Parks Officer Scuffles with Teenage Girl Over Unlicensed Fruit Vending
On Sunday afternoon, members of the City’s Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEPs) attempted to handcuff and arrest a 14-year-old girl in the Battery (adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal) for selling fruit without a license.
In a story first reported by Gothamist, an enforcement sweep resulted in PEP officers confiscating the fruit that the teenage girl and a woman who appears to have been her mother were selling. When the officers attempted to dispose of the merchandise (which was determined to be unsafe for consumption), the girl and the woman tried to retrieve it.
A PEP officer in a sergeant’s uniform then attempted to handcuff and arrest the girl. An agitated crowd quickly gathered, and began chanting, “let her go,” while other passersby shouted, “stop touching her!”
In a video that has since gone viral (view it here), the girl repeatedly attempted to wriggle free of the PEP sergeant’s grasp. During the melee, at least one NYPD officer attempted to assist the PEPs in apprehending the girl.
Following about 30 seconds of wrangling, the girl and the PEP sergeant tumble to the ground, after which to girl slips from the officer’s grasp and runs away into the crowd. A Parks Department spokesman says that the girl was subsequently issued a juvenile report, the equivalent of a summons for a suspect under the age of 16 who is accused of perpetrating an act that would constitute an offense if committed by an adult. The older woman was issued a desk appearance ticket, which is an order for an adult to appear in the New York City Criminal Court for arraignment. (Both are used as alternatives to arresting a suspect and processing that person through booking.) The Parks Department spokesman said that the PEP sergeant has been temporarily reassigned to administrative duties, pending an investigation into the incident.
This is not the first time that PEP officers have been alleged to have used unreasonable force in Lower Manhattan. In 2011, Battery Park City resident Adam Pratt accused PEP officers (who were then assigned to patrol the community) of tackling and handcuffing him for refusing to provide identification while walking his dog, and subsequently transporting him against his will to a psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital. Following this incident, the NYPD refused to arrest or charge Mr. Pratt with any crime, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute him, despite the accusation by PEP officers that he had assaulted them. A lawsuit by Mr. Pratt against the Parks Department (the agency that oversees PEP officers) was later settled for $25,000.
Following this incident, the Parks Department terminated eight PEP officers and transferred eight more. (These officers filed a lawsuit of their own, alleging that their civil rights had been violated, and settled for payments of $8,000 each.) Four years later, the Battery Park City Authority ended its contract with the Parks Department, under which PEP officers were assigned to patrol the neighborhood, and hired in their place a private security firm, Allied Barton.