At the ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the Lower Manhattan bike path terrorist attacks, Mayor de Blasio thanked attending politicians by name, praised Halloween parade-goers and first responders, but did not deign to mention Diego Enrique Angelini, Nicholas Cleves, Ann-Laure Decadt, Darren Drake, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferruchi, Hernan Diego Mendoza and Alejandro Damian Pagrucco – the eight people murdered in the attack.
When reminded of his error by one of the mourners in attendance, he did read the names, but the insult remains.
The mother of Nicholas Cleves was told of this morning’s ceremony at 4:00pm yesterday. She was out of town and unable to attend on such short notice.
Various excuses were made by mayoral staff.
“The program didn’t originally include a reading of the names [emphasis added]. When the families raised the issue, he agreed and read the names,” City Hall’s Eric Phillips told Rich Calder and Ruth Brown of the NY Post. He blamed the late invitation on last-minute planning. “While the event came together very recently, they should have been invited earlier.”
The victims and their families deserve so much better than this.
