Associated Press
NEW YORK — Authorities are dropping charges against all but one of the 18 firefighters arrested after a raucous protest at the World Trade Center site, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Saturday.
The firefighters were arrested after five police officers were injured during a Nov. 2 rally in which firefighters protested their numbers being reduced at the site.
The one case that will not be dropped, Giuliani said, involved a firefighter accused of hitting a police officer. The other cases mostly involved criminal trespassing and harassment, he said.
"What happened at ground zero … is unacceptable. I am very, very hopeful it will not happen again," Giuliani said. "But we want to be able to put this behind us so we can move ahead."
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the charges would be dismissed and would not show up on the firefighters’ records.
Citing safety concerns, Giuliani had sought to scale back the number of firefighters working at ground zero to 25. At one point, there had been as many as 150 firefighters and police officers at the site.
The decision angered firefighters still mourning the loss of 343 colleagues in the attacks. Many bodies have not been recovered, and the firefighters said they wanted to help find the remains of their friends and colleagues.
The number of firefighters working at the site was increased to 50 on Thursday.
Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who had been incensed over the scene of firefighters clashing with police officers, took a conciliatory tone Saturday.
"We saw firefighters and police officers working side by side, day and night, and they have been doing so for several weeks in an attempt to either rescue or recover members of our respective departments," Kerik said, standing alongside Giuliani, Morgenthau and Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen at a news conference.
Tom Butler, a spokesman for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the union supported the move.
"We do feel the dropping of charges is the right thing to do," he said.
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