Whenever footage shows police aggressively arresting a teenager who has not been accused of a violent crime, we all wonder: could this have been handled better?
Just take this video of an NYC parks employee attempting to detain this young teenager after she and her family were seen selling fruit from a cart in Manhattan.
The video, taken Sunday afternoon, also shows people in the area attempting to get her out of the man’s hold. The 14-year-old girl visibly looks upset.
In the 50-second clip, several people can be heard yelling, “Let her go!,” “What are you doing?!” and “Get off of her!” to the NYC parks employee, who at one point falls to the ground while still having the girl in his grasp.
Eventually, onlookers were able to pull the girl away from the employee and NYPD who was attempting to assist.
According to the New York Post, the parks employee attempted to detain the young teenager because she and her family were selling fruit from an unlicensed cart in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
Marc Rebillet, who shared the video on social media, wrote in a separate post on X, “I walked up on parks trying to put the fruit cart in the dumpster, apparently fam was repeatedly there selling w/o a license…okay, fine, talk to the parents. DONT CUFF THE KID. Embarrassing and dangerous behavior. Shame on Parks, shame on NYPD.”
More from the NY Post:
“NYPD first tried to detain the girl, then released her — then Parks got ahold of her and tried to cuff her. That’s when people started crowding around and trying to get the Parks officer off of her,” Rebillet said.
“He was thrown to the ground, brought the girl down with him, and in the ensuing struggle she managed to break free and escape. They cuffed the mother and put her in a police car.”
The incident is currently being investigated and the parks officer who was attempting to handcuff the young teenage girl has been assigned to administrative duties, according to the NY Post.