Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2007 23:35:55 GMT -5
THEY DIDN'T DIE -- THEY WERE KILLED'
By STEVE DUNLEAVY
August 24, 2007 -- TOMMY McTIGUE talks as simply as he talks bluntly.
"It started out as a license to steal and ended up as a license to kill," he was saying.
Tommy, 68, a retired veteran firefighter and a member of the firefighter's Emerald Pipe Band for 40 years, was steaming.
"Those fallen brothers Joseph [Graffagnino] and Robert [Beddia] didn't die in an accident. They were killed."
At the funeral for Graffagnino in Brooklyn yesterday, Tommy addressed something that all city and state honchos seem to ignore.
Click here to read about Graffagnino's funeral.
And that was that the Bovis Lend-Lease Co. and the John Galt subcontractors were promised a $6 million bonus if they got the job on the Deutsche Bank building finished early.
"Now, you don't have to be a genius to work out if you're gonna get $6 million additional bucks, what are you gonna do?" he said raising his voice.
"I'll tell you what that bunch of trash did. They cut corners everywhere they could, regardless that two great men would pay with their lives."
Editorial: A Necessary Resignation
Tommy, who believes he has played the bagpipes at more than 300 funerals, added, "Accidents and danger are part of the job, but this was beyond everything. Two brave men, two wonderful families shattered by something that is hard to understand."
Now we have to get moving very fast, lock someone up, and do something else:
"Commissioner Nick Scoppetta should surprise us all and get out from behind the desk he never leaves," Tommy said.
"That guy has never run down a smoky hall. That guy has never been in a burning basement. That guy doesn't know what being scared to death is," said Tommy.
"A $6 million bonus? . . . It started out as a license to steal and then it became a license to kill."
Out of the mouth of old codgers like Tommy, smoke clears and we look at the agonizing truth.
steve.dunleavy@nypost.com
