May 16th, 2025 – NYPD and MTAPD brutalize a Black bus rider

On the morning of Friday, May 16th, eight officers from the NYPD and MTAPD brutalized a Black bus rider over an alleged $2.90 unpaid fare. @doulak8 recorded the incident in front of a preschool on Foster and Flatbush with children present. After the man was already handcuffed, four officers slammed him repeatedly and face first into a metal shutter. They force him to the ground and use their knees to push him into the concrete. The New York Alliance joins the courageous bystanders to furiously condemn yet another example of unwarranted, unjustifiable police violence.

There is no angle to justify police brutality on someone who had already been immobilized, let alone on an alleged evasion of a $2.90 fare. Less than a year ago, in September of 2024, police shot four people (including one of their own) at the Sutter Av L train station over an alleged fare evasion. Apparently to the NYPD and MTAPD, $2.90 is worth more than the lives, safety, and health of the people of New York.

The officers’ priorities are clear in their hostility and language towards bystanders. At one point, an officer tells @doulak8 to “be concerned with [her] child” and “get better parenting” in an attempt to discourage further scrutiny. The only “concern” to safety in the video is the wanton police violence. These officers do not like being filmed and they especially do not like being challenged. They feel entitled to impunity and anonymity as they inflict harm on others.

This incident is part of the rise in brutality since the implementation of new fare enforcement policies and the formation of a new “quality of life” division, which has been emphasizing arrests of vendors or for sleeping in the subway. The incident also comes in the wake of Donald Trump’s April 28th executive order which called for “State and local law enforcement to aggressively police communities.”

In 2023, Gothamist analyzed the results of a $151 million increase in overtime pay, which put 1,000 additional cops in the transit system. They made about 36,000 additional arrests and summonses, which is at best ~$100,000 worth of allegedly evaded fares. The NYPD and MTAPD continue to have a terrible return on investment. Clearly, the point is not to recoup the fares. The point is to manufacture consent for targeted attacks on the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

@doulak8 has filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, but New Yorkers know how rare it is that police criminals face justice. A one-off training or the loss of a few vacation days would be an insult to the brutalized bus rider and the bystanders who advocated and continue to advocate for him. We demand the NYPD and MTAPD fire the officers responsible! We demand cops off the subway and out of the transit system altogether!

Previous Statements

• Apr 30, 2025 – Statement on Trump executive orders attacking sanctuary cities and calling for “aggressive policing” with full federal support and protection
• Apr 16, 2025 – Statement on NYPD in Astoria taking just 56 seconds to escalate to lethal force, killing a 61-year-old man experiencing a mental health crisis
• Apr 3, 2025 – Statement on Judge Dale Ho dropping all charges on Eric Adams “with prejudice”
• Apr 2, 2025 – Statement on Dashawn Jenkins, Soso Ramishvili, and five others who died in pre-trial detention since Feb 19, 2025
• Feb 9, 2025 – Statement on AG Letitia James’s Office of Special Investigation declining to prosecute NYPD Officers Antidormi and Prisco for murdering 78-year-old Caesar Robinson in his Bed-Stuy home
• Jan 9, 2025 – Statement on Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch adding 200 more cops on the subways
• Dec 29, 2024 – Statement on the murder of Robert Brooks by NYS DOC
• Dec 22, 2024 – Statement on NYPD walking past the murder of a woman on the F train