A recent police shooting in a New York City subway station has reignited outrage around subway fares and the heavy police presence across the city
On the afternoon of September 15, a New York City police officer opened fire into a crowded subway station after following someone who had allegedly evaded the fare. As a result, four people were injured, including a fellow police officer.
Police followed a man, 37-year-old Derell Mickles, into the Sutter Ave subway station in Brooklyn, New York after allegedly seeing him evade the train fare, pursuing him up three flights of stairs. Last year, subway fares in New York City were raised from USD 2.75 to USD 2.90, which many have criticized for being unaffordable for working class people in the city. New York City Police Department Chief Jeffrey B. Maddrey claimed in a press conference that the officer opened fire on the man who had entered the station after “they become aware that he has a knife in his pocket.”
“The male basically challenges the officers: ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me.’” Maddrey claimed. The claim that the man had a knife has been challenged by a witness to the shooting, interviewed by independent journalist Talia Jane. The witness, D, claims, “From where I was seated, he just had both hands behind his back. I tried to see a knife but I never ended up seeing his hands. Never saw one even after, when they were on the ground with him, after they shot him. They never shouted anything about him charging them, I assumed he’d gotten by them and was making his way off the platform back onto the street when they wildly shot.”
According to Gloria Holloway, Mickles’ mother, her son carries a knife in his pocket because he works as a chef. Holloway expressed her distress at how the NYPD chose to notify her that her son was shot. She had spotted an NYPD business card under her doorway after coming off of her shift as a security guard. “They just shot him, then didn’t bother to get in touch with anybody related to him?” Holloway said to The Gothamist. “And left a card here at the damn door?”
Both media and city officials have communicated the events in a way that some argue obscures what truly happened. New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X, “Earlier today, one of our officers was shot while protecting our subway system. I am relieved to report he is in good condition now, and we have arrested the suspect who put so many lives in danger. I cannot thank these officers enough for their bravery.” Nowhere in this message does Adams acknowledge that this officer was shot by another officer in response to alleged fare evasion. Conservative outlet The New York Post, notorious for issuing sensationalist reports on crime in the city, reported that, “NYPD cop shot, 3 others injured as suspect comes at police with knife in Brooklyn,” which again fails to mention that the officer was shot by a fellow cop.
This is not the first time the NYPD has unleashed violence on someone for minor crimes on the trains. Brutal arrests for fare evasion are often caught on camera by other New Yorkers. Last month, a Black man was attacked by multiple NYPD officers with tasers for allegedly moving between train cars. The NYPD is also notorious for harassing vendors on the subway for vending without a license.
Paradoxically, the NYPD has been criticized for slow response to serious incidents such as a mass shooting in April 2022, when Frank James shot 33 bullets into a subway car full of commuters. A police officer responding to the scene could not get his radio to work, and told train passengers to call 911 instead. Despite New York City being one of the most heavily surveilled cities, the NYPD surveillance cameras at all three subway stations where the shooting took place were not working. It took police over a day to find the shooter. In the end, it was not even the police who discovered James’ whereabouts, but he ended up turning himself in.
The September 15 NYPD shooting has re-ignited debates around eliminating the subway fare to alleviate cost of living for millions of working people who use the trains to commute each day, as well as the militarization of police. “2 dollars and 90 cents is the price the NYPD has put on the lives of New York’s poorest,” wrote the Palestinian Youth Movement, a Palestinian diaspora organization in the US that is at the forefront of demanding an arms embargo on Israel. “With [New York] Governor Kathy Hochul deploying the National Guard to the subways and billions of dollars in NYPD technology being used to further surveil, criminalize, and repress poor people across our city, lethal results like yesterday’s are a systematic guarantee. Adams, Hochul, and City Council continue to funnel New Yorkers’ taxpayer money into their open war on poverty, as they have done with Israel’s war on Gaza over the past year.”
Cathy Rojas, a socialist activist who ran against Eric Adams for New York City Mayor in 2021 on the ticket of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told Peoples Dispatch, “The NYPD’s shooting of civilians over fare evasion demonstrates a gross disregard for our community members’ lives, going as far as attempted murder to recover only 2.90.”
Rojas continued, “This comes at a time when the MTA could, and should be free, highlighting the urgent need to end a system that prioritizes profit over human life. We must redirect funds from Wall Street and the ultra-wealthy to fully fund and modernize the transit system and make it free for everyone.”
This article originally appeared in Peoples Dispatch on September 16th, 2024
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