DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Two fire department union officials surrendered to police Monday, joining 12 firefighters and officials charged in a protest last week at the World Trade Center site.
Inside the Ground Zero Protest
AP Photo/Stuart Ramson
Firefighters rally at ground zero at the disaster site of New York's World Trade Center, Friday
Nov. 2, 2001. Firefighters protested a plan to scale back the number of fire and police personnel
searching for remains at the World Trade Center site. Some firefighters, who were among several
hundred protesters, tangled with police who initially refused to allow them into the sealed-off
area around the collapsed towers.
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A handful of police officers were injured in scuffles with firefighters, who were objecting to their numbers at the disaster site being reduced. They said they wanted to keep searching for the remains of fallen firefighters and other victims.
Matthew James, the Brooklyn trustee for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, and Thomas Manley, the union's sergeant-at-arms, were expected to be charged with criminal trespassing. Both men said they were innocent and did nothing wrong at the demonstration Friday.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's new policy limits the number of firefighters and police officers helping to recover the remains. Giuliani has said they could be injured because of heavy equipment and crowding.
There are now 25 firefighters and 25 officers allowed to work at the site at a time. The number had been as high as 150 officers and firefighters.
Over the weekend, the UFA's president, Kevin Gallagher, and the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Peter Gorman, were arrested. Both were charged with trespassing.
The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to prosecute two of the 12 firefighters arrested after Friday's protest. The other 10 were charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing governmental administration.
Tom Butler, a spokesman for the UFA, stressed that the firefighters working down at ground zero are doing it voluntarily, not on overtime.
