Rally Planned After Second Woman Cited For Selling Churros In Subway – CBS New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Transit Authority President Andy Byford have stood behind the officers’ actions, but other leaders and community advocates say the NYPD is over-policing instead of focusing on more pressing issues within the subway system.
“It’s against the law and it’s creating congestion, and she shouldn’t have been there,” the mayor said.
“I’m very supportive of New York police department. They give us huge support every day in keeping the transit system safe,” said Byford.
Today’s rally is planned for 11 a.m. at the Myrtle-Wyckoff station in Brooklyn, where the latest incident happened on Monday morning. Officers ticketed 41-year-old Maria Corillo and placed her in handcuffs for unlicensed general vending in the subway.
MORE: Woman Handcuffed For Selling Churros In Subway Tells Of Incident To CBS2
Three days before, cellphone video taken at the Broadway Junction station went viral, showing another woman named Elsa being detained for illegally selling churros.
Elsa acknowledged to CBS2 that she had been operating without a permit for more than three years and was issued more than a dozen summonses for unlicensed vending. But the mother of five claimed this incident got violent, saying police detained her for 10 minutes and took her food cart.
“Unfortunately, you’re going to find a common thread in all of these incidents, and the common thread is lack of cooperation,” NYPD Transit Chief Edward Delatorre said Tuesday. “When people don’t follow our requests or commands, there’s a potential for escalation. The woman selling food was asked repeatedly to cooperate and she’d be given a summons, and she refused.”
The chief said Elsa was taken to the precinct and released with a summons minutes later.
In the most recent case, investigators found Corillo had two previous outstanding warrants for failing to appear in court on other unlicensed vending summonses. She was escorted to a Queens Court to clear those up.