cybervampira
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They Grabbed Her Baby and Arrested Her at a Welfare Office. Now She’s Speaking Out.
[...]
Her arrest highlighted the tension that plays out in public benefit offices throughout the city every day. People seeking benefits are usually under tremendous financial strain and are dealing with an unyielding bureaucracy, and city workers at these offices are under pressure to follow rules, ferret out abuse and keep order.
Those strains occasionally boil over into physical confrontations and arrests, officials said, an outcome that can have lifelong consequences for people already struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder. Since January 2017, law enforcement agencies have been called to food-stamp offices across the city 2,212 times and have arrested 97 people, mainly for assault and offenses against public administration, the police said.
Ms. Headley had had a difficult two years — a disappointing move to North Carolina, a failed relationship with her son’s father and an arrest on charges of credit-card fraud in New Jersey.
[...]
In the interview, Ms. Headley said she tried to leave the office with her son shortly after the police showed up. The officers had been called because Ms. Headley had a heated argument with a female security guard, who told her she could not sit on the floor.
She picked up her baby and started to leave, but the police said the guard grabbed her arm, and they all tumbled to the floor. Ms. Headley said she tried again to go, but a male police officer told her it was too late. She went into “defense mode,” she said.
“In my head, I told myself they’re not going to let me leave,” she said. “I was so afraid. I was combative with my thoughts.”
[...]
Ms. Headley had taken that Friday off work after the owner of her son’s day care told her Damone could not return if the payment issue was not fixed.
She packed a bag with snacks for him, as well as his favorite toy, a figurine of Chase, a police dog who stars on the children’s television show, PAW Patrol.
“My main objective was to get there, handle business and get home,” Ms. Headley said.
With Damone in a stroller, she arrived a few minutes before 10 a.m. at the Human Resources Administration office on Bergen Street and took a number for her turn to talk to a case worker who handles child-care assistance.
At 12:20 p.m., she said, her turn came and a case worker told her that she would have to reapply for child care benefits, a process that could take up to a week.
Determined to accomplish something, she decided to check the status of her cash allowance, for which she had reapplied in November. That meant taking another number, and more waiting.
By then, Damone was getting restless. She said she took him to a play area, but workers turned her away because he is not toilet trained.
All the seats in the main waiting area were taken, she said, so she sat on the floor with her back against the blue wall and talked to Damone, who was in a stroller to her right.
[...]
A security guard came over and told Ms. Headley that she was blocking a fire zone and needed to move.
Ms. Headley said she refused, noting that there were trash and recycling bins against the wall on the other side of Damone’s stroller.
“I just remember being talked to very viciously,” she said. “It was more or less: ‘You’re going to do what I say, and that’s it.’”
The exchange grew heated, Ms. Headley said, and another security guard — the city calls them peace officers — came to demand that she move.
[...]
Incensed, Ms. Headley said she asked to talk to a supervisor. The guards walked away, Ms. Headley said, and 10 minutes passed. Then they returned with two police officers.
She picked Damone up and rose to her feet. One of the police officers told her they did not want to arrest her and she began to leave, holding Damone and pushing the stroller.
[... much more at link ...]
[...]
Her arrest highlighted the tension that plays out in public benefit offices throughout the city every day. People seeking benefits are usually under tremendous financial strain and are dealing with an unyielding bureaucracy, and city workers at these offices are under pressure to follow rules, ferret out abuse and keep order.
Those strains occasionally boil over into physical confrontations and arrests, officials said, an outcome that can have lifelong consequences for people already struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder. Since January 2017, law enforcement agencies have been called to food-stamp offices across the city 2,212 times and have arrested 97 people, mainly for assault and offenses against public administration, the police said.
Ms. Headley had had a difficult two years — a disappointing move to North Carolina, a failed relationship with her son’s father and an arrest on charges of credit-card fraud in New Jersey.
[...]
In the interview, Ms. Headley said she tried to leave the office with her son shortly after the police showed up. The officers had been called because Ms. Headley had a heated argument with a female security guard, who told her she could not sit on the floor.
She picked up her baby and started to leave, but the police said the guard grabbed her arm, and they all tumbled to the floor. Ms. Headley said she tried again to go, but a male police officer told her it was too late. She went into “defense mode,” she said.
“In my head, I told myself they’re not going to let me leave,” she said. “I was so afraid. I was combative with my thoughts.”
[...]
Ms. Headley had taken that Friday off work after the owner of her son’s day care told her Damone could not return if the payment issue was not fixed.
She packed a bag with snacks for him, as well as his favorite toy, a figurine of Chase, a police dog who stars on the children’s television show, PAW Patrol.
“My main objective was to get there, handle business and get home,” Ms. Headley said.
With Damone in a stroller, she arrived a few minutes before 10 a.m. at the Human Resources Administration office on Bergen Street and took a number for her turn to talk to a case worker who handles child-care assistance.
At 12:20 p.m., she said, her turn came and a case worker told her that she would have to reapply for child care benefits, a process that could take up to a week.
Determined to accomplish something, she decided to check the status of her cash allowance, for which she had reapplied in November. That meant taking another number, and more waiting.
By then, Damone was getting restless. She said she took him to a play area, but workers turned her away because he is not toilet trained.
All the seats in the main waiting area were taken, she said, so she sat on the floor with her back against the blue wall and talked to Damone, who was in a stroller to her right.
[...]
A security guard came over and told Ms. Headley that she was blocking a fire zone and needed to move.
Ms. Headley said she refused, noting that there were trash and recycling bins against the wall on the other side of Damone’s stroller.
“I just remember being talked to very viciously,” she said. “It was more or less: ‘You’re going to do what I say, and that’s it.’”
The exchange grew heated, Ms. Headley said, and another security guard — the city calls them peace officers — came to demand that she move.
[...]
Incensed, Ms. Headley said she asked to talk to a supervisor. The guards walked away, Ms. Headley said, and 10 minutes passed. Then they returned with two police officers.
She picked Damone up and rose to her feet. One of the police officers told her they did not want to arrest her and she began to leave, holding Damone and pushing the stroller.
[... much more at link ...]
