Ex-FDNY inspector with Asperger's sues department for wrongful termination

From the NY Daily News:

A decorated ex-FDNY inspector who admits he threatened to kill his boss - but blames it on a neurological disorder - is suing the city for wrongful termination.

In court papers, Glenn Krasner says Fire Department brass discriminated against him because of his Asperger's syndrome, which he says caused his outbursts.

The department also wanted Krasner gone because he objected to what he said were shady ticketing practices, according to his suit.

Nonsense, says the city.

FDNY officials said Krasner's wacky - and scary - threats, along with his insubordination, led to his firing last November.

The 17-year department veteran "ominously" threatened to turn the FDNY's Metrotech headquarters into Virginia Tech, a reference to the Virginia university where crazed shooter Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people, according to a city administrative judge who approved his firing.

"Metrotech equals Virginia Tech," Krasner chanted at work on three occasions while referring to himself as "Cho," city records show.

He also vowed to shoot a deputy chief inspector using shotgun ammo and got in a chest-bumping match with him, the judge found. Krasner claims his antics were in jest.

"I wish I'd never said it," Krasner said yesterday of the Virginia Tech comments.

"I was making a stupid joke everybody laughed at," he told the Daily News. "They put it all out of proportion - and ruined my life."

Krasner still proudly displays three FDNY awards in his Parkchester, Bronx, apartment, including one for 2006 Inspector of the Year.

He says his "threats" stemmed from clashes with bosses over unnecessary citations.

"It went against my whole morality," he said.