EPILOGUE
" PETEY IS FREE AT LAST"
Free at last, free at last
I thank God Petey's free at last
Free at last, free at last
I thank God Petey's free at last
Way down yonder in the graveyard walk
I thank God Petey's free at last
Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk
I thank God Petey's free at last
On my knees when the light pass'd by
I thank God Petey's free at last
Tho't my soul would rise and fly
I thank God Petey's free at last
Some of these mornings, bright and fair
I thank God Petey's free at last
Goin' meet King Jesus in the air
I thank God Petey's free at last
Captain Peter Bosco is now officially out of the clutches of FDNY. It is time to write the epilogue.
| The Investigation | The investigation took months. Multiple lawyers from FDNY and DOI participated. They invested an innumerable number of hours. Scores and scores of firefighters and fire officers were called to testify. Thousands of questions were asked and answers given. Countless officials up and down the NYC chain of command were involved. Reams of documents were collected and reviewed. No expense was spared; the effort was extraordinary; no stone was left unturned |
| What was the outcome of the Investigation? | A punishment was imposed. |
| Who was punished? | That is the wrong question. The right question is what was punished. |
| Who was not punished? | Captain Peter Bosco and the other sidelined firefighters were not punished. They were not fired from their jobs. They were not demoted in rank. Neither pay nor vacation days were taken away. No penalty was imposed upon them |
| What was punished? | A piece of paper was punished. |
| What was the punishment? | Somewhere in a file within a cabinet in a room in a warehouse within the bowels of the City of New York, a piece of paper has been imprisoned. Nothing happened to Captain Peter Bosco and the other two sidelined firefighters but, oh my, that unfortunate piece of paper! |
| Why was the piece of paper punished? | Being daunted by the unexpectedly fierce resistance put forth by the three sidelined firefighters who were defending their honor, integrity, innocence and the truth, the petty and pusillanimous politicians attempting to scapegoat them retreated and retargeted their machinations onto a foe they knew wouldn't resist and against whom they had a chance of winning. |
| Are any questions left unanswered about the punished piece of paper? | Yes. Unfortunately, there are details of which we are not quite certain. We are not sure of its color. Was it a white piece of paper, off white or cream? Was it 8.5 by 11 or 3 by 5? Was it typed or handwritten, and, if handwritten, did the penmanship conformed with or deviated from grammar school standards. Was it locked up in solitary confinement or was it locked up in duplicate or triplicate? But, most importantly, we don't understand exactly what role this piece of paper played in the Deutsche Bank tragedy that earned it such a harsh punsihment? All of these and other equally important questions are left unanswered. We just don't know and, perhaps, these important details will never come to light. |
| Did the Mayor and his tea & crumpet crony, Scoppetta, celebrate after they punished the piece of paper? |
We are not sure. After an investigation during which countless hours and tax payer dollars were spent, the Mayor and his tea and crumpet crony, Scoppetta, have succeeded in imprisoning a piece of paper. This is but one of the Mayor's many accomplishments about which he can take credit. With the imprisonment of a piece of paper, the Mayor and his tea & crumpet crony have gotten to the bottom of the Deutsche Bank tragedy. We can imagine them shaking each others hands, congratulating themselves on a job well done, an audience of sycophants applauding and a gullible electorate believing this despicable farce. |
| The Severity of the Punishment vis-a-vis Captain Peter Bosco |
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most severe punishment and 1 being the least severe, the punishment imposed is equivalent to .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 from the perspective of Captain Peter Bosco and the other two sidelined fire officers. |
| The Severity of the Punishment vis-a-vis the piece of paper |
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most severe punishment and 1 being the least severe, the punishment imposed is equivalent to 10 from the perspective of the piece of paper. |
| Points to ponder about the severity of the Punishment | Imagine a judge in a serious criminal case telling the defendant during sentencing that, as punishment, he will put a piece a paper in the Defendant's file; Imagine you telling your kids who are misbehaving: " Hey! You better stop that or I'm going to put a piece of paper in your file! |
