Brooklyn shooting: AOC, other New York Democrats slammed 2019 proposal to put more MTA cops in NYC subways

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., together with different members of Congress from New York, voiced their opposition to a 2019 proposal which might have positioned 500 extra Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officers in New York Metropolis subways.

In a letter despatched to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the lawmakers addressed the MTA’s plan to rent extra cops and as an alternative mentioned that funding needs to be spent on “desperately wanted assets” like “subway, bus, upkeep, and repair enhancements, in addition to defending riders and transit employees from assault somewhat than within the over-policing of our communities.”

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On the time, lawmakers mentioned the plan was “not cost-effective” and cited statistics from the New York Police Division (NYPD) as they claimed “main felonies dedicated on the subway have decreased.”

“The subway system is now safer than earlier than,” they wrote.  As well as, the legislators mentioned it was “crucial to rethink the usage of working funds to pay for added officers and to search out alternate streams of income to avert a bigger funds disaster.”

Noting a “vital uptick in assaults on bus and subway employees,” the lawmakers advised Cuomo that the plan would impression these dwelling in poverty and reminded him “of the historic racial discrepancies in enforcement and the way in which communities of shade, each MTA riders and employees, bear the brunt of over-policing.”

“Arresting hard-working individuals who can not afford a $2.75 fare is, in impact, the criminalization of poverty,” the lawmakers claimed within the letter.

Following a capturing which injured no less than 29 people at a Brooklyn subway station on Tuesday morning, Ocasio-Cortez mentioned she was “devastated.”

An MTA Officer enters a closed off subway entrance
(Peter Gerber for Fox Information Digital)

“We’re devastated to see what occurred in Brooklyn at present,” she wrote in a tweet. “Pondering of and praying for these injured and their family members.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who additionally signed the letter, supplied his ideas within the aftermath of the capturing, writing in a tweet that he was “horrified”.

Rep. Jerry Nadler throughout a press convention on expanded Little one Tax Credit score (CTC) at Ted Weiss Federal Constructing.
(Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Pictures)

“I’m horrified by the assault in Brooklyn,” he wrote. “I’m carefully monitoring the state of affairs and am in communication with the FBI. My ideas are with the victims and first responders.”

Throughout an interview Tuesday night, New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams mentioned residents within the metropolis will see a “seen police presence” in subways after the capturing as he tried to consolation those that depend on the trains for transportation all through town.

Along with Ocasio-Cortez and Nadler, the letter to Cuomo was signed by former Rep. José Serrano, D-N.Y., and New York state Senators Michael Gianaris, Luis Sepulveda, Jessica Ramos, Julia Salazar, and Alessandra Biaggi.