OPINION
Photo courtesy of Sarah Romani on Instagram.
By Queen Carrasco
On September 15th, 2024, a police officer and three civilians were shot at the Suttor Avenue stop on the L train. How? Police chased Derell Mickells after he jumped the turnstile and walked past officers onto the platform. After chasing him, police officers deployed their tasers after Mickells allegedly brandished a knife. When the tasers didn’t work, they opened fire. The bullets grazed one woman, struck a hospital worker in his head, and fatally wounded Mickells, before injuring one of the officers with a ricochet bullet. After the incident, New York City’s mayor Eric Adams praised the officers, stating, "I think that those officers should be commended for how they showed great restraint.” The officers had fired 9 rounds. Adams’ focus was on how Mickells had evaded the fare, with no mention of the recklessness in the responding officer's actions.
Mickell’s murder and the overall fare evasion tactics that take place within New York City subways are an attempt to criminalize impoverished New Yorkers. At the same time, politicians threaten to withhold billions of dollars in funding if crime isn’t “cleaned up.” The fight against fare evasion seems never-ending. Evasion can result in a fine, arrest, and detainment. If someone can’t pay $2.90 for the fare, how would they be able to pay for their bail? Those arrested for fare evasion - typically Black and Latinx riders - are often represented by public defenders because they cannot afford their lawyer.
Before the pandemic, it was estimated that the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) lost $300 million to fare evasion. In 2023, that figure reached $700 million. While these are seemingly high numbers, they are dwarfed by the fact that the MTA’s annual budget is $19.29 billion and infrastructure within the city’s subways is crumbling. New York Governor Hochul halted the MTA's congestion pricing plan which meant vehicles entering local streets at or below 60th street would be charged a toll to enter Manhattan. The project was expected to bring the MTA $15 billion per year, but Hochul halted the plan at the last minute.
As our public transit infrastructure crumbles, the New York City Police Department increasingly receives funding, and New York becomes a surveillance state - one that specifically targets Black and Latinx populations. Outside of the subway realm, the NYPD uses facial recognition software throughout the city. In 2020, during the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement protests, the NYPD used the Domain Awareness System (DAS), giving them access to approximately 20,000 feeds from public and private cameras. DAS was developed with help from Microsoft “to help ensure public safety and security, and to detect, deter, and prevent potential terrorist activities.” Furthermore, court authorization is “not necessary” as DAS collects “legally obtained” data.
With the backing of Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Adams has increased the police presence in the New York City subway starting in 2022 as a “deterrent” to rising subway crime. These actions seemingly stand in contrast to subway crime statistics. According to the New York Times, in mid-2022, there was about one violent crime per one million rides on the subway. But increased policing isn’t just a New York City issue.
For many across the United States, 2020 was a turning point. The murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overall trapped emotions that many shared from being isolated. A massive call to defund the police spread across cities around the nation: New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Atlanta among others. Atlanta in particular has a long history of neglecting lower-income Black and working-class communities. In response to public pressure, Atlanta officials initially attempted to pass the Rayshard Brooks bill, a budget amendment that would withhold $73 million or 50% of the Atlanta Police Department’s budget. The bill was shot down by an 8-7 vote but allowed officials to claim that they were making efforts towards change.
One year later, the Atlanta City Council voted and approved the construction of “Cop City”, a term coined by Atlanta activists to describe a proposed mock city for police to train for “real-life situations.” Leasing 381 acres of Weelaunee Forest grounds - one of the last urban forests in the Atlanta area, city officials claim the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center would take up over 85 acres, leaving the remaining acreage as greenspace. Then Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms remarked, “This training facility will not only help boost morale, retention, and recruitment of our public safety personnel but will give us physical space to ensure that our officers and firefighters are receiving 21st-century training, rooted in respect and regard for the communities they serve.” Part of the $90 million project is funded by a range of donors, including the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Chick-fil-A, and AT&T, among others.
Cop City protestors worry that officers won’t use their training to respect the communities they serve. The United States government historically has and continues to use police force against its citizens who fight against its policies and ideals; the most recent example being college students across the country protesting for the end of occupation and genocide in Palestine. Without an end to systemic oppression and violence, the “benefits” of increased police budgets and facilities will never come to fruition.
Is Your Life Better is a project that tracks the development of Cop City-style facilities all over the country. They Are broken up into different categories: No Known Projects, Planning / Assessment, Approved for Construction, Under Construction, Facility Open, and Multiple Phases. For example, while Vermont has no known projects, Minnesota has projects in multiple phases.
Five Cop Cities are listed within the state of New York; three under construction, one currently open, and one with approved funding in Queens, NY. The proposed $225 million training facility in College Point, Queens would be an addition to the already present NYPD Police Academy Campus. The funds were initially proposed for a Department of Correction training facility in 2021. Now, NYC’s 18 municipal agencies will be housed under the “Public Safety Academy.” The idea of this being beneficial for “public safety” is unclear, as there are minimal details about the facility and what it houses. One thing that many communities can agree on is that it is a threat to all communities.
The integration of Cop Cities nationwide is more than dangerous. Mass investment into racist facilities and institutions perpetuates violence. Through over-policing, criminalization, etc., the government has been given incredible power to watch us, while it causes harm to local communities. As stated by Communities United for Police Reform and other organizations in their letter to the New York City Council, “If Cop City is built and training is consolidated, the city will see more and more civilians being abused and criminalized for a wider range of reasons.”
Groups such as Community Movement Builders, Surveillance Resistance Lab, and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice Cop City among others are organizing against Cop City, via protests, research reports, and community events. Calling your local NYC council member is a great start to protesting Cop City, surveillance, and the overall acts of the mayoral administration.
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