After statues, I suppose it was only a matter of time before memorials honoring the first responders who lost their lives on 9/11 were defaced. And in the New York village of Washingtonville, that’s exactly what happened this week: A flagpole (honoring five local firemen who died saving others) was sawed in half and covered in graffiti. Over four hundred emergency workers willingly gave their lives to save others during the September 11 attacks. But their sacrifice didn’t stop there. Additionally, ABC News reported last year that:
More than 10 times the number of NYPD police officers have died in the 18 years since 9/11 as were killed in the terror attack on the World Trade Center itself, officials said.
The grim statistic comes in the wake of a protracted battle for funding to compensate ill first responders and other survivors as well as the families of those who died. President Trump recently signed into law a permanent extension of the funding for the Victim Compensation Fund, which would have run out of money by December 2020.
So, what does Mayor Bill de Blasio intend to do to repay the NYPD? Last month, in response to the recent Black Lives Matter protests, he vowed to cut their funding by $1 billion.