As Elsa [Morochoduchi] recounted her mistreatment by a broken system during her arrest for selling churros in an East New York subway hub last Friday, even the most faithful New Yorker couldn’t help but wipe away tears.
Adding insult to injury, no more than 48 hours after Elsa’s arrest, a second immigrant woman was arrested at the Myrtle Wyckoff subway station in Bushwick – inflaming an already painful and alarming trend. All this after a group of teenagers of color a few weeks ago were forcefully arrested and had guns pointed at then by a dozen officers for a $2.75 fare evasion. Three recent incidents of excessive, and aggressive policing in subways in our backyard: Brooklyn.
City and state governments must act against this treatment and crackdown of the most vulnerable and working class
The outrage that spread like wildfire throughout not only New York City is in response to a growing sense of frustration with the increasing criminalization of poverty, particularly targeting youth, people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community and of course immigrants – spanning for years, but peaking with horrific examples in the past few weeks.
This criminalization comes on the heels of Governor Cuomo’s plan to address “quality of life” issues in the MTA such as fare evasion and homelessness. The plan consists of hiring 500 new MTA police officers, would cost upwards of $40 million dollars meanwhile the MTA is in dire need of investment, and facing a $1 billion budget deficit. Imagine how much we could do with this millionaire investment to improve the subway or schools or help low-income riders with fares.
This plan is incongruent with reality and has no justification. Data released by the NYPD shows that arrests for certain felonies in the subway have increased this year, while conflicting data (new data) shows that overall crime on the subways has been falling.
These atrocious, unnecessary and inhumane incidents left many in New York City asking: How can this happen? What happens now? How can we help?
First, instead of wasting valuable tax dollars and resources on increased policing in subways and arresting immigrants selling churros under the guise of a “quality of life” program, the state and Governor Cuomo should focus on what really improves quality for New Yorkers: investments in public transportation and the MTA, expanding affordable housing and addressing homelessness with housing programs, accessibility, criminal justice reform, and workforce development.
These investments are what would make New York safer – not forcibly removing the homeless into the streets, arresting youth who can’t afford a swipe or an immigrant who sells churros to feed a family of six.
Elsa was arrested for not having a street vendor license – a permit that either way would have been impossible to obtain as the city has capped it to 4,000 since 1983. On top of that, even if she would have had that license she was in violation of another rule that prohibits selling of food within the subway.
Second, we must push for the passage of legislation at the city and state levels that would reform the outdated street-vendor permits and license system. The existing and unnecessarily complicated web of regulations makes it impossible for vendors to obtain a license to sell food in NYC’s public spaces and strangles immigrant and low-income folks trying to sustain their families. Not to mention the fact the cap has created costly and male-dominated black market of permits that can be sold as high as $25,000 with no oversight.
The New York City Council bill (Intro 1116) -introduced in April- would expand the availability of food vendor permits creating an office of enforcement, and establish an advisory board.
The bill at the state level – introduced by state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens) would entirely eliminate the cap on permits providing a comprehensive solution to a demanding market that has grown par to population increase that allows thousands of families to survive and what makes the city the vibrant place it is. As Senator Ramos said “it’s about legalizing their small businesses”, or in other words, decriminalizing entrepreneurship or for many -a survival economy.
These legislative changes would bring much needed economic justice to immigrant entrepreneurs and workers. But it won’t happen overnight.
We need to completely rethink the way our government operates and build a system that is humane, fair and takes care of the most vulnerable. Our institutions should be working for the people, not against them. We need less criminalization and more opportunities.
New York City is a city of immigrants. What happened to Elsa and so many others is a disgrace for our city, and would make the Statue of Liberty shriek in pain.
As New Yorkers, we need to continue organizing, protesting, pressuring legislators and support the work of leading organizations to challenge the racist, xenophobic, elitist, and misogynistic system that oppresses the very soul of our city: its people. The work of groups like Riders Alliance, Street Vendor Project, Make the Road NY and others.
Wilfredo Florentino is the Transportation Committee Chair of Brooklyn Community Board 5 and proud Advocate in East New York, Brooklyn. Wilfredo also served as Elsa’s translator during her first press conference at Broadway Junction.
Samy Nemir Olivares is a community activist, organizer, writer, and active member of Bushwick community in Brooklyn, who advocates with campaigns for social, race, gender, and economic justice.
