Posted on 11/03/2001 3:31:43 AM PST by chainsaw
Angry New York firemen storm Ground Zero site
By Simon English in New York
(Filed: 03/11/2001)NEW YORK firemen attacked police yesterday during protests over the scaling down of recovery operations at the World Trade Centre.
Eleven firemen, including a captain and a fire marshal, were arrested as they stormed the wreckage at Ground Zero to demonstrate against plans to cut the number of their colleagues at the site to 24.
Protesters flipped wooden barricades on to police before seizing cranes from construction workers to use as podiums to address a 1,000-strong crowd. At the height of rescue efforts, up to 2,500 firemen worked in the rubble of the towers.
Rudolph Giuliani, mayor of New York, wants to cut the numbers on safety grounds, although protesters say the move is a cost-cutting exercise to reduce overtime payments.
A maximum of 24 police would also be allowed to work on the site. Firemen were angry that the remains of 250 colleagues so far unaccounted for would be placed in bins. More than 340 firemen and 23 police died in the September 11 attacks.
Protesters chanted, "Do the right thing!" and held placards reading "Mayor Giuliani, let us bring our brothers home" as they marched towards the sealed area around the collapsed towers. The scuffles were followed by a minute of silence before the march continued.
Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers' Association, said the mayor's decision had made the recovery work "a scoop and dump operation".
"The reduction in emergency personnel is really an attempt to speed up debris removal and it is upsetting to the families," he added.
One fireman, Bob McGuire, whose nephew Richard Allen was among those lost in the rubble, said: "I don't want him to end up in a dumpster."
New York's strained finances face a further buffeting from overtime claims for emergency work at the site.
The police department faces a bill of £1.2 billion. In addition, many fire and police officers are expected to seek early retirement - their pensions boosted by the extra hours which have topped up their final salaries.
How quickly they forget... I can't even imagine this being done...
Didn't Bush release $40 billion in federal funds for this gound zero clean up? What happened to that? Did the clinton put that in her campaign war chest?
This is sickening to me, though. I can't imagine anyone being able to arrest any of these guys.
Guess the hero status wore off with the tv coverage ending? Fickle people...
Over time is a hard thing to give up once you get used to it, I guess.
(Note to NYFD: There's nothing left of the victims at this point.)
They won't end up in dumpsters.
They'll be tossed in the landfill with the rest of the garbage now that the GOLD HAS BEEN RETRIEVED.
At least that appears to be the message that Rudy and his henchmen are trying to send.
And did anyone catch that little weasel sidekick of Rudy's at the press conference? I wanted to kick the TV right in his teeth.
People watch too many movies and think heroes are saints...instead of regular people who rise to the occasion.
Yes, I used my post to you to cover all the replies...:-). I like replying to intelligent posts...
I feel awful for these guys because I can understand their wanting to bring their brothers out with respect. I can see the city's pt of view in wanting minimize risk and costs. But I think there's gotta be a way to let the firement honor their dead by continuing to bring them out and deal w/the costs - after all, the money donated to the disaster could be used to pay overtime costs after a fixed amount goes to all the families tragically affected in NYC, DC, and those on the plane that went down in PA.
Once again, the charities better get off their duffs and start getting the money to the affected people and then help out the city on the cost end. After all, it is why we across the country gave the money in the first place.
Sorry for the rant, I just really feel for those firemen and know they must be at the end of their ropes, emotionally.
Ground zero is still a dangerous site and it is the Mayor's job to protect all the people of the city.
Sprry about that, I didn't see it yesterday. I did do a search on FR before posting and nothing came up.
This is a very relavent issue and I'm glad you posted the article.
Scuffles broke out between the hundreds of firefighters demonstrating and police after protesters were prevented from entering a sealed-off area of the site. A number of people were arrested.
"The kind of conduct displayed today is unacceptable," said Mr Giuliani.
"You can't hit police officers, you can't disobey the law and you have to have enough professionalism and dignity about yourself to not conduct yourself in that way."
Firefighters say unless they continue with the search for bodies, many human remains will end up discarded along with tons of rubble being removed by construction workers.
Earlier in the week, Mr Giuliani announced plans to scale back the number of firefighters involved in the search for bodies.
Mr Giuliani said he wanted to reduce the recovery team from about 100 to 25 because the site was becoming increasingly dangerous.
"Here's what we have to make sure doesn't happen - that we don't have any more fatalities there, that we don't lose any more lives there," he said on Friday.
Firefighters say the mayor's decision has more to do with money, with millions of dollars being paid in overtime to their men who have been working round-the-clock since the twin towers were destroyed on 11 September.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association (UFA), which led the protest, said Mr Giuliani was "in essence eliminating the department's dignified attempt to recover emergency workers who lost their lives".
Many protesters held placards and chanted: "Do the right thing", as union leaders using loud hailers criticised New York City officials.
A senior police officer appealed for the firefighters to calm down, telling them: "This is not a confrontation."
Riot police
It was a rare display of disunity between the emergency services, who have worked hand-in-hand since the attacks, becoming New York's unofficial heroes.
Demonstrators marched through the city to deliver a letter of protest to Mr Giuliani's office, where they were met by police in riot gear and on horseback.
About 5,000 people perished in the attacks on the World Trade Center, including more than 340 firefighters.
The UFA estimates more than 265 of their colleagues remain buried under tons of debris.
Firefighter Bob McGuire, whose nephew was among those lost in the wreckage, said some bodies had been removed with the rubble.
"I don't want him to end up in a dumpster," he said.
Apparently the city intends to halt rescue all operations and the 24 firefighters on the scene will be kept in a ?pen? and when something is sighted they will be permitted to retrieve the remains. O?Reilly asked him about possible disintegration of bodies, in other words nothing is left to retrieve. The head of the UFA said that that is a lie since most of the firefighters were on the ground and they in fact pulled twelve intact FF from the scene on Friday.
The operation will be reduced to giant scoops and dump trucks taking everything to the dump. Imagine if your brother, dad or son died there. How would you feel if their remains were treated as common garbage?
I also heard that the downtown businessmen are putting pressure on the city to speed the cleanup because it is hampering their business.
I find it all so appalling and I am with the FDNY on this. These men have been stretched to the breaking point and they have my deepest sympathy. The firefighters have an unwritten code like the Marines and other military men that they do not leave anyone behind including the corpses of their dead.
Certainly something can be worked out between Guliani and the firefighters on this matter. If not, the head of the UFA stated they are not going to let what is planned happen and if need be firefighters from across the nation will descend on ground zero and take over to get their fallen brothers and other victims.
I am right behind them. What has happened to honor? They were all hailed as heroes and now they are being treated as trash. I for one will not stand for it.
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