VTMBH Article: Body
Captured on camera, NYPD Sgt. Stanley George would have seemed like a hero in a volatile action movie: On his first day at a new job, he was escorting prisoners to be arraigned in court at 8:45 am on September 11, when the Twin Towers which loomed above started exploding.
After bundling the 100-odd prisoners into police wagons and driving them to a prison at breakneck speed, he returned just in time to watch the second tower explode in flames. Now when I think of it, I cant imagine how we drove right to where death was. I remember trying to tread carefully on the bodies but kept trampling on arms and legs as we tried to get closer to a building, he said. With another police officer, George barged into a building close to the Twin Towers he cannot remember which one and started evacuating terrified people. As a police officer I had been trained to deal with death but nothing prepared me for that day.
According to unofficial figures, there are fewer than 20 Indian police officers in the New York Police Department and not a single Indian works as a firefighter. George, in fact, joined the police despite his family not wanting him to. But dealing with the WTC tragedy on the first day of work has taken its toll on him. I just realize how vulnerable we all are.
When the second building exploded, I just felt like everybody else, the helplessness of the situation. Some people sat about crying; they had given up even trying to run away. All of us acted because others around us were doing so, he said, adding, I did not have time to recollect anything until days later.
For Thomas Anthony, the memory of September 11 is one he cant wish away. A sergeant in the Special Operations Division at the time of the attacks, Anthony has nightmares about people falling from the windows of the Twin Towers. The worst part is that even the nightmares cannot beat the reality. On September 11, he was in Manhattan, near Harlem, driving around the block with another police officer. They reached WTC in time to see the second plane veering into the second tower. It was tough to do anything, as the air was exploding outside. Finally we tried to get some civilians to move away from the building, as we did not know if it would be safe for too long. But today that place where we stayed on on the South Bridge is the only place still intact. His biggest regret: I could not save a life.
Rinu Rajan, a police officer with the Transit section, reported to the site of the disaster immediately after his shift, working there as part of a human chain removing rubble one bucket at a time for up to six hours. I worked three weeks straight, hoping to find a body of one of my colleagues, he said. And he doesnt want any recognition for what he did. I did it for myself, to make things all right for everybody. It was pure instinct. On lonely nights at the Brooklyn 34th precinct, when he is on subway duty, he sometimes senses the hate coming from passersby. They look at the color of my skin and I can hear their unspoken words, he said.
After bundling the 100-odd prisoners into police wagons and driving them to a prison at breakneck speed, he returned just in time to watch the second tower explode in flames. Now when I think of it, I cant imagine how we drove right to where death was. I remember trying to tread carefully on the bodies but kept trampling on arms and legs as we tried to get closer to a building, he said. With another police officer, George barged into a building close to the Twin Towers he cannot remember which one and started evacuating terrified people. As a police officer I had been trained to deal with death but nothing prepared me for that day.
According to unofficial figures, there are fewer than 20 Indian police officers in the New York Police Department and not a single Indian works as a firefighter. George, in fact, joined the police despite his family not wanting him to. But dealing with the WTC tragedy on the first day of work has taken its toll on him. I just realize how vulnerable we all are.
When the second building exploded, I just felt like everybody else, the helplessness of the situation. Some people sat about crying; they had given up even trying to run away. All of us acted because others around us were doing so, he said, adding, I did not have time to recollect anything until days later.
For Thomas Anthony, the memory of September 11 is one he cant wish away. A sergeant in the Special Operations Division at the time of the attacks, Anthony has nightmares about people falling from the windows of the Twin Towers. The worst part is that even the nightmares cannot beat the reality. On September 11, he was in Manhattan, near Harlem, driving around the block with another police officer. They reached WTC in time to see the second plane veering into the second tower. It was tough to do anything, as the air was exploding outside. Finally we tried to get some civilians to move away from the building, as we did not know if it would be safe for too long. But today that place where we stayed on on the South Bridge is the only place still intact. His biggest regret: I could not save a life.
Rinu Rajan, a police officer with the Transit section, reported to the site of the disaster immediately after his shift, working there as part of a human chain removing rubble one bucket at a time for up to six hours. I worked three weeks straight, hoping to find a body of one of my colleagues, he said. And he doesnt want any recognition for what he did. I did it for myself, to make things all right for everybody. It was pure instinct. On lonely nights at the Brooklyn 34th precinct, when he is on subway duty, he sometimes senses the hate coming from passersby. They look at the color of my skin and I can hear their unspoken words, he said.