New York cop opens fire in subway station while pursuing commuter who allegedly didn’t pay fare

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.

At the time of the shooting, Eric Adams had already flooded the city’s subway with 1,000 new police in the name of public safety. Despite police doing nothing to prevent the shooting and very little in the aftermath, Adams used the shooting as an excuse to call for doubling the amount of police in the subways.

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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Part II: Eric Garner: Resisting arrest or Resisting harassment

By Charles Brooks

The tragic death of Mr. Eric Garner that came as a result of the choke hold, an illegal police maneuver banned since 1994, continues to provoke nationwide outrage, particularly in black communities across the country.  Consider for a moment the reasons igniting this outrage – the excessive use of force leading to yet another death of an unarmed black man, along with the political support for police in the face of a blatant lack of accountability to these seemingly routine acts of police misconduct and murder.  But there’s deeper factor to consider, the historical roots that branches out to the limbs of indifference afforded to black life.

Mr. Garner’s death continues to spark outrage because of the many people who can relate and connect through personal experience – the thousands who have been stopped and harassed by the police - and lived to talk about it. The thousands of stories about controlling that feeling that just grips you when you see the bright flash of the red and blue lights in your rear view mirror. Or the harassment that comes with being repeatedly stopped and frisked.  Or the feeling of being fully aware that even the slightest encounter with the police can turn bad…and sometimes fatal.  This connection was played out when the video was being played over and over again to the collective nods of approval. People are outraged because they connected with Mr. Garner when he crossed his arms in front of him and told the police officers that it stops today…we all knew what he meant by ‘it’. Mr. Garner said to the officers: "...Every time you see me you want to wrestle with me.  I'm tired of it...it stops today...I'm minding my own business officer. Please leave me alone...I told you for the last time, please leave me alone."

 This is why Mr. Garner’s death continues to resonate with the public consciousness - because of their connection to a shared experience.  The outrage grew in the aftermath of Mr. Garner’s death when more videos displaying similar criminal acts by NYPD were released as well as chokehold statistics – 1022 chokehold incidents between 2009-1013.

There is nationwide  as well as international outrage at the indifference the police officers and medical personnel granted to Mr. Garner – they killed him and then watched him die. And thank goodness the indifference to Mr. Garner’s humanity was captured on video for all to see. Think about it for a second or two, despite all that occurred in the last 30 seconds or so before he was brought down to the ground – Mr. Garner thought the police would recognize his humanity, his cry out for help, seven or eight times he said he couldn’t breathe – but instead, the world witnessed the failure of the police officers to recognize his humanity.  The dismissal of Mr. Garner’s human rights for all to see has clearly struck a raw nerve in the collective public consciousness.

The video shows the police officers continuing to apply the pressure of their collective weight on him as he slowly breathed his last gasps of air. Then to further compound the tragedy – medical personnel appeared on the scene – and did nothing.  Further proof of Mr. Garner’s human rights denied for all to see, thanks to yet another video shot on the scene.  In the few minutes before Officer Daniel Pantaleo would apply the notorious chokehold that led to Mr. Garner’s death, you heard Mr. Garner say that ‘it’ stops today.  The ‘it’ rang loudly for all those who experienced encounters with the police – understanding that each encounter with NYPD is a possible life and death situation.  The ‘”it” represented the hundreds of thousands of incidents stemming from the harassment that came with being stopped and frisked.   What the public witnessed was not what appears as a resistance to arrest but a deeper resistance to police harassment. The people clearly understood what Mr. Garner said – and that he spoke for everyone who was harassed and killed by NYPD.   There is a considerable amount of weight behind Mr. Garner’s words when he said that I’m tired of this.                                         

The issue of police brutality has long roots in the black community going back many years when the police were the enforcers of Jim Crow and legal segregation.  The police were on the front lines of resistance to black liberation during the social movements of the Sixties – the socially transformational Civil and Black Power movements.  The police departments were an integral part of the COINTELPRO program.  The ‘it’ spoke to the long history of contentious relations between minority communities, particularly black communities and the police, not just in New York City but nationwide as well. But the ‘it’ also spoke to the nationwide capacity to protect the impunity of police violence visited on predominately black communities and the political support of the right to exert that police hostility and police violence. Oh yes, when Mr. Garner said, it stops today – he was speaking to and for all of us.

While there’s a fierce battle for the public perception around Mr. Garner’s death – the resistance to police brutality must frame these acts of police murder as human rights violations and recognize the humanity of black life.  There must be indictments and incarceration that comes with accountability – but this must be framed within a human rights context.  So the next time you hear or read news coverage about Mr. Garner’s resistance to arrest – just for a moment think to yourself: Was he resisting arrest or was he resisting harassment”? 

Resisting arrest or Resisting harassment (Part I)

The student movement for Palestine intensifies struggle with wave of university encampments

by Natalia Marques 

After Columbia students launched their Gaza Solidarity Encampment, students across the US joined the call to stand in solidarity with Palestine

The Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment entered its seventh day on April 23. In the early hours of the morning, students woke up to the sound of three helicopters of major news outlets flying above where they had set up their tents on the campus’s Butler Lawn. 

Columbia Sued Over 'Retaliatory' Suspension of Pro-Palestine Student Groups

By Brett Wilkins

"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don't approve of," said the head of the NYCLU.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of members of two pro-Palestine student groups at Columbia University which avocates say were illegally suspended for engaging in peaceful protests and other events protected under the First Amendment.

