What’s Fare Isn’t What’s Equal: Part 2
It’s not the just the fare on the subway and bus that’s getting out of hand; tolls for bridges and tunnels in the city built by the MTA are also “upping the ante.” The toll on most crossings for users of E-ZPass hits an upsurge by 36 cents.
Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature are resolute about enacting an “congestion pricing” initiative to clean up the insane traffic and stifling gridlock that no one in New Yorker, whether native or a tourist, likes to deal with. Congestion pricing charges drivers and commuters a “fee” per se to occupy zones with high traffic usually during rush hour.
Anyone who’s walked during New York City during rush hour understands that it is a simulation of hell on earth.
Michael Bloomberg attempted to get a “congestion pricing” bill of his own passed back in 2008, but Sheldon Silver shut the door on that venture.
The initiative can limit loss in terms of time and revenue. Legislators in power are concerned though that the exterior suburbs connected to the city will have to also put up with surcharge levied.
Global cities like London and Stockholm have implemented such a fee through electronic tolling and have witnessed positive results, reducing traffic and mayhem on the roads.
But neither city is facing inciting political turmoil because of it.
The outrage expressed over these new, “unjust” fare hikes exposes the intersectionality between race, economics and wealth in the context of New York City.
It’s hard to argue that the New York Police Department aren’t the armed puppets of the bureaucratic structure above them. The New York Police Department for decades has been scarred with a reputation of not enforcing the full extent of the law, and their officers oftentime acting outside their jurisdiction. The legality with which they operate in comes into question especially when the treatment of marginalized and minority groups is a factor.
The choking and killing of Eric Garner, for having untaxed cigarettes, back in 2014 unleashed a new wave of scrutiny onto the department’s tactics and code of conduct. Thankfully, there was a little redemption earned when one of the indicted officers, Daniel Pantaleo was fired and his badge removed.
The Police Benevolent Association publicly disavowed the then commissioner James McNeill’s decision, calling it a weak move; one that indicates that police officers are not a priority as much as possessing political sway. The decision was affirmed by a NYPD administrative judge, who reached the same conclusion.
Now with a new commissioner inducted, Dermont O’Shea, the incumbent succeeding McNeill and the hardliner William Bratton, one that’s sane and rational would think that the NYPD would uptake serious efforts to reform their image.
Nope. Some habits die hard; others never die at all.
Back in October, a young black named Adrian Napier was sitting on the 4 train near Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn, with his hands up. A witness reported to police that Napier was in possession of a gun. Officers tried to interrogate him, but he escaped into the train station and onto the train.
It didn’t take much time sooner for a gang of officers to barge onto the train, physically apprehend Napier, frisk him and put handcuffs on him like it was a SWAT operation.
Napier asked for someone to notify his mom, but it was too late. The police never recovered a gun. Napier was regardless charged with fare evasion for hopping the turnstile.
The video went viral, as it would, and fury and indignation spilled out as many celebrities and public figures shared their disgust at what went down.
The incident is a result of the measures launched by Andrew Cuomo to cut down fare evasion and minimize crime that’s somewhat seen an uptick in the subways, including hiring 500 new officers to put a stop to any ongoing fare evasion.
Fare evasion led to a lost revenue of 225 million dollars in 2018. That number increased to 243 million dollars in March 2019.
Maybe someone needs to take a firm grip of this issue, but that doesn’t excuse for there being over ten fatal shootings committed by NYPD officers in 2019. The police still have yet to learn that their policy for ensuring law and order can’t be “shoot first, ask questions later.”
Like with many other metrics, significantly if they’re violent, minorities are disproportionately arrested and summoned for fare evasion in the subway.
It can’t be presumed that officers always just arrest Black or Latino commuters off of a superficial “itch” or pre-existing “suspicion”. As the NYPD itself has undergone diversification, the need to update officers’ training to be less hostile and more understanding of the diverse citizenry the NYPD is serving cannot be shunned.
A healthy relationship between the police and the residents they preside over can’t be strengthened just by having officers play basketball with the youth at the local courts. Responsibility for wrong-doing and poor misjudgment has to be admitted by everyone involved.
To demonstrate how enraged people are by these arrests and killings, the citizenry as they do all throughout history take to the streets and cause disruption.
For a couple of months now, I’ve been following an new account on Instagram with the username Decolonize This Place.
They are, in fair assessment, an arm of the “people’s resistance.”
Their rhetoric and choice of lexicon is a little juvenile, immature and irrational. Some of the slogans and comments you’ll see in their posts sound like a 12-year old who just read Karl Marx for the first time, agreed with everything he said, and believe they are the one destined to undertake and lead the next violent socialist revolution.
They give awareness and support to a range of liberal/leftist undertakings outside of contesting the MTA, from racial inequality, mass incarceration, wealth inequality, the LGBTQ+ platform, the anti-war movement, the Free Palestine movement, the BDS movement and the rights/land of indigenous peoples everywhere.
I would hold more of a grudge against their content if their heart wasn’t in the right place.
On the front of contesting the MTA’s conventions, Decolonize This Place has been forcing the agenda to incite a decisive counter-response.
For months now, on social media this group has encouraged those upset with having to pay their $2.75 to simply not do so anymore and spread the message to all available ears.
Many protest have been held, and they’re not going to stop anytime in the near future.
One protest was held on the 31st of January, entitled “FTP 3” (Free the People), which had been promoted for months on Decolonize This Place’s social media pages. All involved gathered to Grand Central to then march in public at around 5 PM. The whole day was an affirmative “call to action”, which was bolstered up by the array of art, music and “festivities.”
