9/11 Remains Used to Fill Potholes

Nice:

The pulverized remains of bodies from the World Trade Center disaster site were used by city workers to fill ruts and potholes, a city contractor says in a sworn affidavit filed Friday in Manhattan Federal Court.

Eric Beck says debris powders - known as fines - were put in a pothole-fill mixture by crews at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, N.Y., where more than 1.65 million tons of World Trade Center debris were deposited after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I observed the New York City Department of Sanitation taking these fines from the conveyor belts of our machines, loading it onto tractors and using it to pave roads and fill in potholes, dips and ruts," Eric Beck said.
There's more at the link, in which Beck describes being pushed to hurry through sifting debris, possibly missing remains. Such a horrific job in the first place—I can't imagine some shithead of a boss telling me to make quick work of finding the body parts of my neighbors.

The shoddy recovery work aside, why on earth would any debris from the WTC disaster, no less fines, be used to fill ruts and potholes anyway? Nice Department of Sanitation ya had there, Mr. America's Mayor.

Mind you, I don't give a shit what happens to my body after I die; in fact, if my pulverized remains were used to fill a pothole on Lake Shore Drive, I'd actually think that was pretty cool—so I'm not really reacting to the (what some people might find) gruesome part of this story, per se. I'm not sure, however, that my family and friends would be equally thrilled, particularly if it were done without my or their permission. Mr. Shakes isn't especially romantic about what happens to his body after he dies, either, but, even knowing that, I can't pretend I'd be emotionless about finding out it had been used in construction work if he died tragically, especially in a tragedy the current president and leading GOP nominee had used to turn themselves into supposed heroes. It just shows such a deep disrespect for the 9/11 families, who have been given the runaround since Day One on so much stuff.

And, you know, for all the protestations people can make about what the hell else they were supposed to do with 1.65 million tons of debris, the truth is, obviously even the people doing this knew it was bullshit, or else it wouldn't have taken some low-level employee testifying under oath for us to find out about it. That's kind of the main point. If it's wasn't a big deal, then it shouldn't have been a secret. Or, conversely, it shouldn't have been a secret, and maybe then it wouldn't be such a big deal now—but telling hard truths, like "We don't have anywhere to put this stuff, so it's going into the streets," means treating people like adults, and that's something Republican administrations (presidential or mayoral) are never very keen to do.

H/T C&L.

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