‘25 years does not erase grief’: New York’s court system remembers 9/11 losses a quarter century later

Hundreds of court officers made the choice to run into instead of away from the burning, tumbling World Trade Center towers to pull people out when they didn’t have to. Three of them – Captain William Harry Thompson and Sergeants Thomas Jurgens and Mitchel Wallace – didn’t make it back out. 

“25 years does not erase grief; it simply changes its shape,” said Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for New York City Courts Adam Silvera. “Their lives and their ultimate sacrifice have already shaped a quarter century of this institution, and will continue to inspire generations of court officers for decades still to come. Their legacy lives on in every officer who walks these halls, in every act of courage, and in every moment we choose service over self.” 

At Friday’s remembrance ceremony, Silvera said the sacrifice of those three men and the selfless bravery of all the court officers who risked their lives for others that day should serve as an example for all current and future generations who take up the mantle of being a court officer. 

“Their stories have lost none of their power. If anything, time has sharpened them,” Silvera said. “These were people who devoted their lives to justice and to service, who understood that something greater than ourselves calls us to action, even when that call demands everything. A quarter century later, that choice still defines what it means to serve in this court system.”

“They will forever remain in our hearts as heroes who set the standard for bravery and selflessness – a standard every officer who has walked these halls since has tried to live up to,” Silvera continued. “25 years is long enough that memory alone is no longer sufficient. Memory fades; institutions must carry what memory cannot. That is why days like today matter – not simply to look back, but to actively pass the story forward to the officers who joined this court system long after 2001, and to those who will join it long after we are gone.”

The ceremony was attended by dozens of court officers, court staff, attorneys and judges, including New York State Courts Department of Public Safety Chief Michael Magliano, Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, First Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Norman St. George, Supervising Judges Hon. Carmen Pacheco of Brooklyn, Hon. Austin DeSouza of Manhattan, Hon. Robert Hellbach of Staten Island, Hon. Taisha Chambers of the Bronx, Hon. Edwin Novillo of Queens, Manhattan Supreme Civil Court Administrative Justice Suzanne Adams and Bronx Civil Court Judge Vidira Gonzalez-Taylor.

The attendees also included Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Republican candidate for governor and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Blakeman received criticism this week after endorsing a candidate who pushed the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was an “inside job” and calling for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to not attend the city’s remembrance ceremony. 

Wilson used his speech to shine light on a piece of history many may not have heard before – 9/11, he said, is also the anniversary of a pivotal meeting near the end of the United States’ Revolutionary War for independence from Britain, a moment that also asked people to put their country and community before their own lives. 

“Terrorists murdered all those people, and one could think of that day as part of a prolonged war on terrorism,” the state’s judge said of the day a quarter century ago. “But this 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, falls during the 250th anniversary of a different war, the American Revolutionary War. What we might occasionally call a war on terrorism is really part of a much longer war, a war for democracy, which Americans began fighting 250 years ago.”

On Sept. 11, 1776, Wilson told those gathered in front of Manhattan Criminal Court, delegates from Britain and the American colonies met on Staten Island amid tense fighting to attempt to resolve the war. The meeting was ultimately unsuccessful, and leaders from the colonies left knowing that they’d likely be killed by the British Empire if they lost, because they gave up any chance at a pardon from the king by walking out of the room refusing to agree to end the war by agreeing to remain British subjects.

“They, and all those who fought in the American Revolutionary War were prepared to give their lives to establish what would then be the world’s only democracy,” Wilson said. “Democracy, though, is something much more than merely rule by the people. Democracy requires a sense of community, a civic responsibility, and a duty to each other, like those who fought to create this nation, and those who gave or risked their lives on September 11, 2001.”

“From its inception, this nation was meant to serve as an example for others to follow, to show the world that democratic rule could provide a stable, flourishing society superior to rule by a king,” the judge continued. “On September 11, 1776, and September 11, 2026, Americans offered a shining example to the world and earned its emulation and adulation.”

“We should never forget those sacrifices and must always remember that each of us has a duty to preserve and defend our democracy,” Wilson concluded. “That requires more than voting, more than following the law, more than taking care of ourselves and our families. The self-evident truth is that what we have a duty to do is to conduct ourselves in a way that protects and advances the inalienable rights to which all people are entitled.” 

Across the afternoon, speakers emphasized the importance of purposefully carrying forward the memory of those who lost and risked their lives saving others on 9/11 into the next 25 years. 

“25 years later, the responsibility of each of us to never forget should become a way of our lives,” said Magliano of the court’s public safety team. “Not just the words we speak once a year.”