A group called the Transit Liberation Front smashed 10 OMNY machines in subway stations across NYC in response to a call from Black revolutionaries in Atlanta calling for a summer of resistance against the US & Israel's colonial/state violence & surveillance.
The photo was sent to me anonymously.
Here's the communique:
"Recently, Black Revolutionaries in Atlanta sent out a call for a Summer of Resistance, [...]"
"[...]a sustained, militant, and decentralized campaign targeting the multitude of appendages of the settler-colonial so-called United States, its Zionist client government, and their many accomplices in promoting a genocidal agenda in Palestine that is killing tens of thousands"
"In response, we turned our attention to the MTA and the touchless payment system, OMNY, that it is trying to shove down New Yorkers' collective throat."
"These machines represent a world in which we must trade away our privacy for the right to move about our own city."
"The existence of OMNY and the city's desire to phase out all other methods of payment is an obvious ploy to increase surveillance and further violate our communities by policing the main arteries of transit for everyday New Yorkers [...]"
"[...] —as if the subways weren't fucking crawling with police already."
"We smashed ten of these machines in multiple subway stations across the city. We estimate that this is equivalent to about $40,000 in damage."
"OMNY is in part result of a contract between the MTA and Cubic Corporation, a sprawling multinational entity owned by the private equity firm Veritas Capital [9 W. 57th St.]."
"Veritas's portfolio also includes Peraton, which is working with the Department of Homeland Security to build HART."
"This advanced surveillance system will compile and centralize biometric and other data on nearly 300 million individuals, further facilitating DHS's campaign of terror against immigrants and communities of color."
"This database, of course, will soon be open to Zionist security forces through DHS's Enhanced Border Security Partnership, which promises rapid mutual biometric intelligence sharing among the Zionist entity, US, UK, and EU."
"Veritas is invested in the oppressive technologies shoring up the imposed colonial borders that have been constructed on Palestinian land and between the United States and Mexico, ripping apart traditionally Indigenous territories."
"Here, at the margins, we see the extremity of state violence enacted against those it has decided to keep out by any means necessary, [...]"
"[...] through both active violence—when the Zionist military murders Palestinians in cold blood—and passive, when US agents allow families to drown in the Rio Grande before their very eyes. These horrors are manifold, and Veritas is profiting from them."
"If your city has a public transportation system, it is likely to be linked to Cubic and Veritas. Chicago's Ventra system, London's Oyster, the Breeze card in Atlanta, and countless other systems inside and outside of the US are all Cubic endeavors."
"Your governments are selling you out to a private company that actively promotes the imperialist projects from Palestine to Mexico. Why? In our view, they are rolling out an ever-more militarized version of the already extant police state."
"Cops flooding the subway and National Guard bag-checks are only the beginning. They are relying on us growing accustomed to being controlled in every aspect of our lives, of us willingly giving up our privacy in exchange for their rotten idea of "safety.""
"There is no safety under occupation, and we are indeed living on occupied territory."
"We may not yet face the same violence in the metropole as we see at the margins, but, as the resistance grows and the intifada is globalized, they are certainly getting ready in case we get too rowdy, too ungovernable. We are the frogs in the slowly heating pot."
"Disabling these machines is just one small act of resistance, one that requires no more than a good, heavy hammer (16 oz. or more, no wooden handles), some safety equipment (goggles and protective gloves), and a solid plan for concealing your identity."
"Bring a friend to watch your back and go to town. Smash an OMNY, cover a camera, break one of their stupid video ads. Join the Transit Liberation Front today!
–The Transit Liberation Front"
Here's images of the communique's text:
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The NYC Police Foundation (a group of rich plutocrats who funnel money to NYPD) is holding a gala today. So far there’s a small group of protesters & an army of NYPD cops putting up barricades everywhere. Cops are making the protesters go almost a block away from the entrance.
On the way to this protest, I spotted NYPD Sgt Ahmed Abdalla (badge #: 2823) in uniform talking on the phone & smoking a cigarette. You can see him trying to hide it. That definitely goes against the NYPD Patrol Guide. Will he get disciplined for this? Let’s see. But I doubt it.
The NYC Police Foundation (a group of rich plutocrats who funnel money to NYPD) is holding a gala today. Protesters are near the entrance for (affluent) gala attendees walking & driving in. Protesters are chanting at & booing gala attendees as they walk to the gala.
I just got to Brooklyn Museum where pro-Palestine have made a stop during a march. Lots of NYPD cops in helmets & batons here to surveil and repress the protest. Protesters just dropped a banner saying “Free Palestine, Divest from genocide” from the top of the museum.
The connection sucks for me around here so my tweets are posting late. Lots of arrests though. Protesters are still outside Brooklyn Museum.
I’ll post more videos later when I’m somewhere with a better connection. Pro-Palestine protesters are still outside Brooklyn Museum. An army of NYPD cops are still here along with drones & a helicopter. Lots of brutal arrests today both inside & outside the museum.
I just got to the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at NYU. Looks like cops put up barricades around the encampment. People are here outside the barricades to show solidarity with the students. NYU students demand that NYU divest from Israel, close NYU Tel Aviv, & get cops off campus.
NYPD cop Anthony Smith (badge #: 23039) is here spying on protesters outside of NYU’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
“Over 40,000 dead!
NYU your hands are red!”
Pro-Palestine protesters are marching now outside of NYU.
Anarchists in NYC redecorated multiple Chase banks near Wall Street yesterday for its investments in Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems.
“Funder of genocide”, “Drop Elbit”, & “Free Gaza” were written in blood red paint, & the doors were chained & sealed shut with spray foam.
Chase Bank is the 6th largest stockholder in Elbit Systems. Even though NYPD tried to quickly take off the chains & foam & open the doors, much of the blood red paint still remains.
Three Nationwide Insurance locations in NY were redecorated with red paint & #StopCopCity art & had their doors spray foamed shut today by autonomous community members who demanded that Nationwide cut ties with the Atlanta Police Foundation & cease insuring the Cop City Project.
The video was sent to me anonymously.
Here's the communique:
"23.02.2024
NATIONWIDE IS ON THEIR SIDE
NATIONWIDE FUNDS HOMICIDE
NATIONWIDE, YOU CAN'T HIDE"
An anti-imperialist anti-colonialist actionist group in NYC dropped a banner reading "Gaza" & "فلسطين " in blood red letters from the highest level of the George Washington Bridge on Monday.
"We won’t stop until they stop, until Palestine and all of our people are free."
The group locked the banner with 4 locks for every letter in GAZA & then threw the keys into the Hudson River.
"For the first time in the bridge's colonial history, a banner and the Palestinian flag waved for the cars that crossed the lower deck of the bridge."