When police officers began forcefully removing firefighters from the scene, a brawl ensued between the two departments. "Five police officers were injured during the protest, Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said, adding that there could be more arrests. The 10 firefighters arraigned Saturday _ including three union officials _ were charged with criminal trespassing. Some were also charged with obstructing governmental administration and harassment. Earlier charges of inciting to riot, a felony, were dropped." Giuliani then claimed that the process of cleanup needed to be expedited for the sake of the firefighters, and when that didn't work, the excuse was the need for the quick construction of a memorial of some sort or another building, and yet neither of those things happened. Ground Zero still remains an empty space for the shortened lives of restless ghosts, and broken families.
``We were given very, very strong advice that this site was a disaster waiting to happen,'' Giuliani said. ``Our concern has to be for the lives of the people who are working there now.'' Firefighters claimed that more than 200 of their comrades were still buried in that rubble and that they wanted to recover the remains of their fallen with dignity. "Giuliani modified his policy after the protest because public opinion was so strongly with our members. Ultimately, he was forced to put the fire fighters back on the pile. Our protests were later proven justified as more bodies were ultimately recovered and those families given a chance for closure and a decent burial. 2007 and bones are still discovered all the time at site.
"Giuliani argued that the change was for our own safety, but his argument was empty and without substance. Fire fighters had been on that pile since minutes after the twin towers fell - why all of a sudden, after nearly two months working on the pile, was Giuliani concerned about fire fighter safety? " Firefighters' have an honor code much like that of the military in that they leave no one behind. "Recovering even a piece of a turnout coat or helmet gave our FDNY brothers and sisters and the families of the fallen some small semblance of peace, something to honor. But hundreds remained entombed in Ground Zero when Giuliani gave up on them. The fundamental lack of respect that Giuliani showed our FDNY members is unforgivable - and that's why he was not invited. Our disdain for him is not about issues or a disputed contract, it is about a visceral, personal affront to the fallen, to our union and, indeed, to every one of us who has ever risked our lives by going into a burning building to save lives and property."
The mainstream press also assumes gold as the reason for the 'scoop and dump' policy, yet my investigation hints to another cover-up. Giuliani and the city of New York spent $1000 on individual GPS navigation systems, to tag wreckage and insure its traceable delivery to barges which would expedite the disappearance of meaningful evidence. Never in the history of fire has any steel structured building lost structural integrity due to flames and yet on 9/11/2001 we had 3 buildings ''collapse' in perfect synchronous style, only WTC 1 and 2 were hit by airliners, WTC 7 also 'collapsed' and still no 'official' answers as to why? One must ask why Giuliani and the city would spend all that money just to tag and trace every piece of wreckage leaving the site and then go through the what seems unnecessary trouble to ship it abroad . The drivers who drove this wreckage out were told not to detour from their destination, and not to stop, not even to use the bathroom. "Ninety-nine percent of the drivers were extremely driven to do their jobs. But there were big concerns, because the loads consisted of highly sensitive material. One driver, for example, took an extended lunch break of an hour and a half. There was nothing criminal about that, but he was dismissed."
Rating: User: IndependentFreePress 2007-07-01T18:03:58.603Z
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Giuliani | September | criminal | firefighters | toxicity | EPA | cover-up | Ground | Zero | populistamerica | Free | Press |