Police departments arresting demonstrators against police brutality often try to commandeer municipal buses to cart their prisoners off to jail. But some bus drivers in cities like New York and Minneapolis have refused to help police departments crack down on the massive demonstrations since the murder of George Floyd. A Youtube video shows demonstrators cheering as one Brooklyn bus driver walked off a bus onto which cops had loaded demonstrators who were arrested last weekend.
Bus drivers don’t want to be put in the middle between police and young people protesting police brutality, but their opposition to being used by the police goes deeper than that. Most New York City subway and bus workers are black or brown and they know how the police behave in their neighborhoods. Hopefully these refusals to haul protestors off to jail will inspire other transit workers to think about taking group action when there is mass outrage about police brutality.
