Handcuffed Churro Vendor Starts Fund To Help Vendors Like Her

BROOKLYN, NY — The Brooklyn churro vendor whose handcuffing went viral last week and the woman who posted the video of it online have teamed up for a fundraiser that will help street vendors who, like her, are stuck in a cycle of debt.

The new GoFundMe, set up with the help of the Urban Justice Center's Street Vendor Project, will try to raise $20,000 to help the handcuffed churro vendor, Elsa, and others who organizers say are plagued by a broken permit system for New York City's street vendors.

Called "The Elsa Fund," the fundraiser will cover Elsa's lost wages, fines and the merchandise cops confiscated from her and then use the rest to create a fund so other vendors, like a second churro vendor cuffed just days after Elsa, can stay afloat even after encounters with police.

"The way Elsa and vendors across NYC are treated by enforcement agencies simply for selling food and merchandise is inhumane," the GoFundMe reads. "They are criminalized for vending without a permit, without being given an avenue to receive one. They are prohibited from selling in MTA stations, even though there is vacant store space in subway stations across the city. "

The GoFundMe is the second fundraiser set up since straphangers snapped photo and video of Elsa and another churro vendor, Maria, getting handcuffed in Brooklyn subway stations just days apart.

Their near-arrests sparked debate about an MTA and NYPD crackdown in the city's subway stations and the permitting system for street vendors, which advocates and elected officials have long claimed is broken due to a decades-old cap that has created a dangerous underground market for licenses.

The system, fundraiser organizers said, creates a cycle of debt for vendors who, like Elsa, are ticketed for selling without a permit when it would be nearly impossible to get one legally.

"Each ticket for vending without a permit ranges from $50-$1,000. Many vendors are ticketed multiple times per year," the organizers said. "Often, enforcement agencies confiscate their wares...That's why we've decided to create "The Elsa Fund" - to support Elsa and other vendors who are being punished by an unjust system."

The first $5,000 raised with the Elsa Fund will cover Elsa's tickets and the cost of food, wages and carts she lost because of the encounter with police. The summons cops gave Elsa at Broadway Junction that went viral was her 10th in five months and the 10th time cops took her cart filled with fruits and churros.

The rest of the money will be distributed to any other New York City vendors that have their merchandise confiscated by police. Organizers said they hope the GoFundMe can go beyond the $20,000 to create an ongoing support system for vendors.

"We hope 'The Elsa Fund' will continue to grow beyond the target goal, and become an ongoing fund to support vendors in recuperating their losses — as we fight to change the system," the GoFundMe says. "There is not currently an ongoing program like this in place in NYC."

The fundraiser follows another GoFundMe set up for the churro vendors, which plans to buy their day's worth of churros so that they can give them out for free.