Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several fellow progressives strongly opposed the MTA’s plan to hire 500 new cops to patrol the subways.
The 2019 letter from the leftist group has come under new scrutiny after a shooting in the Brooklyn subway caused at least 30 injuries and caused mass panic.
“We believe the desperately needed resources would be better invested in improvements to the metro, buses, maintenance and services,” the letter said. “We urge the MTA to abandon the current model of criminalization.
The letter warned of “historical racial differences in implementation” and claimed that “color communities” would be unfairly targeted at new employees.
In addition to the AOC, the letter was signed by many of the city’s anti-cops next door to the Progressives, including Upper West Side spokesman Jerry Nadler, former Bronx spokesman Jose Serrano, U.S. Senator Michael Janaris, Luis Sepulveda, Jessica Ramos, Julia Saula and Alessandra Biaggi.
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Nader have previously called for the release of police, as well as Senators Biaggi, Ramos and Salazar.
“Punishing the poor does not create a safer environment. Instead, it threatens the very foundation of our community. That’s why my colleagues from New York and I wrote a letter to @NYGovCuomo asking him to help end MTA’s dangerous police policy, “the AOC tweeted, along with the December 2019 letter.
2019 called on the MTA to “abandon the current model of criminalization.” Robert Miller
Former Governor Cuomo announced the plan for new employees at a press conference in June 2019 and said that the new employees will be there to deal with tax evasion and general violence in the system.
“We had 2,300 cases of harassment of MTA employees [in 2018]”Cuomo said. “One hundred attacks, stabbings, fists, violence against MTA employees. These are civil servants. There are people who do very difficult work. Do you think it’s easy? “He said at the time.
The plan was eventually halted when the pandemic struck. Subway crime is on the rise, according to the latest NYPD statistics.
Guardian Angels chief Curtis Plum said more cops in the subways could prevent the Brooklyn subway shooting. Matthew McDermott for the NY Post
“Police budgets have never been higher and Mayor Adams increased the number of police officers in the weeks before the shooting,” Ramos said. “If we look back years, let’s look at the rigor that allowed so many people to fall through the cracks.”
Senator Biaggi also defended the letter. “I stand with the MTA workers and I want to focus the police on violent crimes against workers and riders, not on petty crimes. That was the purpose of the letter, and I support it, “she said.
Guardian Angels chief and former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliva said more cops in the subways could prevent the massacre on Tuesday.
“If you don’t control the method of entering through the turnstile, you lose control of the whole subway system and that’s what happened,” Sliva told The Post. “They need as many cops as they can get, and they need to have them in the whole system.”
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