Police Brutality at Ground Zero

NEW YORK CITY

As a supervising engineer for the Department of Design and Construction, Michael Kenny was detailed to Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks. He followed all the rules governing the site and expected everyone else to do the same.

But he never expected that doing so would get him in trouble with the law. That's why it shocked his co-workers — members of Local 375 (DC 37) — when the 15-year veteran was beaten up, then arrested, by Port Authority (PA) police.

Kenny was the overnight shift supervisor of the clean-up site on April 13 last year. That night, a PA officer took a group of civilians in a van for a sight-seeing tour of Ground Zero, although a laborer there told the passengers that they did not have the required hard hats and respirators. When the officer ignored the warning, the laborer reported the violation to Kenny, who told him to file a report.

Six PA officers, he says, then confronted both men, and in the ensuing scuffle, he suffered bruises of the head and face.

But his travails didn't end there: He now faces criminal charges at a trial this spring.

In a show of solidarity, over 450 city workers have rallied in support of Kenny. They signed a petition calling on the District Attorney to drop all charges against him and investigate the police beatings. They have also accused PA police of a cover-up. Says 375's Ron Vega, a construction design manager who worked with Kenny at Ground Zero: "It's the ultimate in police brutality, because it happened on hallowed ground."