighter then you've missed the point totally.
I wear my FDNY shirt to show my proud support of Ground Zero's tasteless bootleg merch vendors.
Perhaps these guys feel as if they've earned their badges through blood sweat and tears, and it seems like a bit of a dig to see civilians wearing their letters as fashion accessories.
Just to point out - no matter how inexcusable something is, someone will defend it.
I know quite a few firefighters and like any other group you have your happy drunks and totally out of control drunks. In this case why were a bunch of Queens firefighters hanging out at a Manhattan bar? Were they coming from another "get together"? Probably so. I have a FDNY regulation work shirt and I have never had a problem with the rank and file. I doubt the wearing of the shirt is what started the "discussion."
Now cops are a different story, they tend to be jerks from the get go when they go to a bar.
Just a reminder, St. Patrick's day is March 17th.
Two reasons really Rocknrope: Because of the deeper significance the shirt had taken on. Same way I don't want to wear camoflauge when the country's at war -- it symbolized something I wasn't part of and I didn't want anyone to think I was trying to glom onto it.
Of course, that didn't stop a million other people from immediately going out on 9/12/01 and buying FDNY shirts but that's how I felt. Which is the other reason why I never went back to wearing it -- every other dork on the street was wearing the same thing.
But it's true that if the department itself sells the shirts to the public then firefighters have no right to complain.
You can also buy the "T" shirts at the New York City Fire Museum located on Spring Street between Varick and Hudson.
*and another two firefighters were given summons for disorderly conduct after they went to the stationhouse and harassed cops about the arrests.*
What a couple of bums. God knows these clowns were dropping FDNY names and threats to get their buddies out of the clink. They should all be suspended.
I met the liaison between the Office of Emergency Management and the FDNY recently, and as he described encountering, shall we say, a less-than-polite firefighter, "Look, there's always a chance that you'll speak to a knucklehead fireman."
Remind me never to wear my turnout coat to McFadden's.
Finally! Now I can break-out & war my new "F*CK THE FDNY!" shirt. Available for $9.99 wherever fine clothing is not sold.
firefighters are that because there first care, being such compassionate souls of humanity- is saving lives. I call bullshyt. They join for the prestige most of them anyway to align themselves with the macho profession and the perks not to mention because dad did it. We will risk our lives to save others but dont ask them to be compassionate in any other area of life because it doesnt come with enough praise and bravado for them.
You can get a Department of Sanitation t shirt at Steve and Barry's going out of business sale. Brawls for all supporters of civil servants I say!
@#23, The Academy can't be all that hard: these guys only have to run up five flights of stairs with 2 1/2 inches of hose.
You're making it sound easy Nanny. It's a fifty foot length of hose plus wearing the bunker gear which is heavy and the SCBA gear. Anyone can do that in the heat and the smoke of a burning building. Then when you get there you have to go to work as the ceiling and super heated water is falling down on you and you are crawling along.
Excuse me. I need a beer just talking about it.
Everyone here is so quick to criticize these guys, but you've got no problem with them when it's your kid or your mom that they're dragging out of a burning building. These guys work a high stress job and after a rough day they can get pretty wound up at work. Are you saying you've never had a stressful day at work and taken it out on someone else? Now multiply the stress that you feel by 50 and you're still not halfway there.
I'm not saying that it was right for him to physically lash out on someone, but the fact is, at the end of a bad day, even the slightest things can set you off, and if you believe that the only issue on the table was the t-shirt you're kidding yourself - there are definitely two sides to this story
The academy is ridiculously hard.
These guys are also embarassing.
#23 you got cut up by #32...I love it
Anyways - this is just 2 drunk firefighters probably on roids after a slow work week.
I dont think that these 2 loosers echoe the sentiments of other firefighters.
My father in law was a firefighter and he's the most honorable person I know...
What will the brawlers and instigators from the FDNY do when they find out that the father of the young man with the T-shirt is a 25+ year veteran of the department. That's why he was wearing the shirt. How about all of the other "civilians" who wear FDNY logos to show their support for the group - are you going to beat them up too? Those members of the "bravest" were looking for trouble in a barroom - plain and simple. They couldn't hold their liquor.
It is truly amazing how everyone judges firefighters by the actions of a few. Not only do you not have the full story but you assume you know who is in the wrong. Let me assure you that not all firefighters are bad. Many train countless hours to help save the lives of people they do not know. It's not for the glory because there just isn't the glory you think there is. More people complain than ever say thank you. Not all firefighter's are paid but should be. FDNY I am sure take things personally, they did lose alot of great guys, friends, family and I'm sure some they wish they had another day to say I'm sorry to. Bottom line everyone is human. Every organization has their @ssholes no one is excluded. But do not become so focused on the actions of a few that you have to make statements degrading a whole nation of heroes. Sure you can buy the T-shirt but you should have some respect when wearing it. Did 911 happen for no reason. On that day the nation was united everyone was kinder and everyone helped each other but now 8 years later look what we as a nation are back to. Just doesn't make sence to me. Just try to remember that you do not know the whole story and even if you did would you judge fairly? Do you even need to judge at all? Everyone involved knows the story and it's something they have to live with but do not judge all firefighter's by what you read.