Community Board Objects to 9/11 Terror Trial

MYFOXNY.COM - Community Board 1, which encompasses parts of Lower Manhattan, wants the Justice Department to move the Sept. 11 trials out of the borough. The board held a public meeting Tuesday evening.

Speaker after speaker at the hearing blasted the federal government, saying they fear the terrorism trials will turn Lower Manhattan into an armed camp, bordered with metal barriers and with bans on cars and even pedestrians.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that moving the trials to Governors Island won't work, so Community Board 1 passed a resolution to urge the federal Department of Justice to expand the list of possibilities. The board submitted suggestions for federal or military facilities in New York that could be better suited to host the trials.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was not consulted on the move to bring the trials to New York. The mayor said the decision is up to the feds.

Kelly has said that if the trials are indeed held in Manhattan, the cost of security will be astronomical and should be covered by the federal government.