A distressing video circulated on social media showing New York City officers attempting to arrest a woman and a teenage girl who were selling fruit in Battery Park in Manhattan over the weekend.
Video of the incident was shared on Sunday X showing the altercation which took place around 2 p.m.
The clip, filmed by a passerby, showed a woman wearing a yellow singlet with a New York Park Patrol officer holding one of her arms and a New York City Police officer on the other arm. . The camera then panned to a young girl dressed in a pink shirt and leggings who was being grabbed by a parks officer.
The girl appeared upset as the parks law enforcement officer surrounded her from behind, with handcuffs visible in the officer’s right hand.
Several people are heard in the background denouncing what the police were doing, saying, “What are you doing? “Let her go!” and “Stop touching her!”
The parks enforcement officer took several steps with the girl in his arms and seconds later an NYPD officer grabbed her arm, with a handcuff visibly clipped to her wrist. However, a screaming and screaming crowd had gathered around them, making movement difficult.
Then, at least two bystanders attempted to pull the girl away from the parks law enforcement officer’s grasp, and both ended up falling to the ground. The girl was picked up from the ground and pulled away from the police officer by passers-by.
The clip ended with this Parks officer kneeling on the ground, looking at another officer and asking, “Where the hell is everyone else?”
The person who shared the video of the incident with their family.” User X said the incident happened between Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry entrance.
A 32-year-old woman was ticketed for appearing at the office and a 14-year-old was issued a juvenile report following the incident, according to NYC Parks. They have not been identified and it is clear whether they have legal representation.
A spokesperson for NYC Parks confirmed that the video posted online depicted Sunday’s incident.
Agents from the Parks Enforcement Patrol and the New York Police Department had confiscated perishable items from unlicensed sellers in the park and were attempting to destroy items considered unsafe for consumption when two individuals intervened, leading to what was shown in the video, authorities said.
“The first action step of our Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) is to educate in order to bring violators into compliance. When individuals have repeatedly flouted the law, we take additional enforcement action, and there are cases where it is necessary to place violators and individuals. obstructing the law while under arrest,” Parks’ spokesperson said.
The officer involved in the clip has been assigned to administrative duties as part of an ongoing investigation into the incident.
Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged seeing the video during a news conference Monday, saying the woman and child were engaged in illegal sales — which he said was a symptom of a larger problem involving migrants in New York and the lack of work opportunities.
However, authorities have not disclosed the immigration status of the women depicted in the video.
“No one wants to see a 12-year-old treated in a way that may appear offensive or abusive. Nobody wants to see that. We’re going to continue to get better at what we do,” Adams said, citing an age for the child that differed from the one released by NYC Parks. “The biggest problem here that no one wants to talk about: He’s not worthy of there are people unable to provide for themselves. We’ve been saying this for almost two years. Let them work.”
Adams said the area where the video was filmed received “a significant number of 311 complaints of illegal sales.”
Adams said, “The parent there habitually abuses her, and she has been told this repeatedly, and she refuses to comply.”
“It has an impact on quality of life. We hear it all the time. People are calling us and saying this makes our city seem like a level of disorder…Parks enforcement officers need to respond to this. We need to respond to citizen complaints,” Adams said.
The mayor said the New York City Parks Enforcement Patrol is investigating the matter, as is the New York Police Department.
“It’s really this complexity that I’m talking about when we talk about migrants and asylum seekers and their inability to work,” Adams emphasized.
He stressed that illegal sales “do not work”.
“We don’t want our babies on the train selling candy… They shouldn’t be on the highways with their kids on their backs selling stuff… Why don’t we allow able-bodied human beings to came to America to come to America? pursue the American dream? Adams said: “The bottom line is these were illegal sales because they are not allowed to work legally.”
NBC News has reached out to the mayor’s office for more details about the woman and child. The NYC Street Vendor Justice Coalition said they were mother and daughter.
“We are appalled by the attack on a family of street vendors and their young daughter, as well as our city’s increasingly harmful approach to New York’s small businesses. Street vendors are primarily immigrants, people of color, and working families – exactly the New Yorkers our city administration claims to support,” a statement from the coalition said.
The group said that “obtaining a seller’s permit is nearly impossible: more than 20,000 New Yorkers are on waiting lists for a seller’s permit, waitlists so long that they are closed to new candidates.”
“Unfortunately, this is neither the first nor the last time an incident like this has occurred,” the statement said.