Viral video depicts NYC food vendor being ticketed, mocked by police

A food vendor in New York City has gone viral on social media thanks to a video that she uploaded showing a police officer not only ticketing her but also mocking her.

News 12 Staff

Apr 9, 2022, 10:38 PM

Updated 979 days ago

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A food vendor in New York City has gone viral on social media thanks to a video that she uploaded showing a police officer not only ticketing her but also mocking her.
Maria Falcon moved to the United States from Ecuador 15 years ago and for most of that time has sold fruit and churros inside the Broadway Junction Subway Station.
While she says she has been arrested 10 times over the years for vending, she says what happened Tuesday was different. In the video shot on her cellphone, an officer is seen and heard asking Falcon for information while writing a ticket for selling food inside without a permit.
Falcon says she tried to help the officer read her address when he began to comment on her language skills.
After receiving the ticket, she says she moved somewhere else to try to sell what inventory she had left but the same officer followed and told her to leave.
"To be treated like that, it just makes me feel very humiliated. It's not right when I was just trying to speak what little English I knew in order to help the officer write the ticket,” said Falcon.
Despite this, Falcon says she went back to the same spot the next day.
News 12 reached out to the NYPD for a response.