NYPD mass subway shooting over $2.90: Fare evasion or fatal excuse?

Once again, the state used the hollow excuse of “fare evasion” to justify an assassination attempt on a Brooklyn man. This is not an isolated incident but a pattern of state violence targeting the working class in general and Black people in particular. Mayor Eric Adams took to Twitter, rather ironically, calling this shooting an act of “bravery.” Only in our […] city of escalating [neo]fascism is the victim painted as the villain and the aggressor as a “hero.”

Freedom of movement, as on public transportation, is a right, not a privilege. The MTA should be FREE for ALL New Yorkers. The increased police presence in our subway system has not made us safer. Instead, it led to a horrific mass shooting where a police officer shot four people, including the man accused of fare evasion, two innocent bystanders and even another officer. All this over a $2.90 fare — a fare that should not exist in the wealthiest city in the United States.

The normalization of state violence, whether in Gaza or on the streets of New York City, has desensitized us to the ongoing war against Black and other colonized communities. This incident took place in East New York, Brooklyn, where the majority of individuals on that train were Black and Brown, seen by the establishment as disposable. It’s precisely this context that allows the [Zionist]-trained NYPD and Mayor Adams to attempt to cast this incident aside as just another “normal” occurrence.

Had this shooting occurred outside of the hood, it would not have been so easily dismissed. The outcry and mobilization that once followed such acts of violence have faded. Where are the voices of celebrities and influencers that once proclaimed Black Lives Matter? The silence is deafening. Yet, across the city, we working-class Bronxites are listening and ready to act.