Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said yesterday he hopes firefighters and police officers killed on 9/11 receive special tribute in a Ground Zero memorial, taking a public stance on the controversial issue for the first time.August 8, 2003 -- Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said yesterday he hopes firefighters and police officers killed on 9/11 receive special tribute in a Ground Zero memorial, taking a public stance on the controversial issue for the first time.
"I believe the rescue workers need to have special recognition, [although] I don't know the right way to do that," said Giuliani, after meeting with the 13-member jury that will choose the memorial design.
Giuliani, who has skirted the controversy until now, told reporters he did not raise the issue of the rescue workers with the jury, instead emphasizing that "the historical significance of the space should dominate any design."
Firefighters and cops want uniformed rescue workers to be identified separately in the memorial, perhaps by listing their unit or badge number - but many relatives of the office workers who died on 9/11 want all victims honored equally.
The jury, which also met with Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg yesterday, has been working under a cloak of secrecy. Neither Pataki nor Bloomberg were shown any of the submissions.
The jury will select a winning design by October.
