The Broadway Junction A/C subway stop saw more arrests for fare evasion in the last three months of 2022 than any other train station in New York City, reports Patch. With more than 63 arrests between October 2022 and December 2022, the station is now at the top of the 472 subway stations in New York City.
The wave of arrests came as elected officials ordered New York Police Department officers to shift focus to combating crime in the subway and cracking down on fare evasion. And the police crackdowns were felt in Bed-Stuy, where more people were arrested for subway fare evasion than in Manhattan and Queens combined.
However, local residents are calling for accountability regarding the racial disparities of these arrests. Of the 63 people arrested for fare evasion at the Broadway Junction A/C subway stop, data shows that only two were white and sixty were Black or Hispanic. And, out of the 109 people arrested for jumping subway turnstiles in Bed-Stuy in the last quarter of 2022, 88 were Black. When accounting for Hispanic arrests the total comes to 103 arrests out of 109, or 94%. Meanwhile, in the same area of Bed-Stuy, only four white people were arrested for fare evasion according to the NYPD.
"These vast racial disparities in fare evasion enforcement are unacceptable… Arrests and summons do not help low-income New Yorkers pay fares," Southeast Queens City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers said in a statement as Transportation Committee Chair.
The racial disparities revealed in city data show that Black and Hispanic people accounted for 93% of arrests and many believe that there may be no stopping these already high rates of arrests within Black and brown Brooklyn communities without reform.
After Broadway Junction, the next highest number of fare evasion arrests citywide was at the Atlantic Avenue L station in East New York with 21 arrests.
