A report in the Daily News on this case states:
"A photo that sources identified as the peace officer’s arm clearly shows bite marks. The reports state that that peace officer was transported to Methodist Hospital by an EMT crew. (Obtained by the New York Daily News)"
I have little sympathy for people who bite the police.
5
Absolutely unacceptable.
5
Reading many comments---I'm struck at the sheer volume of people who have not read the article. It's obvious when they get basic facts wrong. (Yes, many people have read it, and made excellent comments, and yes, the general readership have ranked those comments the highest.)
Still, I am genuinely curious, not being sarcastic, I swear. If you are one of the people who did not read the article but commented anyway, why did you write one?
12
Someone should have given their seat up for her and baby. The guards should have brought out a chair for her.
13
There is no doubt the two security guards were the problem all along, but simply firing them while leaving the system they represent intact will not prevent this sort of behavior in the future. The training the guards get must be improved, and all such guards must be taught...because many of them clearly do not realize...that the people coming for benefits should not be mistreated simply because they are poor.
7
I think we're all forgetting (what to me is) the most important part of the video – the incredibly violent yanking of a small child. We didn't get to see what part of the child's body the guard was yanking on, but she could have dislocated an arm or otherwise severely injured that baby. It was child abuse.
21
Beautiful portrait Ms. Lewkowicz. When I first saw it, and hadn't read who it was yet, I thought "What a beautiful model."
It's a mistake to focus on race and poverty in this scenario. This is about poorly trained and mishired individuals drunk on power. And...about a young women who's sorely in need of self control.
On a mid Sunday morning drive 35 mph from church this 70 year old white female was stopped by two policemen blocking the two lane road. The policeman in front of my car was staring vacantly into space and when I finally caught his eye I made a 'what's going on' gesture with my hands. His steroid-bulked frame stiffened as he went into a 'roid rage' at the affrontery of my questioning him. I was ordered to roll down my window and as he charged toward the car demanded to know if I've been drinking. I was shaking with fear and rage but instinctively knew that when confronted with rabid behavior the best thing to do is stay still. The other cop finally ended the escalating scene by letting the traffic go. (It was all about seeking expired car inspection stickers.)
We've all been thrown together into an overcrowded, uncivil and dangerous playpen where civil adult behavior no longer exists.
15
Generally, it takes two parties to escalate a situation.
12
Earlier this year my husband and I had to go to the Medicare/Social Security Office downtown Brooklyn to fix a billing error. The behavior of the guard on duty was a disgrace. He was nasty, disrespectful and more than a bit power crazy. And this directed to people over 65 and/or those who are disabled. The way he spoke to an elderly woman with an oxygen tank was just heartbreaking. Since all other personnel are"behind glass" you have no choice but to interact with the guards and ask for assistance. You truly are at their mercy.
Who is hiring these people? I assume that they are on government contracts. Are they even being trained? Monitored? Our problem was not resolved and our overall experience was so bad that we decided we would pay the extra money for a few months rather than go back there again.
Heaven forbid they should make it possible to resolve problems via phone, email or snail mail.
30
This is a case of an overzealous and unprofessional security guard who was on a power trip and wanted to exert power over Ms Headley just because she thought that she could. Heaven knows that Ms Headley committed no real violation. I think that everyone knows the type. Ms Headley should be given an apology and maybe, just maybe, she will accept it.
17
Amazing how many comments twist this into a race issue. Hate to burst the victim bubble but this is not about the color of Ms. Headley's skin (the guards and NYPD officers were not white and every white New Yorker has an ugly story about being treated like a piece of garbage by city employees). Rather, this is about nasty government workers (a dime a dozen in NYC) and a woman who refused to follow authority and who believed holding a baby would immunize her from obeying the commands of the NYPD......a toxic brew to be sure. No matter, Ms. Headley will garner sympathetic media attention and likely wind up with a hefty settlement. That is the real tragedy.
28
Holding a baby ? It was her baby ! What else would she do with her own baby ? And it’s her baby that brought her there in the first place . What a harsh comment ?
25
@Miahona Perhaps you missed the point. Obviously it is her baby. The point is that holding a baby doesn't permit someone to disobey the police with impunity. She refused to get up off the floor, thereby requiring the NYPD to attempt to pick her up against her will, an act that was rendered even more difficult because she would not let go of her child. That might be harsh.....but it's true.
