Mary Altaffer / AP
New York City Fire Department Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano, seen here in 2010, had no comment Tuesday on offensive tweets by his son, Joseph, an emergency medical technician.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
The son of New York City's fire commissioner, who is a city emergency medical technician, said Monday he regrets a series of "offensive" tweets but insists he treats every patient with "great care and respect."
Joseph Cassano's apology came after the New York Post reported his now-disabled Twitter account included posts like "I like jews about as much as hitler" and "Getting sick of picking up all these obama lovers and taking them to the hospital because their medicare pays for an ambulance and not a cab."
In other tweets, he used a derogatory slang term for black people, threatened to leave the U.S. if President Obama was re-elected and made a snide crack about Martin Luther King Jr., the newspaper said. He reportedly wrote that every girl should be forced to get a "boob job" when she turns 18.
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Cassano, 23, also complained about his job as a city EMT, and alluded to a plan to follow in his father's footsteps and become a firefighter, the Post reported.?
In a statement issued through the FDNY, Cassano did not acknowledge specific tweets but said, "I regret posting some comments that were offensive, especially since I enjoy my job and treat every patient with great care and respect."
His father, Salvatore Cassano, a decorated firefighter who has headed the department since 2009, had no comment. An FDNY spokesman could not say whether the younger Cassano faces any disciplinary action.
The Fire Department has been embroiled in a federal lawsuit brought by the Justice Department in 2007 over its racial makeup, which was 89 percent white.
In 2010, a judge halted hiring and ordered the city to create a new entrance exam; the following year, he appointed a monitor to oversee recruitment and hiring. The city has appealed the rulings, but a record number of minorities took the latest test last spring, and 40 percent of those in line to get the coveted jobs are black or Hispanic.
Under new rules, employees of the Emergency Medical Service, which is part of the Fire Department, get priority consideration over other firefighter applicants after two years of service. The FDNY said Joseph Cassano has not taken an exam to become a firefighter.
A lawyer for the Vulcan Society -- a fraternal organization of black firefighters, which joined the feds' discrimination suit against the department -- called the tweets disgraceful.
"I suppose one shouldn't visit the sins of the son upon the parent, but as John lives at home with his father the FDNY commissioner you can't help wondering about the influence of that home on his disgracefully racist views," the lawyer, Richard Levy, said in an email to NBC News.
Ron Meier, New York regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said he was "encouraged" by Cassano's apology.
"The sentiment Mr. Cassano communicated in those posts threatens to damage and undermine public trust in FDNY. We urge Mr. Cassano to take meaningful steps that reflect the regret he has expressed," Meier said in a statement.
The head of the union that represents emergency medical technicians said that despite Cassano's statement of regret, he hopes the report is "not true."
"The union does not condone this type of behavior," said Israel Miranda, president of Local 2507 of District Council 37. "I'm sure if the allegations are true, the department will take the appropriate action."
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