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American Morning

Firefighters Not Expected to Protest

Aired November 05, 2001 - 11:16   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: Back in New York City now, ten firefighters arrested after a hot-tempered scuffle between firefighters and police last Friday.

Back to ground zero and Michael Okwu with more on this -- Michael?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, there are no scheduled protests today. In the words of a spokesperson with the Uniformed Firefighters Association: Today we're going back to mourning our dead. Seven firefighters will be remembered in services around New York City today. So again, no scheduled protest, but that of course could change.

Now, yesterday, the president of the union representing fire officers was charged with criminal trespassing, 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: Like I said all along, that the police just pulled 12 people out during a peaceful protest. And I think what happened today from the felony charges to the reductions to 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 fire commissioner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now this, of course, all stems from a very emotional protest on Friday where five police officers were injured, 12 firefighters were arrested on felony charges.

But in the case of two firefighters, those charges were dropped. Prosecutors reduced the charges to misdemeanors for the remaining 10 firefighters.

Now Mayor Giuliani has emphatically stood by his decision. This is a mayor who tends to stand by his decisions. He said that he made the order as a result of safety concerns and he called the behavior of the firefighters completely unacceptable. The police commissioner says that he will not tolerate any more violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNARD KERIK, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: I don't know what's going on, but I know it's got to stop. The police department and the fire department has worked tremendously together over the last seven or eight weeks. We've had a great working relationship and that has to continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now, you are looking at live pictures of ground zero, a site that has become very common since September 11. A flag here at half-staff. And, of course, you can see the heavy cranes in the back lifting what remains of the rubble here. Smoke continues to rise from ground zero. All morning, we have seen all kinds of particles flying through the air, a suggestion -- perhaps an indication -- that the air quality here is very, very bad indeed.

But none of this seems to affect the firefighters. There are still some 3,933 people missing, 246 of them are firefighters. And the firefighters we spoke to said that they can not return to any kind of normalcy until all of their remains are found -- Bill.

HEMMER: Michael Okwu at ground zero.

And as the mayor has said for many weeks now, many of those missing, those bodies may never be found there at the World Trade Center site.

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