Video shows struggle between NYC Parks employee and handcuffed girl in Battery Park
NEW YORK - A video circulating on social media shows a tense physical encounter with a Parks Department employee and a 14-year-old girl in New York City's Battery Park.
It happened Sunday afternoon near the entrance to the Staten Island ferry.
Authorities said it happened during a joint Parks Department operation with NYPD officers targeting unlicensed vendors in the park who were allegedly selling items unsafe for consumption.
Sources tell CBS2 the crowd turned hostile.
The video shows NYPD and Parks Enforcement Patrol officers grappling with two females. The 14-year-old girl can be seen crying. The video shows a crowd had gathered around the officers, many with cameras out, filming what was happening. The officer holding the girl is male and he's holding a pair of handcuffs, one of which is around the wrist of the girl.
One person in the video can be heard calling for a female officer instead. People in the crowd can be heard saying "What are you doing?" and "Let her go" in the video.
The video goes on to show several people grabbing one of the girl's arms while her other arm is held by the PEP officer. They pull back and forth, and the officer, apparently tripping on the leg of one of the people pulling on the girl, tumbles to the ground, on top of the girl. The two then grapple briefly, before the girl is pulled away.
The PEP officer, kneeling after tumbling to the ground, can be asking where "everybody else" was during the encounter.
The incident is under investigation.
The video has been viewed more than 7 million times.
Mother of 14-year-old girl speaks out
The mother of the girl was ticketed for unlawful vending.
"May daughter was accused of hitting the police," she told CBS New York's Mahsa Saeidi. "I let go of all the fruits, and then my daughter left scared and crying."
"The little girl had her phone in one of the carts," witness Crystal Aliaga said.
"Our Parks Enforcement Patrol's (PEP) first course of action is to educate in order to bring violators into compliance. When individuals have repeatedly flouted the law, we take additional enforcement actions, and there are instances when it is necessary to place violators and individuals obstructing the law under arrest," the Parks Department said in a statement.
"The parent there is a habitual abuser," Mayor Eric Adams said.
The woman told Saeidi she's tried for months to sell fruit legally, but she can't get a permit.
"There's no way they can get a permit to work in the streets of New York City," said Mohamed Attia of the Steet Vendor Project. He blames city government for that.
Attia says there's roughly 5,000 permits available citywide, and 10,000 on the waitlist.
In 2021, the City Council passed a law mandating the release of more permits, but since then few have been issued.
"You want to throw their fruit, fine, throw their fruit. But don't throw these people's carts and stuff," Aliaga said.
Sources say the 14-year-old later returned to the precinct with a handcuff on her wrist. She was given a juvenile report and released. Her family said she was back in school Monday.