Latest news with #streetvendors
News.com.au
23-07-2025
- News.com.au
Shocking moment cop slaps sunbather amid major crackdown on beach vendors
This is the shocking moment a Spanish police officer slapped a sunbather during a major crackdown on beach vendors. The jaw-dropping footage, captured in the holiday hotspot of Marbellain southern Spain, came as two people were arrested in police operations. The cop, who was wearing a helmet to protect his head, slapped an elderly man twice around the face despite the fact there seemed to be no prior physical provocation. The unidentified holidaymaker appeared to yell 'Hijo de puta' which in English would translate as 'Son of a b***h' before being slapped. Despite the video footage appearing to identify the police officer as the aggressor, the elderly tourist is understood to have been arrested. Stunned tourists looked on in horror as tensions between local police and street vendors in Marbella boiled over. Video clips show confrontations between the cops and vendors playing out. But the viral footage of the policeman slapping a bather is now being reviewed by the authorities. This incident is reported to have happened at around 4pm on Saturday, July 19, at Faro Beach in Marbella. Another holidaymaker in swimming trunks, filmed being surrounded by seven officers and pinned to the ground after a shouting match and a lot of fingerpointing, tried to intervene but also ended up getting arrested. Sources claimed today that one of the detainees threw a bottle at cops. He denies the allegation. An operation against street vendors of counterfeit goods was taking place there at the time of the clips. Other videos of the operation show cops riding around the area on quadbikes. One clip shows a cop riding up on his quadbike to a man carrying handbags on the beach. The man quickly sprints away from the police officer as he dismounts. The police officer stumbles and trips over in the sand as he attempts a pursuit. Other videos show bewildered tourists looking on as a chase is underway. Another appears to show a police officer pushing a man out of a cafe door as he pursues enquiries. Marbella Town Hall has not yet commented on the actions of the police officer seen slapping the tourist filmed insulting him at the weekend. They said the incident had happened during a routine police inspection against itinerant street trading. Police officers on quads are carrying out more regular inspections during the summer in Marbella.
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Bristol street sellers to be removed over safety concerns
Two public space protection orders have been signed off to prevent street vendors from blocking busy City Council drew up the orders after "serious safety concerns", when last year some sellers refused to move when blocking a footbridge during a busy protection orders will cover Ashton Gate and the Harbourside to prevent similar problems happening again in these Mellor, director of management of place, said: "This is not about stopping pedlars operating in these locations... last year there were severe problems with pedlars located on either side of Pero's Bridge and blocking the flow." 'Major issue' She added the council faced a "major issue" when "they [the vendors] simply refused to move from Pero's Bridge despite police requests and council officer requests".The Local Democracy Reporting Service found that sellers will still be able to trade at events like football matches or the Harbourside the new orders mean that the police or council officials will have the enforcement power to move them restrictions were carried out after a public consultation where some participants highlighted that vendors, who only leave small gaps for pedestrians, do not take into account space needed for people in wheelchairs. One respondent said the street sellers "detract from enjoying the event with children as they're constantly asking for stuff that is being sold".Others added that the Downs should also be considered for a new public space protection order as vendors are known to set up outside key exit routes from events such as Forwards street vendor said sellers "bring character, flexibility and vibrancy to events and public spaces, which ultimately enhances the visitor experience and supports the local economy".
