A Manhattan judge has tossed a lawsuit by lower Manhattan residents who claimed the tight security plan for the World Trade Center made it seem their neighborhood resembled the “Berlin Wall” — saying the extra measures were necessary to protect what continues to be a top terrorist target.
“The WTC site does not resemble a “walled city” at all,” Justice Margaret Chan wrote in her nine-page decision released Thursday.
“To the contrary, there are plenty of open, green space in the plan,” she ruled.
Lawyers for a group of New Yorkers living around the rebuilt towers called the post-9/11 reinforcements “over-policing” that “doesn’t benefit anyone.” The residents sued last year to force the NYPD to consider alternative plans, including doing off-site inspection of vehicles to reduce traffic.
Chan found that the police submitted “sizable volumes of exhibits” and looked at a “reasonable number of alternatives.”