February 6, 1996

When the Assembly voted on a bill recently that would strengthen the hand of New York City police officers in contract disputes, a group of burly men sat stiffly in the back of the chamber, taking down the names of the wayward. They said little, but everyone knew who they were: the leaders of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, a union that often seems to work the State Capitol like a legislative battering ram. As usual, the bill passed -- 141 to 4.

Using crime and "quality of life" as campaign themes, Rudolph W. Giuliani came into office with strong support among police officers. But these days, many officers say they see the Mayor in a different light. Article, page B5.

Europe's experiment in creating a common currency by the end of the decade has come under rising pressure here in recent days as top business executives, economists and government officials urged nations to pay greater attention to the slowing economy and rising unemployment. Both in private conversations and public debates, many participants at the World Economic Forum, a six-day conference being held through Tuesday at this snowy Swiss resort, said they feared that European Governments were trying to slash their budget deficits too severely in order to qualify for participation in 1999 in the first stage of the single-currency arrangement. The conference brings together financial leaders from around the world.

For the third time in less than six weeks, a New York City firefighter died while on duty yesterday, when the roof of an auto body shop in Brooklyn collapsed on him as he searched for people inside the building. Fire officials said the flames were so hot that they bent the metal beams supporting the roof of the one-story brick building in the Flatlands section. One official said the police were investigating the possibility that the building, at Glenwood Road and Troy Avenue, was being used as an illegal "chop shop" -- a place where stolen cars are broken up into parts for resale.

Ten hours a day, five days a week, Robert M. Walsh toils in the alternate reality of the Green Acres shopping mall, where the sun never rises and dusk never falls. He patrols the enclosed streets, his eyes hunting for potential perps and pockets of unruly adolescence. He is the director of security for a shopping center fighting the perception that to shop at Green Acres is to shop at risk. There were the car thefts, the reports of two kidnappings and the gunfire at a nearby movie theater. Then in August 1994, a college student was stabbed to death in a brawl that ended on the floor of a Victoria's Secret lingerie store. All contributed to Green Acres' image as Long Island's troubled mall.