In a Brooklyn subway station on Sunday afternoon, police shot and injured three people and a fellow New York Police Department officer over a $2.90 fare. This is what safety and security looks like in Mayor Eric Adams’s New York, where problems of poverty and hardship are met with policing and state-sanctioned violence.
Incident at the Sutter Avenue Stop
At around 3 p.m. Sunday, at the Sutter Avenue stop in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a 37-year-old man allegedly evaded paying the subway fare. According to reports, two police officers pursued this man up three flights of stairs and confronted him on the station platform. Police say the man pulled out a knife. Both officers opened fire on the man, piercing him with several bullets, while also striking two bystanders; one of the officers was hit with friendly fire. One of the bystanders, a 49-year-old man, is in critical condition in the hospital from a bullet wound to the head.
The Consequences of Excessive Policing
This is what happens when you flood a major transit system with a government-sanctioned, taxpayer-funded armed gang coated with official impunity and prone to violent escalation. Sunday’s police shooting should be a lesson in why the subway should not be teeming with cops, responding to “crimes” of poverty — like fare evasion and panhandling — with deadly force. Unsurprisingly, the Adams administration has framed the incident within its ongoing, mendacious narrative about rampant subway crime, for which more policing is the only answer.
Adams’s Response
“Earlier today, one of our officers was shot while protecting our subway system,” Adams, a former cop surrounded by intensifying corruption scandals, wrote on X. “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.”
However, the officer in question was shot by a fellow NYPD officer. NYPD officers also shot 2 bystanders and the fare evasion suspect. Under the cop logic to which Adams adheres, however, there is no circumstance which could fail to affirm the necessity of excessive policing. Even an egregious display of violent escalation and incompetence is, for Adams, grounds to celebrate police “bravery.” The idea that it was the alleged fare evader who “put so many lives in danger” would be laughable, were the consequences of such police-thinking not so grave.
The Problem with Increased Policing
Under Adams, the number of police stops and confrontations has surged. Despite the thorough debunking of so-called broken windows policing when it comes to improving public safety, the NYPD has recommitted to the work of harassing poor and unhoused New Yorkers, especially New Yorkers of color. The NYPD recorded more stops of New Yorkers in 2023 than it has in nearly a decade, and 89 percent of those who were stopped are Black and Latine.
The Need for Change
Thirty percent of low-income New Yorkers reported that they often struggled to pay subway or bus fares, according to a Community Service Society study. The need to expand and make more accessible the already existing half-price Fair Fares program — which only a third of eligible New Yorkers currently use — should be a priority. Funneling more money into police coffers while cutting budgets for social services only serves to prove a circular logic, in which greater desperation is met with more policing, producing greater desperation still — and thus providing further grounds for right-wing calls for even more policing.
Conclusion
Incidents like the shooting on Sunday are an inevitable extension of the violence of quotidian city life, swarmed by police. It is clear that flooding the subway system with police is not the solution to the problems faced by New Yorkers. Instead, a shift towards addressing poverty, providing social services, and reimagining public safety is necessary. Only then can we truly create a safer and more equitable city for all.