In total, 11 people were arrested in the terminal by NYPD officers, and eight were handed summons. 45 overall for the entirety of the protest found themselves in handcuffs.
Like all the other protests, these protestors, holding up banners and wearing masks (pigs included), were demanding that any fare for MTA transportation was eliminated and police supervision incorporated into the subways was as well.
Bumper stickers have been slapped on walls in train stations with graffiti spray-painted to ensure the anger and raging dissent sticks.
FTP 2 and FTP 1 were held respectively on the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2019 and a couple of weeks prior, with parallel action taken.
With FTP 3, to make a statement on another level, some protestors went berserk. On turnstiles in subways in Brooklyn, Gorilla Glue was sprayed. At the World Trade Center, a long banner hung from above, saying “F**k Your $2.75, Strike Today.” From the World Trade Center of all places, that takes immense tenacity.
As the motto goes:
“We can’t be afraid of the police. It’s the police that should be afraid of the people.”
The politicians and people in opposition to this “hysteria” claim that these demonstrations are only fueling more anti-police sentiments.
The colloquial expression that hate only breeds more hate is true, but to say that the criticisms of the system that Decolonize the Place and their associates are sharing have no leg to stand is harsh.
Issues like the fare hikes and MTA’s stringent policies do tend to be a wake-up call for the working class to mobilize and unite in solidarity. That’s a huge message pushed in these bold protests.
Degentrify. Demilitarize. Decolonize. Sentiments like these are being resurrected from by-gone eras; from Vietnam, from the middle of the 20th century where every major European empire worldwide was officially in decline.
The police and politicians of New York do have a uprising on their turf.
Today to continue the liberation, independent anti-fascists or ANTIFA members are active all across the country in efforts to stomp out bigotry, prejudice and discrimination of any kind. They were on the scene at the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia back in 2017. Protests and clashes at Berkeley in 2017 included “soldiers” and members of various factions, like the “alt-right”, “alt-lite”, general conservatives, so-called Neo-Nazis and white nationalists, and those on the left, like ANTIFA there to oppose their congregation.
Several conservative commentators tried to give speeches during that unwinding fiasco that lasted a couple of months, from Ann Coulter to Ben Shapiro to Milo Yiannopoulos, who’s labeled as alt-right although he’s a homosexual and his personal views don’t align with the online-based movement.
In this age where social advocacy is glamorized and given a positive light, what needs to be talked about as well is it’s own glaring limitations.
What’s going on here does have a baseline of sensibility; I don’t think any compassionate, kind-hearted and caring person wants to see a churro vendor or homeless people in the subways being harassed by police officers. But those are individual cases that don’t represent the full picture necessarily.
You’re not entitled to throw a tantrum that’s televised, recorded for social media, and then disguise it as constructive and goal-oriented political activism. The aesthetics and the message sent just get distorted.
The position held by New Yorkers who disagree with these protests is valid; they just want to get to their job or wherever they have to go, and they’re willing to pay the 2.75. From their perspective, if you’re not, you should either move out of the city or find a way to make additional money so one can afford to pay the fare.
This is why socialists, Bernie Bros as a point of reference, are ridiculed and looked down upon. Some of them espouse talking points that imply that they really do want everything to be free. Free college, free healthcare, free housing, free public parks, free transportation, free MTA, free everything.
On the flipside, some of their solutions proposed involve paying certain groups more just because it might theoretically or in the data enhance people’s standard of living.
That’s not practical. We don’t have an economy unless there are workers, unless there are people producing goods, products and services to be traded, sold and bought.
Being broke isn’t a crime. Everyone at somepoint or another needs a helping hand. But it’s never ever someone else’s responsibility to handle your money problems. It’s never their burden to foot the bill for what you lack.
Someone has to foot the bill, whether the government through raising taxes, private organizations or your fellow citizens. Somebody has to.
Lost revenue and the damages created by fare evasion and vandalizing train stations have to be made back up. It’s either services are cut, or workers in the MTA who also need the salary are cut. Where’s their say in the argument?
Let’s be honest: these protests, and demonstrations over unfair fare hikes are on the frontlines of a mounting battle for the heart of New York City. To determine what direction the tide will turn in for the city as we progress in this hectic 21st century.
Will this be a city for everyone, or only for certain demographics and people in a socioeconomic rank all of their own?
The answer to that question seems to be obvious, yet so vague altogether.
Back in October, the New York Times dropped a video on their YouTube Channel called “Is New York City an Empire in Decline?” The clickbait-y title does elicit thought on whether or not the New York Times views New York City as a microcosm of the greater United States.
This particular comment in the comment section in nuance and sincerity explained where New York City is at as a city with such rich history, character, alongside vivid plight and division:
“NYC has become an amusement park for the rich and for upper-middle class tourists who want to feel rich for a weekend. The city is in a cultural identity crisis. The coffee houses where Bob Dylan used to play in the village have now turned into vegan cupcake stores. Museums where aspiring artists used to go and study others in their craft have turned into places where people go just to get photos for their Instagram stories. Broadway shows resemble the attractions of Universal Studios (King King, Harry Potter). Kids from rich families move to NYC to study at 60,000/yr schools, just so they can feel like they’re living in an episode of Friends and so they can humble-brag to their Facebook friends that they’re drinking an over-priced cocktail at a roof-top bar. Living here, it often feels like a playground for the rich and for tourists who are spending a large chunk of change over a weekend. The corruption and broken infrastructure rises to the top when you move from playing here to living here.”
The “War On the Poor” and the war on the MTA are only the newest attractions (or newly updated) in this ever-increasingly disintegrating amusement park.
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