Retired Port Authority police ask NYC mayor and governor to skip 9/11 ceremony
Retired Port Authority police officers have written letters urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul not to attend the 25th-anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero, saying their presence would cause pain to victims’ families.
Retired members of the Port Authority Police Association sent letters on Aug. 14 to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, requesting that they refrain from attending the September 11, 2001, 25th-anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero. The association’s president, John McDevitt, said the event should remain a solemn remembrance for those killed, the first responders and survivors, and that the presence of the two elected officials could "inflict deep pain" on families and shift focus away from the victims.
McDevitt noted that 37 Port Authority police officers were killed in the attacks and urged the officials to honor the anniversary through a written statement or a separate event instead of appearing at the site. He also criticized Governor Hochul’s decision to illuminate One World Trade Center for Muslim American Heritage Month, describing the use of the World Trade Center for that observance as "insensitive" and "tone-deaf."
Governor Hochul’s office responded that she has "enormous respect for all the families who lost loved ones on 9/11" and will "proudly stand alongside them" at the ceremony, adding that Muslim New Yorkers served as first responders and that Islamophobia has no place in the state. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum said the annual ceremony is kept free of politics, with attending officials asked to remain in a designated area and not deliver remarks.
A petition launched in July by Giovanni Galante, whose wife died in the attacks, has gathered more than 95,000 signatures calling for Mamdani to be barred from the ceremony. Former White House spokesman Michael LaRosa signed the petition, warning that the mayor’s attendance could become a "lightning rod" that diverts attention from victims and their families.