'Wrong Side of History': NYC Mayor Adams Vetoes Solitary Confinement Ban

By Olivia Rosane   

"With this veto, the mayor has condemned New Yorkers to suffer in solitary confinement and isolation, and he did so after the cameras were turned off and backs were turned," the bill's sponsor said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a New York City Council bill on Friday that would have banned the practice of solitary confinement in city jails.

Also on Friday, Adams vetoed another bill that would have increased transparency and oversight of the New York Police Department (NYPD). However, both bills passed the council with more votes than is required to override a veto.

"To recap: Police transparency is good. Solitary confinement is bad. And Mayor Adams is committed to manufacturing controversy where there is none," Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso wrote on social media in response to the news. "The Mayor shouldn't be spending time sowing dissent on veto-proof bills that will pass regardless of his actions today."

"Solitary confinement is torture. It often results in lasting psychological damage, and undermines public safety both inside and outside New York City's jails."

Solitary confinement is an increasingly controversial practice that has been recognized as torture by the United Nations and human rights groups if it lasts for more than 15 days in a row, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Its use at New York's Rikers Island has been linked to at least two recent deaths: Layleen Polanco Xtravaganza, who died after having a seizure while in solitary in 2019 and Kalief Browder, who took his own life after being placed in solitary confinement for two years.

"Solitary confinement is inhumane, and its presence in our city is indefensible," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who sponsored the legislation, said ahead of its passage last month. "Committing an infraction in jail can cause you to lose privileges, not basic human rights. People in solitary are isolated, denied human contact and connection, denied support, and come out of these deplorable conditions worse than when they went in—and some don't come out at all."

The bill, 549A, would have required that everyone in jail in New York City be allowed to gather with other inmates for at least 14 hours every day, except during emergency lock-ins or to deescalate conflict, ABC News reported. In those cases, inmates could only be confined for up to four hours.

Adams announced the veto by press release, and not during an earlier press conference when he announced his veto of the police transparency measure, as New York Magazine reported.

"Our administration does not support solitary confinement in our jails, and New York City has not used the practice for years. In fact, we have achieved significant reductions in key indicators of violence in our correction system without solitary confinement," Adams said in a statement. "But despite the misleading nickname, had [the bill] taken effect, the Department of Correction would no longer be able to protect people in custody, or the union workers charged with their safety, from violent individuals. I implore the City Council to work with our administration and follow the federal monitor's guidance to abandon this misguided bill."

Williams criticized the mayor's decision.

"With this veto, the mayor has condemned New Yorkers to suffer in solitary confinement and isolation, and he did so after the cameras were turned off and backs were turned. It's cowardly, weak, shameful, and entirely expected from this version of this mayor," Williams said in a statement.

"I don't think there's a single person in the city outside the mayor's office who thinks the status quo on Rikers right now is good and effective," Williams continued. "The ongoing use of solitary confinement and isolation in New York City—no matter what the administration calls it—is indefensible, and vetoing the ban is inexcusable."

Other city council members and rights groups spoke out against the mayor's action.

Speaker Adrienne Adams and Criminal Justice Chair Sandy Nurse promised to "take the steps to enact this law over the Mayor's veto." The measure passed 39-7, and an override requires 34 votes.

"The Council passed Intro. 549-A to ban solitary confinement with more than a veto-proof majority because it is imperative to make the city's jails safer for those who are detained and staff alike," Adams and Nurse said. "We cannot allow the human rights and safety crisis on Rikers to continue by maintaining the status quo of failed policies and practices."

The #HALTsolitary Campaign thanked Adams and Nurse for promising to override the mayor's veto.

"He's on the wrong side of history, human rights, and public safety," the group, which is led by impacted New Yorkers, posted on social media.

The NYCL also encouraged the city council to pass the legislation.

"Solitary confinement is torture," the group wrote on social media. "It often results in lasting psychological damage, and undermines public safety both inside and outside New York City's jails."

Council members and rights groups also criticized Adams' veto of the NYPD transparency measure—5862A or the "How Many Stops Act,"—which passed by a 35-9 margin.

"The Mayor's veto betrays his stated goal of public safety and harms the Black and Latino communities that bear the brunt of these stops."

This bill would have mandated that New York police officers report on civilian stops and searchers and give more detailed information about vehicle stops and searchers, ABC News explained.

In justifying his veto, Adams said that while the legislation "has good intentions behind it, the bill is misguided and compromises our public safety."

"Our administration supports efforts to make law enforcement more transparent, more just, and more accountable, but this bill will handcuff our police by drowning officers in unnecessary paperwork that will saddle taxpayers with tens of millions of dollars in additional NYPD overtime each year, while simultaneously taking officers away from policing our streets and engaging with the community," he said.

In response, Council Speaker Adams said the council was "prepared to override this veto," issuing a joint statement with Public Safety Chair Yusef Salaam.

"The false narrative that we cannot have transparency is bad for our city, and belies the fact that accountability is vital to improving public safety by increasing trust," Adams and Salaam said. "The Mayor's veto betrays his stated goal of public safety and harms the Black and Latino communities that bear the brunt of these stops."

The NYCLU wrote on social media: "The mayor's veto leaves another stain on an administration that has been winding back checks on hyper-aggressive, biased, and unaccountable policing. We are confident the city council will heed the call of impacted New Yorkers and advocates and override the Mayor's veto."

This article originally appeared in Common Dreams on January 20th 2024.  

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Please support the news you can use and visit The Brooks Blackboard's website for more news!   Take a look at my brief bio about my writing life and on social media:

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