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American Morning

Protests at Ground Zero Result in Felony Charges

Aired November 05, 2001 - 10:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In New York City, a second leader of the firefighters union has been charged now in connection with last week's scuffle at the ruins of the World Trade Center site. Firefighters tussled with police in a protest over city efforts to scale down the recovery effort.

Michael Okwu tracking that story this morning with more now in New York.

Michael, good morning.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Bill.

There are no scheduled protests today. In the words of one representative with the Uniformed Firefighters Association, "Today we are going back to mourning our dead." Seven firefighters will be remembered today in services around the city. So at this point, again, no scheduled protest, but the day is still young.

Now yesterday, the president of the Union representing fire officers was charged with criminal trespass, one day after the head of the union representing firefighters was arrested on the same charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. PETER GORMAN, UNIFORMED FIRE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION: We have said all along that the police just pulled 12 people out during a -- during a peaceful protest. And I think what happened today from the felony charges to the reduction to (ph) two dismissals shows that we were exactly right and we believe ultimately these charges will be dismissed. And we think it was an overzealous, ranking member of the NYPD, not the police officers themselves. These charges were trumped up from the mayor's office, from the police commissioner and the (ph) fire commissioner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now again, this all stems from a very emotional protest Friday where 5 police officers were injured, 12 firefighters were arrested on felony charges, but in the case of two firefighters, those charges were dropped. Now prosecutors reduced the charges to misdemeanors for the remaining 10 firefighters.

Now Mayor Giuliani has emphatically stood by his decision. He said he made the order as a result of safety concerns and he called the behavior of the firefighters unacceptable. For his part, the police commissioner says that he will not tolerate any more violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD KERIK, NYC POLICE COMMISSIONER: Fire department members, police department members have been working down there around the clock, 24 hours a day for the past seven or eight weeks, that's what we want them to do there. It's not a protesting ground. It's not a site where people should be allowed to go to demonstrate and protest. There are people working there. Protests and demonstrations can be done elsewhere. They're not going to be done in ground zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now we would like to show you live pictures, there they are, of ground zero. The smoke continues to rise from the center and all morning we have seen dust particles flying through the air. It has seemed to be extraordinarily bad air quality this morning. Now some -- none of this appears to affect the firefighters. There are still 3,933 people missing, 246 of them firefighters. And the firefighters we spoke to say that they cannot return to any kind of normalcy until all 246 of those firefighters' remains are found -- Bill.

HEMMER: Michael Okwu in ground zero in Lower Manhattan. Michael, thanks.

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