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘We're seeing the best of LA': as Ice raids haunt the city, Angelenos show up for each other
In the days after ramped-up immigration raids began in Los Angeles, 50-year-old Lorena, who has been running a tamale cart in Koreatown for decades, stayed home. So did her husband, who works as a day laborer. Worried about paying their bills, both of them after a few days went back out to work. 'My son would go around the block and watch out for us,' said Lorena, whom the Guardian is not identifying by her full name for fear of reprisal. He'd text them a warning when he suspected that immigration agents were nearby. Eventually, though, they concluded the effort was not only risky, but futile. There was no business. 'People are scared. They do not go out to buy anything,' she said. Then Lorena was offered a grant by a local advocacy group, KTown For All, which had raised money online from supporters to 'buy out' street vendors at risk of being detained. She and her husband have been able to remain home since, and keep a low profile. She knew the group because they had organized initiatives to support vendors during the height of the coronavirus pandemic – and on occasion she had worked with them to distribute her tamales to unhoused people and others in need. 'That is why I believe that when you give love, you receive love,' she said. 'I want more people to know about [how] this way they can also support more vendors, more sellers. Because there are many, many vendors who are still taking risks because they need to make money.' KTown for All has said publicly that its supporters donated enough money to cover a month's rent and food for at least 42 vendors and their families, and it has shared links to street vendor fundraising efforts in other Pasadena, LA's South Bay and other neighborhoods. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The LA Street Vendor Solidarity Fund, a similar effort organized by several non-profits, has raised $80,000 so far, with the goal of raising at least $300,000. An estimated 1 million of Los Angeles county's more than 10 million residents are undocumented people, the largest undocumented population of any city in the US. Street vendor buyouts are just one of the ways Angelenos are responding to the Trump administration's raids, which are continuing to spread terror across Los Angeles, with many immigrant families afraid to leave their homes for school or work. 'Community members that have not been traditionally plugged into politics or the current state of affairs are plugging in – they're getting informed,'said Eunisses Hernandez, a 35-year-old city councilmember who represents a quarter-million people in a majority-Latino district in northern Los Angeles. Many Angelenos who did not attend protests against the new Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids are doing other kinds of work, Hernandez said, like providing 'know your rights' information to small businesses about interacting with law enforcement officials, or figuring out how to deliver food to immigrant families too afraid to leave home even to buy groceries. Mutual aid networks created to help people affected by the January's wildfires have been 'reinvigorated' to respond to the Trump administration's raids, Hernandez said. 'In this moment, while we're seeing the worst of our federal administration, we are seeing the best here in the city of Los Angeles,' she said. The pervasive fear of federal raids is reshaping the daily life of the city, leaving streets emptier and quieter. One in five local residents lives with someone undocumented or are undocumented themselves. Half the total population is Latino. 'Our economy is being destroyed, our culture is being destroyed,' said Odilia Yego, the executive director of Cielo, an advocacy group focused on local Indigenous migrant communities. 'The buzzing feeling of being an Angeleno is under attack.' When Yego went out with Cielo workers earlier this month to deliver food to 200 families, she said, the streets were eerily quiet, and restaurants were half-empty, raising concerns about how small businesses already battered by Covid, Hollywood strikes and the wildfires will weather this new crisis. It's not only undocumented residents who fear being snatched up by masked federal agents in raids community members say look and feel like kidnappings, Yego said. 'Even with documents, people are afraid to go out. Even citizens are afraid to go out. People are afraid to encounter an Ice agent regardless of their status, because of the level of violence they have seen on social media or on TV,' she said. Multiple US citizens in the Los Angeles area have reportedly been detained as part of immigration raids this month. As Cielo and similar advocacy groups help frightened immigrant families, other people are stepping up to help them. In early June, one of the city's most popular taquerias and an immigrant-owned coffee shop in West Hollywood held fundraisers for Cielo. 'We own a business, so we can't go protest,' one of the West Hollywood coffee shop's owners said. The Guardian is not identifying the businesses or its owners for fear of reprisal. Helping raise funds for Cielo was 'a way for us to show up to be a voice with our community'. 'In LA, we support each other during times of crisis,' Yego said. 'Someone sent us $100 and said: 'You helped me during the pandemic, and today, I'm able to give back.''
