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Are you tired of constant delays, elevators that dont work, & racist police harassment on the subway?


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Hi, I'm Tony. I'm a daily writer of the New York City subway. I'm also a cartoonist, socialist, and activist with a group called The People's MTA. We formed in 2017 after New York's "Summer of Hell" to create a campaign to take back public transportation for the people.

The People's MTA has been fighting especially hard an issue of transit accessibility, only about one in four of New York City subways has elevators and the ones that do exist constantly break down, this makes subway travel nightmarish and oppressive for mobility-impaired riders or anyone who can't use subway stairs, parents with strollers, older riders, people with luggage, people who don't feel well. We all remember the preventable death of Malaysia Goodson, the young African-American mother who fell to her death was going down the subway stairs. carrying her baby and her stroller at the same time.

The People's MTA is also fighting to end the racist police profiling and harassment of Black and Latino riders. This is not a new problem, it's basically "Stop and Frisk" in the subway. The great "Swipe It Forward" activists did manage to reduce subway arrests with their campaign of swiping in riders for free, but now the MTA has announced a campaign against "fare beaters" putting 500 more cops on the subway. What is this but another racist war on the poor?

So if you want to do something about constant delays, getting elevators and ramps installed, constant delays, racist police harassment, elevators that don't work, getting stuck in an elevator, constant delays, then support this campaign by sharing it far and wide!

I look forward to discussing with all of you ways we can take back the subway for the people!

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18 hours ago, ThePeoplesMTA said:

now the MTA has announced a campaign against "fare beaters" putting 500 more cops on the subway. What is this but another racist war on the poor?

Sorry. I get $127.00 taken out of every month’s paycheck to pay for my share. There’s nothing racist with enforcing farebeating. This is not a race thing, and ironically, claiming that it is a race issue is itself racist; you yourself presume that only certain kinds of people farebeat more than others.

As a daily patron of the subway system, I see all sorts of people farebeat:

  • the professional dressed in business casual who couldn’t bother to get in line to swipe himself in
  • the opportunistic law-abiding citizen who “just happened” to get caught in a torrent of farebeaters and got sucked in through the emergency exit
  • the showtime dancers who somersault their way over the turnstiles
  • the Chinese grandmothers who crowbar their way in with their canes
  • the yuppie who thinks it’s hip to misappropriate farebeating

Sure, some ethnicities/ages do seem to farebeat more than others:

  • Coney Island has a large population of Asians and blacks. But I have only ever seen black people farebeat or ask for swipes in Coney Island.
  • Chinatown has a lot of foot traffic. Going by impression it’s elderly Chinese, other non-Chinese peoples (of any age), and some frustrated tourists who farebeat.

However, arresting for farebeating is still fair game, because it’s it’s based on what they already did and not what they are: hopping/ducking the turnstile or sneaking in through the emergency exit. Nothing like profiling in this business. If someone like me hops the turnstile, I’d be stopped—not let go because I don’t fit some profile.

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Anything for a view & a sub, huh?  Yeah, just hold the mayo (and everything else) <_<

What you're doing here is plain as day & it's disgusting...... You just had to throw in Black & Latino riders & concomitate them as the poor that the MTA is supposedly waging this racist war on.... This sensationalist spiel specifically structured to emotionally appeal to those sect of riders for the purpose of you even posting this on here, is racist in of itself.... You know you couldn't give a good god damn about them, outside of trying to amass numbers for your little campaign here.....

One of the last people I would invocate or collaborate to do something about all those issues you point out, is someone that resorts to the tactics you have here....

You speak of cartoons, well I got one for ya....

Go away... I say go away boy, ya botha me 

 

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It's not that certain races farebeat more than others; it's that certain races are targeted more than others. The majority of people who have to fare-beat are poor; that's basically a fact.

Love the fact that the boomer right after me decided to go "well i only see black people farebeat, not my model minority - i mean asians"... 

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I know there is a lit of automatic resistance to the idea of racism playing a role in everyday life. But I will introduce an idea to the audience: who is more likely to be arrested an LIRR who boards the train without a ticket fully intending to not pay if they arent caught or someone at Rockaway Ave who ducks under. 

 

Id say fare beating is farely evenly split in terms of who does it within the MTA. 

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