Underground Resistance Mounts Against Subway Policing In NYC

NEW YORK CITY — As police crack down on churros vendors, homeless women and rowdy teenagers in city subways, New Yorkers have developed an equally underground resistance on social media.

Three activist groups have formed a triumvirate of online campaigns against what they say is aggressive subway policing as Gov. Andrew Cuomo moves to hire 500 new police officers to crack down on fare evasion.

Through nonviolent protest and crowdsourced information sharing, SwipeItForward, UnfareNYC and DecolonizeThisPlace are raising the pressure against the MTA and the NYPD.

Hundreds of protesters who rallied in the streets of Harlem Friday night were summoned through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter by the activist DecolonizeThisPlace.

“Police brutality is a very serious matter,” organizers told the crowd gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. “We are not here to play.”

Friday’s protest ended in 58 arrests – 29 men and 29 women — according to NYPD spokesperson Det. Denise Moroney.

Several were seen to be tackled and pinned to the concrete until they stopped struggling.

One protester, a 24-year-old law school student named Abby, said the march probably wouldn’t have been possible without DecolonizeThisPlace’s strong online presence.

“It’s making information accessible, you don’t need to know someone,” she said. “I knew I needed to be here immediately… We need to demilitarize the police.”

DecolonizeThisPlace used social media Friday to send in-the-moment directions to protesters as to where the march would head next as stragglers stayed back to record multiple arrests in the streets.

The group has also shared video of violent encounters with police in subways, such as video taken in Penn Station Thursday of a man, arrested by Amtrak police for shouting at customers, being held on the ground in a pool of his own blood, officials confirmed.

“We share limited footage cos of its graphic nature,” the group wrote. “And we do so hesitantly to ask, and highlight, why after being subdued is the person not administered first aid.”

An Amtrak spokesperson confirmed the man cut his head while falling and was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

DecolonizeThisPlace also shared video of police putting on their body cameras after a New Yorker started filming them making an arrest.

Concerns over increased subway policing prompted state Sen. Jessica Ramos to introduce legislation requiring all city subway cops wear body cameras, which they are currently not obligated to do.

Also working to highlight such arrests is the group SwipeItForward, which encourages New Yorkers to share MetroCards with potential turnstile jumpers and raises awareness about the effect subway policing has on low-income communities.

“Poverty is not a crime,” the group writes. “Transportation is a right.”

Data collected in 2017 by the organization Community Service Society shows 90 percent of 4,600 people arrested in the first quarter of 2017 were black or hispanic and the arrests occurred mostly in low income neighborhoods.

The study includes the story of Jose O., a 54-year-old man who jumped the turnstile after looking repeatedly for a cop to help him because he had no other way to get home from work.

The cop he hoped would help him appeared only after he jumped, issued a $100 summons and put him in jail for a night, putting him in peril of losing his job, the study said.

“You will take me to jail because I don’t have $2.50?” Jose asked. According to the study, the answer was yes.

To better prepare New Yorkers heading toward their morning commutes, the organization UnfareNYC is using crowdsourced information to track the location of subway of cops.

UnfareNYC has garnered 4,000 followers who use their feed to share and receive alerts about where police are stationed.

Reports include cops they say are wearing sweatshirts and headphones, hiding behind turnstiles, refusing to let New Yorkers swipe other commuters.

One commuter reported taking a cab to work rather than risk jumping the turnstile at a station with broken MetroCard machines and no one manning the booth.

On Friday, another person told UnFareNYC a dozen cops were waiting at the 125th Street and Lenox Avenue station near the protest, each with a handful of zip tie handcuffs.

“Rider solidarity means we look out for each other and keep each other safe,” the organization, members of which declined to be interviewed, writes on Twitter.

“Our vision is a ride without fares and a world with no police.”

Gov. Cuomo and the MTA stand firm on their argument that fare evasion is a serious violation worthy of an increased response from the state.

MTA data show fare evasion has mounted steadily since 2011 and cost the agency $243 million from March 2018 to March 2019.

“More people are evading the fare and getting on the trains without paying,” Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news conference in June. “That is not only a legal violation, it’s unfair to everyone.”

The Fare Enforcement Task Force will be dispatched primarily to 50 subway stations and bus routes where fare evasion is most frequent, officials said.

“This is about deterrence, not arrest,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said. “It’s about asking the people who use the system to pay their fair share.”

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