As depicted in a now-viral Twitter video, New York Police Department (NYPD) officers in a Brooklyn subway station arrested an unidentified woman for selling churros from her cart without a vendor license. Bystander Sofia Newman, whose videos of the event have gotten over one million views on Twitter, quickly rallied on the woman’s behalf. Still, the officers did indeed handcuff the woman, who appeared to be crying, and confiscated her cart. Unsurprisingly, the NYPD is facing some pretty serious—and legitimate—criticism about the way this situation reportedly went down.
In the videos she posted, Newman is heard asking the officers why they are “taking her s—it away” in reference to the woman’s churro cart. One officer replies to Newman that “it’s illegal to sell food inside subway stations.”
“Can she just go outside and keep her stuff?" Newman asked.
"No," one of the officers replied.
In part of the thread, Newman says that an officer rolled his eyes at the woman and mocked her while she spoke in Spanish. The videos and details are below.
"There were around four police officers surrounding one crying woman and her churro cart," Newman, who was getting off the train at Broadway Junction during rush hour on Friday, told Gothamist in an interview. "They had apparently told her a few times that it was illegal to sell food inside a subway station and they were either going to confiscate her churro cart and give her a fine, or they were going to arrest her."
What does the NYPD have to say?
"She refused to cooperate and was briefly handcuffed; officers escorted her into the command where she was uncuffed," the police statement read as reported by NBC News. "Her property was vouchered as arrest evidence and she was released within minutes." The NYPD said the woman’s arrest came as the result of complaints about unlicensed vendors at that particular subway stop, with health concerns as the underlying issue. In terms of this woman specifically, police said she’d received ten summons in five months over the unlicensed food sales.
Still, many on social media are understandably frustrated that this is what an increased police presence is doing. Let’s dig into some of the responses.
Newman shared an update on Twitter: