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Demonstrators Hit Brooklyn Streets, Subway Station To Protest Police Brutality

The protest fol­lows dis­turb­ing videos show­ing police alleged­ly punch­ing teens on a tran­sit plat­form and storm­ing a sub­way car with guns drawn. 

Some 1,000 demon­stra­tors poured onto down­town Brooklyn streets and into at least one sub­way sta­tion Friday evening to protest police bru­tal­i­ty and aggres­sive polic­ing in the tran­sit system.

Marchers chant­ed, “Hands off black kids, NYPD,” and “Hey, hey, ho ho, NYPD has got to go.” Activists crit­i­cized the “over-polic­ing” of the tran­sit sys­tem amid a new crack­down on fare-beat­ers that they say is height­en­ing ten­sion between New Yorkers and an increased num­ber of police assigned to the sub­ways. They want the new pro­gram dropped. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the beefed-up oper­a­tion this sum­mer to place an addi­tion­al 500 uni­formed offi­cers on sub­ways and bus­es to bat­tle fare eva­sion and oth­er crimes.

Friday’s protest was trig­gered after a trou­bling video emerged last week­end on social media show­ing a police offi­cer appar­ent­ly punch­ing two teenagers near a fight on a Brooklyn sub­way plat­form.
One of them, a 15-year-old, and his fam­i­ly announced a $5 mil­lion notice of claim ahead of a planned law­suit against the offi­cer and the New York Police Department, WABC‑7 report­ed.

“I’m tru­ly con­cerned about what I saw on that video,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said at a press con­fer­ence after the video emerged. “You can­not open­ly punch a young per­son in the face mere­ly because you are caught up in the aggres­sion of the moment.” (See the video above.)

He called for an inves­ti­ga­tion and new train­ing for officers.

A sep­a­rate dis­turb­ing video showed police with guns drawn storm­ing a sub­way car filled with pas­sen­gers to appre­hend a 19-year-old sus­pect whose arms were raised in sur­ren­der for alleged­ly fail­ing to pay the $2.75 fare by hop­ping a turn­stile. “Call my mom,” he told some­one on the train. He was charged with fare eva­sion. A spokesman for the NYPD said police believed he had been car­ry­ing a gun, but no weapon was found.
Democratic pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Julián Castro slammed the dan­ger­ous con­fronta­tion appar­ent­ly launched over a sub­way fare.
Protesters on Friday attacked both the vio­lence in the tran­sit sys­tem and the pro­gram that appeared to increase the like­li­hood of con­flict.
Story orig­i­nat­ed here: https://​www​.huff​post​.com/