BROOKLYN,SEPTEMBER 17—Hundreds of angry workers gathered outside a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) subway station where the fascist New York Police Department KKKops carelessly shot up the platform nearly killing four people–including two bystanders–just days before in a majority Black neighborhood (to no sympathy from antiracists, one of those shot also included another KKKkop). One of the bystanders was shot in the head and is reported to have permanent brain damage (Pix 11, 9/18).
Progressive Labor Party comrades joined our class brothers and sisters in their standoff against the kkops.
The reason for this racist assault? A Black worker–also shot–had entered the station without paying a $2.90 fare. Racist capitalism works every day to show our lives, especially those of Black workers, are disposable to the bosses! Building a communist world will ensure our security from these trigger happy death squads, all too eager to play Shoot ‘Em Up for $2.90.
Speaking out
In a show of force, the kkkops surrounded the station and sidewalks in advance of the protest. But we were not intimidated by the scare tactics. We held a rally outside the station before taking the streets!
A comrade's student who came to the protest with him gave global context to the shooting, and how “the tools of imperialism” are being used to incite “hateful rhetoric and genocidal violence” against other workers that we must stand against.
One comrade who spoke added that this shooting would likely never have happened in a neighborhood with more white workers and that no amount of police reform will fix this. We soon marched to a nearby precinct, where the pigs attacked with pepper spray and several arrests. Remaining workers maintained a presence outside, doing jail support and calling out the blue scumbags as they walked by.
Footage from racist shooting released
Recently released body cam video of the incident shows the KKKops chasing Black worker Derrell Mickles for not paying to enter the station. He makes several attempts to avoid the pigs, running towards one after they tased him, just before they opened fire.
Even if Mickles had a knife, that doesn’t excuse this racist attack! The police chose to confront someone over a $2.90 fare, then shoot recklessly when they couldn’t subdue him (Gothamist, 9/17).
That this happened in Brownsville, a neighborhood that has been ground zero for the bosses’ racist neglect for decades, is no coincidence. Thirty six percent of Brownsville residents live below the federal poverty level. Almost half the neighborhood's working age residents are unemployed (NY Health Foundation). The KKKops felt right at home shooting away at people who live here who they see as worthless.
TWU Local 100, which represents the city’s train operators and conductors, also has blood on its hands from this attack. This sellout union has done nothing but push for more KKKops in the system to make it “safer.” In reality, they have given their support for racist police terror in the subway.
Fare brings more violence
The subway fare itself brings violence in New York City’s buses and subways. Violence against workers just trying to get somewhere-as this incident shows-and violence against transit workers who become targets from the transit bosses’ lies and incompetence.
Comrades working in transit have pushed the idea that removing the farebox is one way to make public transit less dangerous. A free bus program the MTA tried between September 2023-2024 showed a 39 percent decrease in bus operator assaults on the free lines during that period (The Nation, 9/6).
Whether every person pays the fare or not, the MTA still owes billions in bonds to profiteering Wall Street bosses. Any discussion about enforcing payment to ride public transit in the city inevitably enforces racist ideas (i.e, those who don’t pay are all criminals).
When the fascist Proud Boys interrupted a drag queen story hour event in Queens last year, the KKKops allowed them to access the subway system without paying, proving the kkkops only weaponize the fare to their personal benefit (NBC New York, 1/3/23).
Capitalism's relentless demand for protecting profits and keeping workers in line is behind this racist shooting. Black and Latin workers must bear the brunt of a crumbling transit system whose bosses target them as responsible for its lack of safety. All the while, said bosses continue defunding and sending their attack dogs as solutions. We know the only solution to a better transit system and better world is through dictatorship of the proletariat—communism. Together we can run a communist moneyless antiracist, antisexist society without kkkops where we all can enjoy what our class produces freely such as free transit and free housing.
