Posted on 03/25/2005 12:53:46 PM PST by MatrixMetaphore
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York City's Fire Department must release audiotapes and transcripts of interviews conducted with firefighters who responded to the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it can withhold portions that could cause serious pain or embarrassment, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.
The decision by the Court of Appeals was part of a three-pronged ruling that also determined what portions of 911 calls and dispatch communications must be disclosed by the city.
The ruling came in response to a Freedom of Information request by The New York Times. The newspaper wanted to examine tapes of 911 calls made from the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as interviews later conducted with firefighters for an oral history of the tragedy.
Under the decision, the Fire Department would have to return to the state's trial-level court and argue on a case-by-case basis that specific statements by firefighters interviewed for the oral history on the response to the attacks cause pain or embarrassment.
Times counsel David McCraw said the newspaper was pleased with the court ruling on the oral histories, saying they are part of an important record detailing the first impression of responders, which could help the public learn more about what happened that day.
Neither McCraw nor New York City officials could say when the information would be made available.
The Court of Appeals also affirmed a lower-court decision that Fire Department dispatches consisting of factual statements or instructions by personnel should be disclosed. But the high court said any opinions or recommendations expressed during those dispatch calls should be edited out.
The court also said only the operators' side of 911 calls, and not what the callers said, should be disclosed.
Judge Robert S. Smith said that while "the public has a legitimate interest in knowing how well or poorly the 911 system performed that day ... the public interest in the words of 911 callers is outweighed by the interest in privacy of those family members and callers who prefer that those words remain private."
The court also rejected arguments that such privacy protections do not apply to those killed. "We think this argument contradicts the common understanding of the word 'privacy,'" particularly when it comes to the families of the dead, Smith wrote.
Nine-One-What? Never heard of it.
Of course we are still barred from ever viewing the most graphic videos taken of the WTC area. I was 2 blocks away when the planes hit. There were bodies/parts everywhere. My anger at the terrorists is shared by my continued anger at the MSM for censoring footage to undermine our resolve to fight those terrorists.
My point exactly. The media wants you to believe it never happened, and if you're able to recall it, that 9-11 was a Bush campaign stunt.
the arm-chair-liberal-quarterbacks and other opportunists will have a field day spinning these...
Welcome to FR.
What possible purpose is there in this? Looks to me like some reasonably sick voyeurism.
One could see a very important HISTORICAL significance by there release.
However your reaction makes perfect sense, someone trying to capitalize politically or financially makes more sense than any altruistic purpose for posterity.
Who're you trying to kid?
How about the filthy New York Times writing and publishing the TRUTH about the horrible deaths and terrified people jumping from the towers? No doubt they'll just want to accuse the brave firefighters of torture and cruelty if they display any inpolitically correct speech!
PS I think the NYFD should just tell the judge to stick it. Better yet, just ignore them and watch them explode in haughty anger.
This will be a gold mine for the trial lawyers. Those vultures will pore over every second of the tapes, looking for every possible angle they can use to launch multi-million dollar lawsuits against anyone even tangentially involved with the FDNY's response on 9/11.
It could also be a gold mine for the democrats, who will also pore over those tapes looking for anything at all they can blame on George Bush and the Republicans.
When Dale Earnhardt died at Daytona, the Orlando Sentinel, another truly vile ultra-left fish wrap, tried to use the Florida sunshine laws to get hold of the autopsy photos, ostensibly to have them looked at by some "independent expert." Uhhh-huh. Those pics would have "accidentally" wound up all over the internet within hours of the Slantinel getting them. The Legislature responded by passing a law making autopsy pics exempt from the sunshine laws (we do do some things right down here).
The media screeched long and hard about how BushCo was bending the First Amendment over the hood of a car and oiling it up, and naturally they completely missed the main point - namely, that they are so mistrusted and held in such low regard by the public that we automatically assume they have the worst of intentions with anything they do. They simply will not face that fact, and they still wonder why they're sinking into irrelevance.
hmm. it appears that I dodged a bullet.
Ditto. My friend's husband worked for the PA and was at the WTC night and day for the first 3-4 weeks, working 12 hour shifts. He could barely eat or sleep; in all that time he didn't recover one whole body--just "chopped meat" as he put it.
Maybe people need to see what a terrorist attack really looks like. But our liberal MSM doesn't want us to get angry at their terrorist friends, I guess.
And the phone calls--some were calm goodbyes, probably still in shock, but many were screaming, begging and pleading. You won't hear those either, no doubt.
If I could, I would make every poster in DUmmie land, and every student of professors like Ward Churchill listen to the tapes and watch the videos of people dying on 9/11 every day of their worthless lives.
I was on a job as a computer consultant to a brokerage house. A group of guys took one elevator down to get some coffee and bagels, etc. We entered the second one a minute later. Halfway down we heard the impact, but didnt know what it was. A bomb perhaps. LOUD. When we emerged in the Lobby we saw what had happened. We walked towards the North Tower. One of the brokers who had taken that first elevator had been hit by falling debris and killed instantly. It all happened that fast. What came in the next 20 minutes was a horror worse than any film I had ever seen. I could not sleep for many days. My apartment roof had a view of the Towers. For days I just sat up there and stared at the plume of smoke. To this day I have never visited Ground Zero. the day we have the dead body of Bin Laden I will go back down there.
I can't imagine the nightmares you must have from what you witnessed. It was bad enough just living outside NY and hearing the bagpipes everyweekend all during the fall of 2001, weekend after weekend of funerals for NYFD and NYPD. Bad enough to see the cars in the train station parking lot, those marked for ID purposes, the drivers never to return.
I teared up at your snippet of what it was like to have been there and I get angry at those who have forgotten or never cared to begin with. And like you I also will go to the site,but not until we get the proud architect of this human horror, the monster bin laden.
I will pray for you. People forget this was like a pebble in a pond--the rings of victims radiate outward and there are many of us who still suffer.
Thank you. I am touched by your sentiments.
I always miss it. Was it Ward Churchill in disguise?
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