By Josh Williams and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
BATTERY PARK CITY — The city honored 10 NYPD officers who died of illnesses after responding to the 9/11 attacks in a somber memorial in Battery Park City Tuesday.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and family and friends of the victims watched as a black veil rose to reveal the names of the fallen, newly etched into a granite wall memorializing officers who died in the line of duty.
“We are here today to pay humble tribute to those who were willing to lay down their lives to protect us and to renew a solemn pledge to them, to their loved ones gathered here today, and also to ourselves,” Bloomberg said.
“We pledge to carry on the mission that they so bravely advanced, and to protect our city against all the perils it may face.”
The mayor, who at first was publicly skeptical of the link between toxins from the World Trade Center attacks and illnesses in 9/11 responders, used the memorial as an opportunity to urge Congress to pass the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.
He said the legislation was necessary for the monitoring and treatment of people suffering because of the attacks.
However, Bloomberg's office was careful not to make a direct connection between the deaths of the first responders and their work at Ground Zero on 9/11 in press release about the memorial. The mayor's office said the first responders “may have died of September 11-related illness.”
While the mayor's office skirted the semantics of the health issues, Battery Park officials applauded the NYPD for their efforts to protect New York from another attack.
“We have not had a terrorist attack since 9/11, more than eight years ago,” said James Gill, the chairman of the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority. “That is not an accident, it’s a result of unrelenting hard work.”
Officers in their dress blues looked on as the traditional bagpipes and drums of The Emerald Society played and children were lifted to the Battery Park City Monument to trace their fingers along the names of their loved ones.
Before leaving, Bloomberg took a yellow leaf from the memorial site, which he said he would carry around Tuesday in memory of Detective Sandra Adrian, Police Officer Madeline Carlo, Captain Edward Gilpin, Sergeant Claire Hanrahan, Police Officer Robert Helmke, Detective William Holfester, Police Officer Patrice Ott, Detective Roberto Rivera, Sergeant Michael Ryan, and Sergeant Edward Thompson, the fallen officers.
