NYC parks officer reassigned after attempt to restrain girl caught on video

MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) – A parks officer was assigned to administrative duties after a video of an employee restraining a girl at a Lower Manhattan park went viral, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Parks and Recreation. 

The department is conducting an internal investigation of the video filmed Sunday at The Battery that shows a Parks Department employee with his arms around the young girl as onlookers yell and try to help the girl break free. 

The employee appears to fall to the ground, pulling the girl down with him, at which point she breaks free from his grasp, the video shows. 

The investigation will consider whether all proper protocols were followed, according to a spokesperson for the department. 

Many people, including the NYC Street Vendor Justice Coalition, denounced the officer’s behavior they say was excessively aggressive. 

“We are appalled by the aggression towards a street vendor family and their young daughter,” representatives of the coalition said in a statement. “Vendors are not committing any crime, not robbing or harming anyone – they are trying to earn an honest dollar to survive in our inequitable and unaffordable city.”

The Parks Department said the incident happened after the NYPD and Parks Enforcement confiscated items from unlicensed vendors in the park. As officers attempted to destroy confiscated items, two individuals intervened, according to a spokesperson for the department. 

“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.”  

But the street vendor advocates say the city’s permit process is ineffective and discriminatory. 

“It’s nearly impossible to obtain a vendor permit – over 20,000 New Yorkers sit on waitlists to obtain vendor permits, waitlists so large they are closed to new applicants,” said a representative of the Street Vendor Justice Coalition. “Sadly, this is not the first, nor the last time, an incident like this will happen.”