Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez encouraged toll jumping in the New York City metro system after anti-NYPD protesters swarmed a Brooklyn station and leaped over the turnstiles without paying subway fares.
“Ending mass incarceration means challenging a system that jails the poor to free the rich. Arresting people who can’t afford a $2.75 fare makes no one safer and destabilizes our community,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “New Yorkers know that, they’re not having it, and they’re standing up for each other.”
Ending mass incarceration means challenging a system that jails the poor to free the rich.
Arresting people who can’t afford a $2.75 fare makes no one safer and destabilizes our community.
New Yorkers know that, they’re not having it, and they’re standing up for each other. https://t.co/asvidIe5zV
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 2, 2019
Almost 1,000 protesters marched in Brooklyn on Friday night to air their grievances against the NYPD, claiming police brutality as well as fare evasion enforcement plans against toll jumpers who avoid paying the $2.75 fare.
The protest was triggered after two separate incidents in Brooklyn subway stations captured on video showed law enforcement in physical altercations happened.
The first video showed several police officers tackling a 19-year-old black man after it was thought he had a firearm on him. He was later found to be unarmed but was charged with theft of services.
The second incident involved an officer breaking up a fight between two groups on a subway platform and ultimately wound up punching two black teenagers in the brawl.
Additionally, protesters complained about Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to add 500 more officers to patrol the transit system and arrest fare evaders.
In February 2018, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced the borough would cease prosecuting subway fare jumpers, claiming two-thirds of all those arrested in Manhattan for fare evasion had no prior convictions. Additionally, Vance argued, a judge issued no criminal punishment on anyone who pleaded guilty, NBC New York reported.
However, at the time of Vance’s announcement, NYPD officers told Police Commissioner James O’Neill that during that week, prosecutors refused to prosecute fare jumpers with extensive records in at least five cases, including one fare evader who was previously arrested 52 times.
By the end of 2018, Metropolitan Transit Authority had already lost $215 million as a result of fare evaders.