| Their rebuttal that they did more than merely imprison a piece of paper | They would say: "It was about them. The piece of paper was about them. By imprisoning the piece of paper in a file cabinet, we have symbolically imprisoned them. Don't you get it? It's like, like, er, like, oh yes, voodoo. You know, where you stick pins in an effigy of a person and the person feels the pain. Its virtual punishment. [[PSSST. Someone please tell them that voodoo doesn't work and the Mayor and his tea & crumpet crony can put their dolls of us back into the bottom of their desk drawer. P.S. The piece of paper was as much to blame as the three innocent sidelined firefighters]] |
| Why such a frivolous Punishment? | Captain Peter Bosco and the two other sidelined fire officers were innocent. They got what they deserved. |
| What about the FDNY procedure for inspecting buildings under construction and demolition at a frequency of once every 15 days? | The 15 day procedure existed. However, it was a dormant procedure. Like Rip Van Winkle, it slept soundly and snored peacefully while tucked snugly amongst the thousands of procedures in the manuals of FDNY. It existed in FDNY theory but not in FDNY practice in the field. Do you think that only a piece of paper would have been punished if Captain Peter Bosco was the only fire officer in the City of New York who did not do 15 day inspections of buildings under construction and demolition? Captain Peter Bosco and his two sidelined companions were not rogue fire officers. If the 15 day procedure would have been put into practice in the field, they would have done it. That's the injustice here. They needed scapegoats so they tried shoving a dormant procedure up our asses. We declined the honor. |
| Why bother? | The Mayor and his tea & crumpet crony needed to save face. On August 27, 2007, the Mayor and his tea & crumpet crony announced to the world at a press conference that three fire officers were responsible and would be sidelined. The Mayor and his Commissioner reacted prematurely and hastily before they knew the facts. Therefore, by putting a piece of paper into a file, Scoppetta was able to announce as he did on 6/24/2009 that "A message had to be sent" and "We believe this brings to a conclusion a very unhappy chapter in the Fire Department's history".What is most amazing is that the Press bought into this drivel. Think about what happened: Scoppetta put a piece of paper in a filing cabinet instead of causing heads to roll. What kind of bullshit is this? Or perhaps the investigation ended this way because the head that deserved to roll was the head of FDNY's perfidious leader? |
| Who caved? | We had stockpiled our defenses and sharpened the crux of our arguments. We had made them public on Freepetey.com pursuant to Sun Tzu's dictum that "Thus, those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle". We lined up our witnesses both ordinary and expert. Our evidence was substantial, explosive and at hand. We were prepared to go to war with Scoppetta. Then ... Scoppetta caved. He raised the white flag of surrender. He pulled back from the brink of war. He offered to settle our dispute. He made us an offer so lenient we couldn't refuse. This is important so let me repeat it: he made us an offer so lenient we couldn't refuse. There was no longer any point in spending any more time, money and effort in our defense. We accepted his offer. Both sides - his and ours - agreed to a resolution of this dispute.We came to terms with him and he came to terms with us. Both sides concluded a deal. It was a good deal for us and a good deal for him. |
| Why did they offer us such a lenient punishment? |
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| If we were innocent, why did we accept any punishment whatsoever? |
It was a good deal for us because our dispute with Scoppetta would have been resolved - at least initially - in a forum that is the antithesis of the American system of justice - a kangaroo court at whose head is none other than the perfidious FDNY commissioner. Imagine walking into a court of law to resolve a dispute arising from car accident and, lo and behold, the other motorist who crashed into your car is also the judge! This was the situation in which we found ourselves. Scoppetta was intimately involved in what took place and what did not take place at the Deutsche Bank Building. When the Deutsche Bank Building was in private hands, he took part in a deal in which the private owners agreed to let firefighters into the building to inspect for potential human remains provided the FDNY equipped the firefighters with Haz Mat suits and other protective gear. When Mayor Bloomberg issued Executive Order #53 calling for the appointment of high level FDNY construction personnel to oversee construction at the Deutsche Bank Building, the task of following the Mayor's executive order fell to