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Some Thoughts on
Major Smith III – Toledo Fire Department
By Earl Murry, PhD
Guest Column
On June 12, 2018 Major
Smith, III, a Toledo trainee fireman was terminated by the
Toledo Fire Department in direct breach of an agreement
reached at One Government Center with Mayor Wade
Kapszukiewicz and several of his cabinet members.
Just before Major Smith’s
termination, the mayor met with me, in my capacity as
spokesperson for Major Smith III, along with several
accompanying supporters of Major Smith, to assure he
received fairness from the fire department academy.
In our meeting we,
including the mayor specifically, mutually reached an
understanding that Major Smith had been misdirected by his
fire department instructor resulting in Major Smith being
subjected to an unfair and discriminatory testing process.
In other words, Major
Smith was instructed to perform tasks in a manner which
assured he would fail and, at a minimum, required him to
overcome artificial obstacles not required of any other
trainee fireman. Those artificial test results were then
used as a ruse to justify his termination.
Major Smith was subjected
to requirements which were different from any required of
white trainee firemen. Concluded within our meeting with
Mayor Kapszukiewicz was the specific understanding and
agreement that Major Smith would not be given any specific
time period to satisfy the ventilation roof cutting as the
“one isolated” requirement to be achieved.
Discussed by me with those
in the meeting were Major Smith’s concerns that the fire
department academy administration mistreated him daily in
his work environment and repeatedly required him to complete
odious assignments different from those required of other
white trainee firemen.
On June 11, 2018, I, along
with others who represented Major Smith’s defense earlier
for fairness, were prepared to meet and discuss with the
Safety Director some ongoing different requirements used
against Major Smith.
I telephoned the Safety
Director and asked for a meeting. The Safety Director said
she would call me the next day, June 12, 2018 about the
meeting requested. That call never came. Contrary to
getting the expected telephone call from the Safety
Director, it was learned Major Smith was summoned to a
meeting and told he would be terminated effective
immediately. Major Smith was terminated without
representation.
We considered and
concluded from facts developed through investigation that
allegedly the Toledo Fire Department Administration
terminated Major Smith, III, an African American, without
Just cause and that the Department’s actions culminating in
Major’s termination were done systemically and maliciously
with the specific intent of allegedly having perniciously
racial discrimination.
Our investigation has
established that the actions of the City of Toledo Fire
Department were not isolated to those taken against Major
Smith but have been systematically applied to other African
Americans who were seeking to do nothing more than to put
their lives on the line for the citizens of Toledo.
It is crystal clear that
Major Smith’s termination on June 12, 2018 was in direct
breach of the understanding and agreement reached with the
mayor and members of his cabinet who were present. The
mayor’s word is now suspect.
Accordingly, allegations
of conflicting criteria in training methods, lack of
uniformity in treatments, and racial discrimination will be
filed with both state and federal agencies on behalf of
African-American firemen who presently are and who formerly
have been adversely affected because of such systemic racial
discriminatory practices within the Toledo Fire department.
Groups will be formed to
establish daily, weekly, monthly and yearly banks of
information to be publicized as a report card when levies
are requested, and African-American support is needed. This
will be especially true when the mayor seeks another term in
office - no matter the office – and African Americans will
be reminded about the mayor’s actual performance while he
was in a position of power to effect actual change for the
better.
Earl Murry, Ph. D.
Professor Emeritus
(419) 266-0491
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