#killer cops

The family of Marcus Meade, who was shot and killed by police on Christmas Eve while thought to be having a mental health crisis, have said officers showed “no mercy for him”, as they called for “full accountability” of those involved. Meade, 39, was killed while alone in his home in Redditch on 24 December after a five-hour standoff with West Mercia police officers, and was allegedly in possession of a knife. His family said Meade’s mental health had deteriorated in recent years, and he had a history of self-harm. They said he often suffered a mental health crisis around Christmas time and he had had previous contact with the police because of this. “They had no mercy for the kid,” said his father, Anthony Meade. “They knew of him; he was familiar to them. They’ve dealt with him before. But they don’t normally send people with guns to him. “Why didn’t the police call someone who knew how to deal with mental health problems? Why would they send armed police officers? Why would they decide to use a bullet for someone who’s got a mental health problem?” They said Meade, a father of two, had become “tormented” after he apprehended a man who killed a 16-year-old girl in a random attack while she was sunbathing in Birmingham city centre in 2001, for which he won an award for bravery. “He caught the killer and they made him a hero, but they didn’t help him with the problems of seeing this girl die,” said his father. “That tormented his mind, and he kind of stopped trusting people. He just lost faith in everyone.

Tom was well-liked here. He’d been elected sheriff five times in a row, with hardly any opposition. Folks saw him as dependable, steady—someone they could trust. His wife, Karen, and their two kids were part of the town’s fabric, woven into every community event, from church picnics to high school football games. To the people of Ridgeview, the Weller family was perfect, and Tom was the man who kept their little corner of the world safe.

But Tom wasn’t the man they thought he was.

Behind the steady gaze and reassuring smile, Tom carried a secret—a secret so dark, so deeply buried, that not even his family knew the truth. Every day, he wore his uniform like armor, a shield to protect him from the weight of what he’d done, from the past that threatened to tear everything apart.

As he stood there, watching the town come to life, he couldn’t help but feel the familiar tug of dread creeping into his chest. It was only a matter of time before the past caught up with him. He knew that. Secrets, no matter how well hidden, had a way of surfacing.

And when his did, everything he’d built—his family, his reputation, his life—would come crashing down.

Last Sunday, an officer of the New York Police Department (NYPD) opened fire inside the Sutter Avenue subway station in Brooklyn over a $2.90 fare evasion. He shot and injured four people, including an NYPD officer. New York City Mayor and former cop Eric Adams promptly lauded the officers for their “bravery” in a post on X, proudly supporting the criminalization of impoverished communities of color in the city. At no point did Adams acknowledge that the injured NYPD officer in question was shot by his own colleague, deliberately implying that it was the passenger who was the culprit. Police have accused Derrell Mickles, 37, of evading the fare and wielding a pocket knife after they tased him. However, the police later admitted that they confiscated a knife belonging to another passenger and have no evidence that Mickles was holding a knife. In a further display of contempt, Mickles’s mother has revealed that she was not informed that her son was in critical condition, with the NYPD only dropping a business card at her doorstep. The police department has killed 23 people in New York in 2024 alone, 10 of whom are Black. Nationwide, 229 Black lives have been lost to police brutality this year. Black lives continue to be treated as expendable in this racist and capitalist system, but are simultaneously portrayed as disruptors of public safety. Two dollars and ninety cents is all it took for the NYPD to open fire inside a subway station, endangering the lives of commuters. We condemn this heinous attack on poverty by the NYPD and stand in solidarity with Derrell Mickles and the two civilians injured last Sunday. The categorization of subway fare non-payment as a crime is nothing more than a symptom of the decades-long defunding of public services and the over-funding of police in New York City. The NYPD has spent over $600 million in overtime pay and over $500 million in misconduct settlements as of January 2024. On the other hand, the city’s public higher education system, City University of New York (CUNY), continues to operate with millions of dollars in debt. This has led to austerity measures and rising tuition costs for a largely low-income Black and Brown student body. Meanwhile, supposedly liberal commentators claim that it’s “obvious” that the subway needs even more police.

On Sept. 15, the NYPD shot Derrell Mickles, a Black man in Brooklyn, for the alleged “crime” of jumping a turnstile. This marks the second NYPD shooting in just 48 hours. Amidst a landscape where Democrat political figures swiftly condemned recent assassination attempts on Donald Trump, proclaiming that “violence has no place in America,” we ask: where is this sentiment when it comes to the NYPD shooting Black men?

Brooklyn, New York: Emergency Protest Against NYPD Subway Shootings

Tuesday, September 17 - 6:00 p.m.

Sutter Avenue L Train station, Brownsville, Brooklyn

Killer Cop