Scoppetta. When a pipe fell on the Ten House from the Deutsche Bank Building, Scoppetta personally left his office and went to the Ten House to conduct an investigation. Furthermore, the ultimate responsibility for making sure that procedures on FDNY's books escaped therefrom and were put into practice in the field was his responsibility. Scoppetta was a witness and our adversary and our judge. There is a Rule that says that "A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge's activities." Did Scoppetta recuse himself in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety? No, he did not. Keep in mind that Scoppetta had the power to disregard any findings and recommendations made in the OATH proceeding - where the dispute between us and him would have been adjudicated. If OATH declared us innocent, Scoppetta could disregard such a declaration. Scoppetta could fire us; he could take away our pensions; he could suspend us; he could reduce us in rank; he could fine us; he could take away our vacation days. In short, he could sock it to us. For the literate among you, Scoppetta was the "Queen of Hearts" about whom Lewis Carrol said, "The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said, without even looking round". Therefore, if you were in our situation and the Queen of Hearts offered to end her dispute with you by putting a piece of paper in your file as your punishment, you would have to be moron not to accept it. No loss of job; no loss of pension, no reduction in rank; no fine; no loss of vacation days; not even a slap on the wrist - only a piece of paper put into our files. Yes, it was a good deal for us - a very good deal. Sorry, Mr. Commissioner, but no backsies. |
| Isn't anyone at FDNY going to be punished besides a piece of paper? | Keep in mind that FDNY was excluded from the Deutsche Bank Building demolition project. FDNY was not invited to sit at the table as a Regulator. Why not? We can only speculate. We suspect that they didn't want FDNY to gum up the works. However, this question has never really been publicly answered. That being said, if anyone is the culprit within FDNY it is perfidious Nick himself. |
| Why do you call our beloved Fire Commissioner, perfidious Nick? |
On August 27, 2007, at a Press Conference accompanied by his boss, the bum announced the sidelining of Captain Peter Bosco and two other fire officers. They were innocent and the bum knew it. A leader is supposed to defend his men not throw them under the bus. Not only did he throw his men under the bus, as more and more evidence of their innocence became known, the bum left them under the bus. (Compare Scoppetta to Von Essen by clicking here) The Deutsche Bank demolition project was not FDNY's show. All Scoppetta had to do was point this out in the beginning. He did not do so. And he did not do so because he knew that
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| If you gave Captain Peter Bosco a penny for his thoughts, what might he say? | Captain Peter Bosco would echo the words of Lou Gehrig. He would say Fellow firefighters and Citizens of the City of New York, you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in firehouses for over twenty years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you. "Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Chief Fuerch, Chief John McDonald, Chief Paul Cresci, Chief John Bley, Chief Roger Sakowich, Chief Ronald Schmutzler and Chief Robert Norcross. Sure, I'm lucky. "When the rank and file of FDNY, a team you would give your right arm to be a part of, has your back - that's something. When ordinary people off the street come up to you and tell you that you got screwed - that's something. When you have a wonderful Union who takes sides with you in squabbles with the Commissioner - that's something. When your 83 year Dad himself a former lieutenant in the FDNY is still proud of you - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know. "So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break and gone through hell these last few years, but I have an awful lot to live for." |
. . . It was four o'clock. Time for tea & crumpets. The Mayor wasn't in a good mood. After a glance, he crumpled the piece of paper into a ball and angrily threw it at his Commissioner's head - missing the mark. It fell in front of them. "Schmuck," the Mayor said. "Weren't you ever told to look before you leap. Without looking at the facts, you leaped at three of your men, landed in a pile of shit and splattered me in the process." Upset at being chided by the Mayor, the Commissioner tried to kick the ball of paper, missed and nearly fell on his ass. The Commissioner muttered under his breath, "Fuckin' Petey." "No," the Mayor said. "You shot yourself in the foot, Petey didn't do it to you."
(A Scene from the Screenplay of FreePetey, the Movie.)