8
The police blamed the security guards for things getting out of control, but it was a cop that pulled out a taser gun and pointed it at the outraged onlookers...
12
No need to argue or call police. Instead, they should have just made an announcement:
“A woman is sitting on the floor in the fire zone and blocking fire exit. The room is unsafe to operate. We are closing the counter temporarily until it is safe. Everyone please exit the room”.
Now sit back, relax, while the problem fixes itself.
The woman will be standing up in two seconds.
She will never sit on the floor ever again.
23
I sincerely hope everyone here faulting Ms. Headly for having a baby is in favor of comprehensive medical care for women. Or willing to admit that you expect poor people to be celibate.
14
@Sarah I expect them to be like the rest of us and use proper birth control. In short, I expect them to be adults before they are parents.
4
“and should never have happened.” But did. And will again.When “knowing” is limited. And “understanding” even more so. When being employed, in whatever task, role, and mandated responsibilities, carried out with or without personal accountability is not the same as doing one’s “job” in a menschlich-manner in a culture and environment which enables, even fosters, ummenschlichkeit.She should have...The guards should have...But could they have, given the conflict-creating realities of that scenario? The righteously-wrongly-irrelevantly “blamed” may pay by becoming unemployed.Who may themselves have to seek municipal hrlp of some sort. Mother and child will hopefully weather through all of this, whether or not they learn or do not learn from IT. The mayor, governor, unions, and a range of other people and systems will use, misuse and “archive” the “happening” as people, “ anonymized,” continue to be “where-housed” in the Big Apple. What can/ does “and should never have happened” mean in our daily reality of uncertainties?Unpredictabilities? Randomness; expected and unexpecteds?Lack of total control no matter our efforts!Had SHE not sat on a NYC public floor would a law office be representing her NOW? How many children, separated by policy, created by selected and elected “personally unaccountables,” in for-profit-havens-of-ummenschlichkeit, are sitting on floors NOW? Somewhere in the divided United States of...? How many “floors” have floored-flawed fellow-Beings? “should never?”
1
A person was sitting on the floor. That should have triggered one action: Sending an employee through the other offices to locate and bring back... a chair.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
29
Ms. Headley,
Please know that there are people out in the world, strangers to you, who, sickened by this awful event, worried for your safety and that of your son, and tried to post bail to get you out of Ryker's immediately. Sadly, you were not allowed bail. Ryker's Island. For sitting on the floor. So glad you are now free. Be well.
20
Quite a beautiful picture to start the story of what is a very ugly painting of the way that things really "work" (or in this case, don't work).
She did absolutely nothing wrong. The fact that she was even charged is ridiculous. If you say there's a law she broke here, then I say there is a law itself, or the application thereof, that is broken.
Let's ask a question: Suppose you're sexually assaulted on the subway (say, someone grabs your behind and then let's go and starts to turn away), and you turn around and deck them. Would you be charged? Technically, you've just assaulted someone. But no cop in their right mind would lay such a charge. if you think this is hypothetical, look at the myriad of recent examples of females decking males and not getting charged.
Why is she charged for holding on to her baby? Are you kidding me? Prior to that point, she hadn't even broken any law there. Blocking a fire escape? Come on.
Bottom line: I don't care who you are, or where you come from. I don't care if you'd dressed in red, white, or blue. If someone hasn't broken any law and isn't putting their child in harm's way, you do NOT have a right to touch the child. Period.
Jazmine, I'm sure you can win some large award from suing the city. Prove everyone wrong and, when you win that award, do whatever it takes to become a lawyer. Period. Non-stop. And then come back at the system with the same power and grace with which you held your baby. Do it.
14
@Think Strategically
Best comment ever, thank you!
3
This episode speaks volumes about the disastrous effects of income inequality and the absence of civility in everyday social interactions among those trapped in poverty and meaningless jobs.
It is my hope that the lawyers assisting this woman will mentor her, or find a mentor for her, to use the opportunity she now has to find and study for a meaningful career she can now have.
12
Amen! How about we treat everybody with dignity and respect, regardless of the meaningless or meaningful occupation they have. This woman is a working mother who is entitled to receive a childcare voucher. Nobody should have to endure such treatment. Sadly, I am not surprised by their unprofessional behavior. I hope this woman gets to sue the city big time.
