New Haven, CT – The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) extends its heartfelt wishes for strength and speedy healing to everyone injured in Tuesday’s violent attack at a Brooklyn subway station, as well as to the entire Brooklyn community and everyone impacted. Such incidents are terrifying, and we stand with all who must now grapple with the aftermath of that terror. CPE condemns any violence, isolated or systemic.
As the world tentatively opens up after more than two years of pandemic lockdowns, we must be mindful that COVID both compounded pre-pandemic traumas and created new depths of trauma, particularly among the most vulnerable. If the only tool available to us is predicated on systems of punishment, we will find that we have endangered ourselves yet further.
That this horrific incident occurred at a time of unprecedented police presence in New York’s subways underscores the fact that law enforcement by itself isn’t enough to prevent acts of violence. Though we’re sure to hear the usual calls for increased law enforcement funding in response to Tuesday’s events, we must resist those demands and the illusion of safety they offer. We don’t yet know what led to this specific incident, but we do know that it was not caused by a lack of police funding. Such violence often manifests as a result of untreated trauma.
CPE is committed to the work of redesigning public safety systems in collaboration with all stakeholders so that everyone, from vulnerable communities to law enforcement, may someday live safe in the knowledge that such senseless violence is a thing of the past.