General Discussion

Fire company suspended after allegedly mocking police killing of 8-year-old girl

By Timothy Bella
Yesterday at 3:35 p.m. EST


A Philadelphia area volunteer fire company is under investigation after members allegedly mocked the death of an 8-year-old girl fatally shot by police last year and made racial slurs and remarks against colleagues and the area’s Black community.

Officials in Delaware County, Pa., announced Thursday that the Briarcliffe Fire Company has been suspended for 30 days after volunteer firefighters were involved in a racist conversation following a virtual meeting last month. Michael Pierce, solicitor for Darby Township, Pa., told The Washington Post that the allegations came to light after the Goodwill Fire Company, another volunteer firehouse in the area, submitted a letter summarizing the Jan. 27 incident to the Darby Township Board of Commissioners on Wednesday.

Members of the Briarcliffe Fire Company are accused of using the n-word and other racial slurs toward firefighters from Darby Township Station 4, the township’s third volunteer firehouse. Some members joked about how it was “time to leave” the area because more Black people were moving there, according to audio posted by the community organization Delco Resists. Multiple people are also heard on the audio mocking and laughing at Fanta Bility, an 8-year-old Black girl who was fatally shot by three police officers outside a high school football game near Philadelphia last August.

Pierce said the alleged behavior presented to the board was “unacceptable.” “If the summaries presented at the meeting were correct, then something needed to happen,” he said. The names of those allegedly involved have not been released, and it’s unclear how many Briarcliffe members were implicated in the conversation. The allegations were denounced by public officials as an example of “systemic racism and entrenched racism.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/02/11/pennsylvania-fire-company-fanta-bility-slurs/

Fire company in Delaware County suspended after racist remarks caught on video call
An investigation will determine whether the temporary silence at the Briarcliffe Fire company becomes permanent.


By TaRhonda Thomas, 6abc Digital Staff and George Solis
Friday, February 11, 2022 1:57PM

The original call was to discuss the consolidation of services between the Briarcliffe, Goodwill, and Darby fire companies.
GLENOLDEN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Briarcliffe Fire Company Station 75 is silent. No firetrucks and no firefighters are moving inside or outside. It comes after the fire company was temporarily shut down following allegations of racist remarks by firefighters who thought their video call conversation was private.The original call was to discuss the consolidation of services between the Briarcliffe, Goodwill, and Darby Township fire companies.

When county and state officials got off the call, members of the Briarcliffe Fire Company allegedly stayed on and engaged in a discussion that included racial slurs and disparaging remarks about African Americans in the area. "A bunch of f---ing n--- down there," one man can be heard saying while discussing the all-Black Darby Township Fire Company. There were also comments about Darby's chief. "He's just a piece of s___," one person said. Another comment called the African American chief by a racial slur as the person speaking recalled a time when the chief was in one of Briarcliffe's vehicles to the ire of the firefighter. "F___ S___ and he's looking in the truck," said the man on the call.

The firefighters who made the alleged comments didn't know other firefighters were on the line from the Goodwill Fire Company. One of them was Deputy Chief Tim Eichelman. "Those things they said were very discriminatory in nature, and that's not what we stand for," said Eichelman. There were other disparaging comments about Black firefighters being lazy. "They didn't do s___ there," one person said of Darby firefighters. There was also a discussion of there being too many Black people in the area. "That's the f---ing problem," one person said. "Blacks are taking over s---."

Eichelman and his fellow firefighters knew he had to bring the comments to light. That included sharing comments on the call that made fun of Fanta Bility. She is the 8-year-old girl killed by police gunfire. "Fanta soda, yeah, orange or Fanta grape," one man said on the call while chuckling, even after being told that the girl was shot to death by police. The family of Fanta Bility released this statement on the comments: "To speak of her with such disrespect, shines the light of shame on those people at the fire house making the remarks, and reflects negatively on those good and true first responders who pledge their lives to the service of all members of the community."

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https://6abc.com/briarcliffe-fire-company-station-75-firefighters-racist-remarks-shutdown/11553165/

Fallout continues from racist and threatening audio at Briarcliffe Fire Company


Stephen Williams TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 1 hr ago


The fallout from virtual meeting audio of Briarcliffe Fire Company’s racist and threatening comments and jokes about a young girl killed in Sharon, Pa., continues. The family of Fanta Bility issued a statement saying they were appalled, by the disrespectful comments. “To speak of her (Fanta) with such disrespect, shines the light of shame on those people at the fire house making the remarks, and reflects negatively on those good and true first responders who pledge their lives to the service of all members of the community,” according to a statement released by Bruce L. Castor Jr., attorney for the family of 8-year-old Fanta Bility.

On Thursday, Briarcliffe Fire Company was suspended by the Darby Township Council and will be shut down for 30 days, pending an investigation by Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, to determine if any laws were broken. During this time, fire calls will be taken by other area fire stations, as part of a mutual aid agreement. The volunteer fire company is authorized by Darby Township to provide fire service. Another fire company allegedly heard members of the Briarcliffe unit using racial slurs and disparaging Black residents after a virtual meeting had ended. Briarcliffe Fire Company volunteers apparently failed to disconnect from the online meeting in January with local officials and two other area firehouses.

The meeting was to discuss emergency services as well as possibly merging the three volunteer fire companies. Members of the Goodwill Fire Company made the audio recording. In the nearly two-hour conversation after the virtual meeting, Briarcliffe firefighters allegedly bemoaned how the time had come to leave the township because Black residents continue moving into the area. They even joked about Fanta’s name, according to a letter from the board of directors of the Goodwill Fire Company that The Philadelphia Tribune acquired. One firefighter is alleged to have mocked the name of Fanta, who was killed by police gunfire in Sharon Hill last summer. Members of the community said the racist and threatening views causes them to distrust the first responders, who are charged with saving lives.

Several elected officials spoke at a news conference Thursday. “This will not be tolerated and we will make sure that it doesn’t happen again. They say that racism is gone but it has reared its ugly head and we are going to cut it off,” Richard Womack, Delaware County Council member, said. State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, who represents the area, said the jokes about Fanta Bility were incredibly mean spirited.U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, said Pennsylvania fighters are revered for their service and the long hours they put in. But she said the racist comments were unacceptable in civil society and a betrayal of public trust. “If they can’t respect the humanity of the people they serve, then this isn’t the arena for them,” said Scanlon, who also represents the area.

https://www.phillytrib.com/news/local_news/fallout-continues-from-racist-and-threatening-audio-at-briarcliffe-fire-company/article_0a0b3118-2841-5fda-8b3f-431a4cfe4ac3.html