Black FDNY firefighter’s lawsuit alleges discrimination for opposing order to use water hoses on George Floyd protesters

NEW YORK — A Black New York City firefighter charges in a federal lawsuit that he was suspended for opposing his boss’s call to turn fire hoses on George Floyd protesters last year — a brutal tactic used on civil rights protesters in the deep South decades earlier. The 13-page filing details the alleged retaliation against FDNY veteran Omar Wilks after the May 2020 confrontation with his boss and the firefighter’s continued outspokeness over racism in the department. “These defendants sought to muzzle plaintiff and inhibit his speech,” the papers filed in Brooklyn federal court charged. “They ...