CFD Suspends Two For Racist Language

By Margaret Lyons in News on May 14, 2008 4:40PM

Two paramedics from the Chicago Fire Department have been suspended without pay for using racial slurs, which were accidentally transmitted over their dispatch radio.

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford says the paramedics had an open mic on the radio they use to talk to the O'Hare Communications Center, and that the paramedics used the N-word in conversation between themselves on January 9.

Langford says the conversation was heard over the radio by a high-ranking member of the fire department.

Langford says that within two hours, the paramedics were taken off the job, and that they were subsequently suspended without pay.

The Fire Department hasn't released the names of the suspended men, and Langford would only describe their suspensions as "long" and "unprecedented." [WBBM, S-T, photo by t fish]