Protesters complaining that too many cops patrol the subways drew plenty of police attention Friday when they painted graffiti on station walls, poured glue on turnstiles, set off a smoke bomb into a Midtown subway stop and poured into Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush.
“F–k the police!” 500 or so protesters chanted at Grand Central, where about five people were arrested.
“How do you spell racist?” they yelled. “NYPD!”
Many carried signs that said the same thing — and other signs said, “A to Z, transit should be free.”
After leaving Grand Central, the protesters headed west on 42nd St. About 300 of them were prevented by police from entering a station by Bryant Park.
But 80 to 100 protesters still managed to storm the station at 6th Ave. and W. 42nd Street and set off a green smoke bomb.
Then the protesters headed south on Broadway, and indicated they would head to Brooklyn, ending at Restoration Plaza in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“We’re for the right to free transit,” said Esther Sanchez, 23, of Brooklyn. “The cops are in the subway to criminalize poverty. They target black and brown bodies.”
Most of those arrested or summonsed for fare evasion are minorities, but the NYPD says enforcement is based on what officers witness and that it does not engage in racial profiling.
But protesters said police are essentially criminalizing poverty by arresting or summonsing those who jumped the turnstile.
The solution, they said, is to eliminate the subway fare.
“Transit is a right,” said protester Ian Evans, 22, a Brooklyn College student. “We need to get to work. We need to be able to get to school.”
Police responded to the protest by dispatching around 1,400 cops to stations in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.
Throughout the day, protesters rushed into various subway stations.
Photos obtained by the Daily News show the words “Cops Out” scrawled on the wall of the B/C station at W. 72nd St. and Central Park West on the Upper West Side and “Free Fare or No Fare” at the 155th St. station in Washington Heights.
The turnstiles at the Borough Hall No. 2 station in Brooklyn and the B/C stop at the W. 96th St. and Central Park West were covered in Gorilla Glue to prevent people from swiping MetroCards, authorities said.
Trash cans were also set afire at several Brooklyn subway stops. One protester graffitied an NYPD patrol car parked on the Lower East Side, cops said.
“FTP,” some protesters scrawled in black magic marker on utility poles and even city buses. One person was arrested for scrawling that outside a jewelry store, and several others were arrested, for obstructing traffic.
Two protesters were given summonses after they were caught trying to hang a “F— The Police” banner in Bronx Criminal Court, police said.
Protesters on Fulton St. in Brooklyn aimed laser pointers at a police helicopter around 7 p.m.
In another incident, a protester threw a hammer at the window of a Chipotle restaurant on Fulton St. in lower Manhattan. A 21-year-old woman was cut by the broken glass, and taken to NYU Downtown Hospital. The person who broke the window fled the scene.
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan tweeted in the run-up to the protest at Grand Central that police would not allow disorder to endanger commuters.
“IT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED,” Monahan said.
Protesters used Twitter to telegraph their intentions days ago.
“The streets are ours. The trains our ours. The walls are ours. This moment is ours,” the protest group Decolonize This Place tweeted on Tuesday. “How will you and your crew build and f— s— up for #FTP3 on #J31 (THIS FRIDAY)? Issa mothaf—–‘ movement.”
People were also given copies of an “operations manual,” recommending that protesters wear clothes that don’t need belts, and not to bring weapons or drugs to the protests.
In a memo acquired by the Daily News, the city Department of Correction ordered its officers not to wear their uniforms while traveling to city jails Friday.
They also recommended that family members “refrain from wearing clothing items or carrying items brandishing the department name and logo, for their safety.”
“If you are driving your personal vehicle or parking on a public street, do not place any agency identifiers such as union cards, placards or any other items bearing association with law enforcement in view, as this may result in vandalism to your vehicle,” the memo said.
MTA Safety Chief Patrick Warren said his agency was “monitoring conditions” at area train stations.
“This demonstration activity follows the dangerous pattern of previous activities that have resulted in vandalization and defacement of MTA property — clearly violating laws,” Warren said in a statement. “Those actions divert valuable time, money and resources away from investments in transit services that get New Yorkers to their jobs, schools, doctors and other places they need to go.
“The MTA has zero tolerance for any actions that threaten the safety of the public and our employees, and impede service for millions of customers,” he said.
In November, two people were arrested during a similar protest where scores of chanting fare-beaters gleefully jumped the turnstiles at a downtown Brooklyn subway station.
Protester Sarah Autz, 25, was nabbed for scrawling the word “Pigs” with a marker on a police patrol car at the intersection of Hoyt and Schemerhorn Sts. during the march, which culminated in the subway stampede. Autz was arrested on graffiti and criminal mischief charges, cops said.
A 22-year-old man was also given a summons for spitting at police officers during the raucous rally where marchers in Downtown Brooklyn held banners declaring “F— The Police.”
With Clayton Guse and Stephen Rex Brown