The Guardian
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘We're seeing the best of LA': as Ice raids haunt the city, Angelenos show up for each other
In the days after ramped-up immigration raids began in Los Angeles, 50-year-old Lorena, who has been running a tamale cart in Koreatown for decades, stayed home. So did her husband, who works as a day laborer. Worried about paying their bills, both of them after a few days went back out to work. 'My son would go around the block and watch out for us,' said Lorena, whom the Guardian is not identifying by her full name for fear of reprisal. He'd text them a warning when he suspected that immigration agents were nearby. Eventually, though, they concluded the effort was not only risky, but futile. There was no business. 'People are scared. They do not go out to buy anything,' she said. Then Lorena was offered a grant by a local advocacy group, KTown For All, which had raised money online from supporters to 'buy out' street vendors at risk of being detained. She and her husband have been able to remain home since, and keep a low profile. She knew the group because they had organized initiatives to support vendors during the height of the coronavirus pandemic – and on occasion she had worked with them to distribute her tamales to unhoused people and others in need. 'That is why I believe that when you give love, you receive love,' she said. 'I want more people to know about [how] this way they can also support more vendors, more sellers. Because there are many, many vendors who are still taking risks because they need to make money.' KTown for All has said publicly that its supporters donated enough money to cover a month's rent and food for at least 42 vendors and their families, and it has shared links to street vendor fundraising efforts in other Pasadena, LA's South Bay and other neighborhoods. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The LA Street Vendor Solidarity Fund, a similar effort organized by several non-profits, has raised $80,000 so far, with the goal of raising at least $300,000. An estimated 1 million of Los Angeles county's more than 10 million residents are undocumented people, the largest undocumented population of any city in the US. Street vendor buyouts are just one of the ways Angelenos are responding to the Trump administration's raids, which are continuing to spread terror across Los Angeles, with many immigrant families afraid to leave their homes for school or work. 'Community members that have not been traditionally plugged into politics or the current state of affairs are plugging in – they're getting informed,'said Eunisses Hernandez, a 35-year-old city councilmember who represents a quarter-million people in a majority-Latino district in northern Los Angeles. Many Angelenos who did not attend protests against the new Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids are doing other kinds of work, Hernandez said, like providing 'know your rights' information to small businesses about interacting with law enforcement officials, or figuring out how to deliver food to immigrant families too afraid to leave home even to buy groceries. Mutual aid networks created to help people affected by the January's wildfires have been 'reinvigorated' to respond to the Trump administration's raids, Hernandez said. 'In this moment, while we're seeing the worst of our federal administration, we are seeing the best here in the city of Los Angeles,' she said. The pervasive fear of federal raids is reshaping the daily life of the city, leaving streets emptier and quieter. One in five local residents lives with someone undocumented or are undocumented themselves. Half the total population is Latino. 'Our economy is being destroyed, our culture is being destroyed,' said Odilia Yego, the executive director of Cielo, an advocacy group focused on local Indigenous migrant communities. 'The buzzing feeling of being an Angeleno is under attack.' When Yego went out with Cielo workers earlier this month to deliver food to 200 families, she said, the streets were eerily quiet, and restaurants were half-empty, raising concerns about how small businesses already battered by Covid, Hollywood strikes and the wildfires will weather this new crisis. It's not only undocumented residents who fear being snatched up by masked federal agents in raids community members say look and feel like kidnappings, Yego said. 'Even with documents, people are afraid to go out. Even citizens are afraid to go out. People are afraid to encounter an Ice agent regardless of their status, because of the level of violence they have seen on social media or on TV,' she said. Multiple US citizens in the Los Angeles area have reportedly been detained as part of immigration raids this month. As Cielo and similar advocacy groups help frightened immigrant families, other people are stepping up to help them. In early June, one of the city's most popular taquerias and an immigrant-owned coffee shop in West Hollywood held fundraisers for Cielo. 'We own a business, so we can't go protest,' one of the West Hollywood coffee shop's owners said. The Guardian is not identifying the businesses or its owners for fear of reprisal. Helping raise funds for Cielo was 'a way for us to show up to be a voice with our community'. 'In LA, we support each other during times of crisis,' Yego said. 'Someone sent us $100 and said: 'You helped me during the pandemic, and today, I'm able to give back.''
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
City Council Wrestles With Street Vending Rules
Good morning. It's Wednesday. Today we'll look at bills introduced in the City Council to improve conditions for street vendors. We'll also get details on a lawsuit challenging a partnership between the police in Nassau County and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It was a quick question in the lightning round of the final debate among Democratic candidates for mayor: Should the city increase the number of permits for street vendors? All seven candidates on the stage raised their hands. But it is not a question the City Council is looking to answer anytime soon. The Council could vote as soon as next week to decriminalize violations for street vendors and mobile food trucks, making them subject only to fines. Another bill would lift the cap on permits for street vendors. That cap means that only a fraction of the 20,000 vendors operating in the city have official permission to sell food and merchandise. About half that number are on a waiting list. The city has issued only 15 new licenses so far this year, according to testimony at a hearing last month. A 2018 law authorized 445 new permits a year, but testimony at a City Council hearing last month indicated that only 382 vendors had gotten licenses in the three years since the law took effect. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
