Cops Pursue Month-Old Subway Protest Mischief Cases

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A massive protest on Jan. 31 against increased subway policing and fares evidently struck a nerve at the NYPD.

Cops since then have sent out at least six news releases asking for help tracking down mischief makers who poured glue into MetroCard readers, stuck stickers on station walls and propped open exit doors that day.

And it was an unlawful door propping at a Bed-Stuy subway station that drew the latest subway protest-related Deputy Commissioner of Public Information release.

The email arrived in media inboxes Wednesday and included photos and video of three people fiddling with an exit door at the A/C station at Fulton Street and Franklin Avenue.

The NYPD asked for the public's assistance identifying the pranksters "wanted for questioning in connection to Offense Against Public Administration," the release states.

One mischief maker was described in the release as "opening the emergency gate and tide (sic) a t-shirt to it to keep it open."

"A short time later, two unidentified individuals approached the same door and placed a lock over the same door to prevent it from closing," the release states.

Those thwarted door shuttings happened on Jan. 31 when thousands of protesters swarmed subways, jumped turnstiles, packed Grand Central Station and fulfilled promises to "f--- s--- up."

The civil disobedience followed 500 new officers being sworn in specifically to police the subway. Protesters feared it would perpetuate violent arrests and police enforcement which appeared to target people of color — an accusation now under investigation by the state's Attorney General's office.

The protesters appear to have received the NYPD's attention, but perhaps not in the way they hoped. DCPI releases have asked for help finding four women who chained a West Village subway door open, two men who poured glue in a Metrocard reader in the Upper West Side and more.

The MTA told the New York Post that cleanup from the protests likely will be costly.

“Some of the tactics that have been discussed threatened to put both riders and employees at risk for their safety,” MTA spokesman Tim Minton told The Post.

"This is true endgame of the anti-police movement," the Police Benevolent Association wrote on Twitter during the protests. "An end of all policing & destruction of public order."

People with information about the Bed-Stuy door propping are asked to call NYPD, make an anonymous tip at NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS or contact police online.