Advertisement
IRL

A bunch of Santas jumped subway turnstiles with no consequences

There were no cops in sight.

Photo of Samira Sadeque

Samira Sadeque

SantaCon members jumping turnstiles

A video showing a fleet of Santas jumping turnstiles at a New York subway station is raising questions. 

Featured Video

Twitter user @solublefischel shared a video showing at least a dozen SantaCon pub crawl participants, who mostly appear to be white, jumping turnstiles at an Astor Place subway station in Manhattan on Saturday.  

“Damn… SantaCon is lit y’all,” she wrote. 

Advertisement

A follow-up tweet shows some of the Santas holding doors open for other passengers to enter freely.

Advertisement

 

A Saturday evening report on CBS New York said police believed “most of the people were on their best behavior” at SantaCon, but two people had been arrested and charged with assault. There was no mention of the turnstile jumping. 

Advertisement

The video is touching a nerve for New York residents who have been protesting crackdowns by the New York Police Department on subway fare evaders, which disproportionately affects people of color and poor people. Protests started with the documented attack on Black teenager Adrian Napier, who was hunted down by more than a dozen cops pointing arms at him for jumping the turnstile at a Brooklyn subway station in October. Activists organized protests last month amid other reports, including the arrest of a woman selling churros on a subway platform.

In response to the video of white Santas giddily jumping turnstiles, many who questioned if Black people would be able to do the same with such merriment.

https://twitter.com/champagne_sage/status/1206069136813690880?s=20

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

https://twitter.com/chesterapricot/status/1206239130302201858?s=20

Advertisement

Advertisement

https://twitter.com/ohhellno202/status/1206302364522745856?s=20

https://twitter.com/sharilyn/status/1206580639912353792?s=20

Advertisement

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) announced last month that it’s investing more money into having cops at subway stations.

Some said the Santas jumped the turnstiles in solidarity and they should be welcomed by protesters. But journalist Elizabeth Spiers said the actions only reinstate white privilege, not fight it.

“This is a stunt and not helpful. The only thing they’re demonstrating here is that they know they won’t face any real consequences for doing it. It’s a novelty to them. And there are real ways to fight these stupid racist fare evasion arrest policies,” Spiers tweeted.

https://twitter.com/espiers/status/1206238141952208898

Advertisement

When reached on Tuesday, MTA did not answer why cops were not made aware of this incident and directed the Daily Dot to the NYPD, which did not respond. SantaCon NYC did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comments.

READ MORE:

 
The Daily Dot