In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, the New York Fire Department (FDNY) astonished the world with its bravery, skill, and solidarity. This didn't just happen by accident. As many profiles of the FDNY have shown, New York's Bravest have a long tradition of service which is often passed down from father to son [Telling the story of New York's bravest, by Todd Leopold, CNN, November 11, 2002]. The FDNY is perhaps the most widely admired public institution in the country, legends and heroes to almost all Americans.

Naturally, the federal government has been doing its best to destroy them ever since September 11.

The September 11 memorial statue which was canceled for being too white was simply a harbinger of things to come.

Thanks to a typically unhinged judge, who blasted the FDNY as a bastion of "white male privilege," affirmative action has been massively imposed. Mayor Bill de Blasio has shelled out almost $100 million to minority applicants to the FDNY. Exams no longer ask about firefighting because if they did, not enough minorities would be able to pass. Not surprisingly, some of the affirmative action hires are not just unqualified, but actually afraid to fight fires.

However, this wasn't good enough. So in an effort to boost "diversity," which for reasons no one ever tells us is supposed to be a good, the FDNY is now hiring ex-felons.

The newly-minted class of FDNY probationary firefighters includes an unprecedented nine rookie Bravest with felony convictions, including one who did jail time for gun possession, insiders told The Post.

The nine ex-felons, all minorities, were among 295 probies who graduated from the Fire Academy on Nov. 2, as critics charge the FDNY has loosened hiring standards to diversify its ranks.

One of the nine, a black 32-year-old who joined the city as an EMT in 2012, served more than a year in the Nassau County Correctional Center after two 2005 convictions for carrying loaded guns...

Some FDNY members are alarmed at the ex-con influx.

“I agree that people deserve a second chance, but how far are we going to go?” one FDNY veteran asked.

[FDNY hires nine ex-felons amid effort to boost diversity, by Susan Edelman, New York Post, November 19, 2016]

Good thing that veteran didn't give his name. He would have been fired.

Back in 2014, one Irish writer paid tribute to the legacy his co-ethnics created in the FDNY. However, he also celebrated its ending.

The era of the Irish as the major element in the New York Fire Department is fast coming to an end.

Currently New York's Fire Department (FDNY) is 86% white, 9% Hispanic and 5% black. By comparison, the NYPD is 52% white, 27% Hispanic, and 16% black.

Following Bill de Blasio’s deal with the black Vulcan firefighter group a payment of $98 million will go to black firefighters adjudged to have been discriminated against.

Black and Hispanic firefighters will now enter the ranks of the FDNY in much greater numbers in the future, reflecting the population of the city of New York, which is how it should be.

However, it does mean the days of the Irish dominating the Fire Department are almost over.

They have served mightily, no more so than on 9/11, when 40% of the 343 firefighters and paramedics who lost their lives were of Irish background.

[End of an era of Irish domination in NY Fire Department, by Niall O'Dowd, IrishCentral, March 21, 2014]

But what evidence is there this new FDNY of affirmative action hires and criminals can live up to the standards of the past? Do the leaders of New York City even care?

Oh well. What could go wrong?