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CNN Saturday Morning News
New York City Firefighters Clashed With Police Officers
Aired November 03, 2001 - 09:11 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures from Ground Zero this morning. About a dozen New York firefighters face charges ranging from inciting a riot to assault today. That comes after hundreds of firefighters clashed with police yesterday near the site of the World Trade Center disaster zone.
For the latest, let's go now to CNN's Brian Palmer in New York.
Good morning to you, Brian.
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Martin.
The strangest, the most astounding thing yesterday was to see New York City firefighters grappling with New York City police officers, essentially New York City's bravest taking on New York City's finest.
Now, the firefighters' goal, they say, was to get into Ground Zero to have a moment of silence for their fallen comrades, for the men who died on September 11. They were also protesting the mayor's decision to scale back the number of firefighters and uniformed personnel who take part in the day-to-day recovery operation.
Now, up until now, you've had dozens of firefighters, some days hundreds of firefighters, participating in the recovery operations. The mayor is scaling those numbers back to 24 firefighters, 24 police officers on site.
The firefighters' message has been simply, Let us rescue our fallen comrades, let us search for those bodies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: The people of the city of New York are being fooled by the mayor. He wants us out of there. He doesn't want to recover any more people, because there's no money to be made down there. They have to put up buildings, get tourism back, start bringing in the public again so they can spend money. And we are slowing them down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PALMER: Now, Martin, the mayor's message has been, this is about safety. The fewer people on site, the fewer people taking part in these recovery operations, the fewer injuries they will have. Now, the result of these melees yesterday, you had five injured cops and 10 firefighters or retired firefighters charged with a range of misdemeanors or violations, things like disorderly conduct. But two of those men charged with a more -- the more serious obstructing governmental administration. That charge carries up to a one-year penalty, one year in prison. These men go before a judge December 18.
Now, the situation has been complicated a little bit because the fire department no longer controls operations at Ground Zero. Up until a day ago -- excuse me, up until a few days ago, Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen was the incident commander here at Ground Zero. The mayor transferred authority to another city agency, the Department for Design and Construction. So essentially the fire department is no longer in the driver's seat -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: Brian, is there any indication that these protests may rekindle again today?
PALMER: There -- well, from what we see now, no. But more action has been promised, because the issue has not been settled. You still have dozens of firefighters or remains that have not been discovered, and firefighters wanting to recover those remains. Even today there are a number of memorial services going on around New York. Yesterday there were seven or eight. There are more today.
This is a very, very, very emotional issue for members of the New York City Fire Department -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: Well, obviously their hearts -- our hearts go out to the firefighters. But there are thousands of civilians that are unaccounted for as well. Do they, the firefighters, talk about them?
PALMER: What you heard yesterday, I think, was immediate concern for their brethren. But when we talked to some of the firefighters, they do express concern down the line for the thousands of people, yes, the thousands of people that are still missing, accountants, police officers, just regular civilians -- Martin.
SAVIDGE: CNN's Brian Palmer near Ground Zero this morning. Thank you very much.
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