The NYPD has punished one of its officers for failing to help arrest an unlicensed fruit vendor and her 14-year-old daughter near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Lower Manhattan, according to a department trial decision.
The encounter drew widespread outrage from immigrant advocates and some elected officials in 2024 when bystander video showed Parks Department officers struggling with the teenager. The viral video became a flashpoint in the city’s long-running fight over unlicensed street vending, helping push the City Council this year to expand vending licenses for the first time in 47 years over a veto from former Mayor Eric Adams.
Street vendor advocates say the discipline of an NYPD office cuts against the spirit of collaborations with the NYPD that have prioritized education over arrests, and amounts to punishing an officer for taking a less aggressive approach to a child and her mother selling fruit…