Fort Lauderdale ex-police chief hits back after being fired over diversity promotions

Larry Scirotto says he promoted minority candidates because they were exceptional - not because they were minority'

Fort Lauderdale's now-former police chief has hit back at officials in the Florida city who fired him after just six months on the job, accusing him of focusing too heavily on a diversity policy in hiring and promotion.

Larry Scirotto, 48, the son of a white mother and Black father and the department's first openly gay chief, was fired last Thursday after a city report related examples such as how he had once pointed to a display of photos of the department's command staff in a conference room and said: That wall is too white" and I'm gonna change that."