A group of relatives of victims from the September 11th terrorist attacks delivered a petition to New York City Hall Tuesday, urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to abstain from attending memorial ceremonies for the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The petition, which has garnered over 102,000 signatures, was handed to Mamdani's chief of staff.
The families expressed frustration with the mayor's confirmed attendance at the upcoming annual ceremony where the names of all 2,983 victims will be read aloud. "It's not about his religion or where he came from. It's about the policies he has today," said Cheri Sparacio, whose husband, Tom Sparacio, was killed at Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of the South Tower.
Some family members also voiced objections to Mayor Mamdani's hiring of Ramzi Kassem as his chief counsel, noting Kassem's previous representation of an al Qaeda terrorist held at Guantanamo Bay in 2014. "It is today that he hires people like Ramzi Kassem… That is what we object to," Sparacio stated.
The petition was initiated in July by Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace Catherine Galante died in the attacks, calling for the mayor to forgo the ceremony. Monica Iken, who lost her husband Michael Patrick Iken, a bond broker on the 84th floor of the South Tower, echoed the sentiment, asking, "I don’t know why he’s so adamant about this one when we just ask that he respect us from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m."
Mayor Mamdani has indicated he intends to participate in the memorial ceremony and other commemorative events this week. His administration also announced plans to release over 170,000 pages of documents related to air quality concerns around Ground Zero in the months following the attacks. Additionally, Mamdani signed two executive orders last week, including one establishing September 11 as a "Citywide Day of Remembrance Service."