Earlier this month, Mayor Eric Adams announced that crime in train stations went down 3% last year, but he wants to add 200 more cops throughout the system.
“ Watching that cop walk through the subway, seeing him present, having the conductor announce there’s a police officer on a train,” Adams stated at a press conference. “All of the things that will allow New Yorkers to feel the omnipresence and feel safe.”
For some people in the Pace community, however, the presence of the police makes them feel the opposite.
“My experience with cops is a bad reputation with them because of me being a Black male in a white community, and growing up in a hood,” said Aaron, a Pace student who is being identified by first name only for privacy concerns. “It affected me mentally and physically because of being a six-foot Black male. They’ll look at me differently, like a criminal and a thug when I’m not. I’m actually a nice person.”
Last June, Aaron said he was wrongfully accused and physically detained by the NYPD at the Grand Street stop after leaving school. He was getting onto the train with his friend when the conductor held the train in the station and accused Aaron of smoking marijuana inside the train.
“The cops then pulled me out of the train and tried to put my hands behind my back to arrest me,” Aaron said. “The people on the train looked at me and said it wasn’t me.”
Jamel, a Pace student who is being identified by first name only for privacy concerns, had an altercation with the NYPD last September. He was coming home from school on the B train when a police officer stopped him for seemingly no reason.
“They touched me in my private area without consent and I’m a minor,” Jamel said. “I just felt harassed because I didn’t even have anything on me.”
In a separate incident, Jamel said he saw the NYPD assault a Black man in Cathedral Parkway–110th Street station.
“They beat them, they put them in cuffs, they took them,” Jamel said. “I don’t know what happened after that.”
Despite these experiences, Jamel said he doesn’t feel like more police in train stations is a bad idea due to the presence of crime in general.
“I just feel like if they’re gonna put more cops in there, they put cops that take their job seriously and not cops that are power hungry and do what they want,” Jamel said.
English co-teacher Mr. Pettersen said the NYPD has never stopped him in a train station, but he has seen police harassing homeless people and found it “deeply disturbing.”
“Things get heightened because of police in the subway,” Mr. Pettersen said. “Things don’t get cooled off. They get hotter, especially for people who don’t have a roof over their head but deserve one.”
The best thing to do when a police officer stops you is to stay calm and collected, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Do not become aggressive and combative, even if you feel you are being harassed. According to NYCLU, you should do the following:
- Ask if you’re being arrested or if you’re free to leave.
- Don’t use vulgar language or run away. This could lead to an arrest.
- Ask for a name and badge number of the officers.
This story was reported with the instructional assistance of freelance journalist Arabella Saunders.
