July 8, 2008
Judge: City Doesn't Need to Sift Through WTC Debris for More Remains
A federal judge ruled in favor for the city, saying the city is not "required to re-sift through debris" from the World Trade Center in hopes of finding more human remains.
Some families felt the city should go back to Fresh Kills landfill--where almost 2 million tons of debris from the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks were dumped--and go through the tons of debris so they could recover remains for burial. The families, calling themselves the World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial, sued the city and noted that even medical examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch believed there were still remains mixed in with the debris. Some victims' relatives wrote an editorial in the Daily News in February, pointing out FEMA had dedicated $125 million to sift through the debris but the program ended "one year ahead of schedule and $58 million under budget."
However, judge Alvin Hellerstein agreed with the city that it would be impossible to know whether a loved one's remains were at Fresh Kills (according to the NY Times, the city's argument was, "for good or ill, a plaintiff’s property rights to claim a body for burial were predicated on knowing in fact that it belonged to a loved one") given how small the remains might be. Hellerstein said, "Not every wrong can be addressed through the judicial process. The grave harm suffered by the plaintiffs in this case is undeniable. But the jurisdiction of a court is limited."
The city had claimed it had completed the search for WTC remains prior to starting construction at Ground Zero, but some workers found fragments of bone while excavating in 2006, starting a new search for remains and more criticism for the city's approach. And in 2002, NPR visited the sifting efforts at Fresh Kills.
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I wonder how a conversation on that sifting line goes? "How about dem Knicks last night? They totally blew it again! Man, I said this is the last time I'm watching those fuckers but they keep sucking me back... WAIT! I got a fingerbone here! No. forget it. It's a chickenbone. Harry You dick! stop eating around the workplace."
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If this farce were in The Onion, people would think it even too silly for that satirical paper.
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Everyone else in the city is trying to move on, but we are held hostage by this one small group of people. I'm glad someone is finally drawing the line here.
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... $58 million under budget...
Not every wrong can be addressed through the judicial process.
Clearly, the age of miracles is not over.
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i'm a big defender of trade center families & their rights but even i have to say that this is stupid.
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These families need to start moving on. The idea of trying to sift through 2 million tons of wreckage for a second time, 7 years later, in the hope that a few bits of bone might be found, is just madness. Thank you Judge Hellerstein for saying it like it is.
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It's unfortunate that the city in its haste picked Fresh Kills as the place for placement of the debris. If another location, separate from the existing one, was found it would have been an appropriate place for a memorial and be "sacred" ground.
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Is it true they wanted a 750-foot-tall solid gold urn placed in Times Square with all the WTC debris inside?
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I think it's hindsight to say the city erred in using Fresh Kills. The amount of debris was simply enormous, and it had to go ASAP.
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The city already made a tremendous effort sifting through mountains of rubble looking for the most miniscule human remains possible. This is just a small group of people using their victim status to bully others around.
There are still American sailors entombed in the hulls of ships destroyed at Pearl Harbor and soldiers remains strewn about the fields of Gettysburg - these professional 9-11 martyrs are getting tiresome.
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Commenters #3 and #6 are obviously from Minnesota. Granted resifting through the rubble is ridiculous, but any NYer who was here in 2001 would never utter the words "move on".
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Fenian: I'm a NYer, I was here then, and while the words "move on" tend to be read as callous, the sentiment is the correct one. We're almost seven years on now; at some point, we have to be allowed to move past what happened. You [the general you, not you specifically] eventually have to find a way to pick yourself up before the grief and the pain consume you entirely. It's not healthy.
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Fair enough Outter. You raise some good points. If that works for you than god bless, but you can't believe everyone works like you. There are some people who will never recover and they can't be blamed for this or told to get over it. You just have to treat them with kid gloves because it's the right thing to do. Some people are strong enough to pick up and keep going, others are not. And taunting those who can not, or speaking derogatorily about them makes you come off as callous whether that was your intention or not.
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Fenian, I was supposed to be in the building when it got hit (I decided to eat breakfast instead that morning). The people in my office were on the phone with people in the buildings when they went down, and my business partner (at the time) had a voicemail left by a close friend just before he died in the building collapse. Even so, I agree with Outter that we should never forget, but we shouldn't dwell on it either. I understand that there were thousands who have been wronged in so many ways as a result of this, but to shift the focus on the gov't and make them re-sift through huge amounts of rubble is a bit much at this point. I thik it's a normal reaction to want to blame someone for the injustice, but this is a fruitless fight. Never forget, but move on with life because it will continue with or without you.
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If we live in constant mourning for the rest of our lives, the terrorists will have won at least a partial victory. I'm sure the families of the men who died at Pearl Harbor no longer hold anything against the Japanese. The families who absolutely refuse to let go should go sift through the debris themselves if they're so adamant.
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@Chosun: If you read my first post I said that I think resifting through the debris is ridiculous. Having been personally involved in the recovery for six months I can tell you that we did a very thorough job the first time around. My point was simply that telling people to move on or get over it comes off as crass and callous.
and @spiritof76: I still hate fundamentalists.
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@Spiritof76. Actually there are many survivors of Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima that still hold grudges against the Japanese. My father in-law who fought at Iwo Jima despised anything Japanese until the day he died three years ago.
I noticed five years ago that people outside of the New York metropolitan area had put 911 in the back of their minds. Unfortunately the inept individuals that are attempting to rebuild the area are loving this because as time drags on and they are getting paid for sitting on their asses complaining about why this project isn't moving along are raking in the dough.
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These families will let go. But not on anyone else's schedule. That tract at Fresh Kills should be set aside as a preserve to allow these people to indulge their grief as they see fit. Who does that harm? But the WTC site is another matter. It can't stay a pit much longer or nobody wins.
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All of Fresh Kills is going to be turned in to a park not that long from now:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/fresh_kills_park/html/history.html
Then they'll probably complain that people are walking on their family members' molecules.
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I sympathize with the families. But we are all walking on the dead, all the time.