11
I would like Ms. Headley to know that she has support for her actions, and that kowtowing and conforming in a system that treats people so egregiously is the wrong thing to do.
No one there treated her civilly, why would anyone expect her to react with civility?
When training the guards, or police, let them know that asking patrons if they are okay, or assuring they have what they need should they sit on the floor, would be a far better way to interact with another person -especially one who has nowhere to sit after standing in line for hours.
Unbelievable --and good for Ms. Headley for using her teeth to try to prevent her child from being taken. Most caring parents would.
5
Welcome to Republican America. This is what happens when aid to the poor is reduced to near nothing and the process needlessly complicated in order to dissuade the poor from seeking assistance. The GOP gathers in their Super Churches filled to the brim with opulence and talk of the compassion of Jesus while at the same time admonishing those who fall through the cracks as not being "good enough" to be rich and therefore undeserving of support. Now that they've scrapped Obama Care it'll only get worse.
14
Police need better training. They are almost always dealing with people in a bad way, be they victims or perps. Usually, they spend their time on mundane things--not shoot outs or dramatic cases, but domestic abuse issues, petty theft and other misdemeanors, and general problems and complaints. They must learn to deal with bad moods, bad attitudes and bad language as part of their jobs. Seriously. These cops should have *deflated* the situation calmly--even if it took a while. All they had to do was politely engage: "Hello, I know this is a bad day and a lousy place to spend it. I see you have your son with you, and I'm sure he's fed up. I get that you want to be near him, and that when you sat here there were no empty seats. My name is Officer Smith, and I'd like to help."
7
Exactly, how about bring out some toys and snacks for the kiddo. Expedite the wait time and generally show some social intelligence!!!! My respect for the NYPD is completely gone.
4
Maybe if she does recover damages in her lawsuit she can pay back the people and banks she defrauded and the state for the cost of her public defender and cost of prosecution. Now that would be justice.
Another example of making excuses for uncivilized behavior. Her behavior was immature, belligerent and hopefully she will not be rewarded for it. There are common behavioral norms in civilized societies. That's how anarchy is avoided. If you want to do whatever you wan't you must separate yourself from others.
22
@Magawa7
Treating her so poorly, without even common curtesy, and then expecting civility and respect back, is just plain stupid.
Train those (peace officers, security or police) who interact with the public--any public anywhere-to treat people respectfully, and you will be amazed at the difference that's made.
11
Of course, this would be your stance.
2
@Magawa7 She did not have a public defender.
2
Ms Headley was standing up for herself against arbitrary and unjust "rules." In upper middle class circles, that is an asset. That skill is what gets you ahead. Unless you are poor and dependent.
Ms Headley is still young enough to keep fighting. But I imagine in a few years, going through the system that knocks her down for demanding better, she may find her soul crushed.
6
This piece would have been written very differently if it had been written from the perspective of the other, equally disadvantaged, people in line that day. Interview them and see if they agree that she's owed a potentially large settlement from the city. There are no good guys in this story except the unnamed mass of other people in line obeying the rules, minding the manners their parents taught them and trying to make the best of a miserable, soul sucking process.
31
Let me see if I got this right: To the long and growing list of "doing X while black," like "waiting for a school bus while black, throwing a kindergarten temper tantrum while black, drinking iced tea while black, waiting at Starbucks while black, AirBnB’ing while black," must we now add "sitting on the floor while black"?
Couldn't we just boil down this hard-to-remember list to "living while black" and be done with it? It's so much easier to remember. Please give this some consideration.
15
Male privilege huh? Try disregarding the orders of security and police, then using your kid as a shield, and then have the Mayor and more then half of social media hailing you as some sort of hero. This is an embarrassment to us brown people
26
I suppose if they took her child under the guise of "going to get a high chair for the baby," then shipping the child to another state would make you less embarrassed?
5
And let us not EVER forget that this so-called "civilized" country has been ripping Black and brown babies from their mothers arms for literally centuries. Let us all stew on that fact for a second.
12
Trump is great, right? He never worries about this stuff, right? Tax the rich, make the field a little more fair for the poor. What's wrong with spreading the wealth of the richest nation on earth down to the bottom rungs a little better? Oh no, can't do that. The well off need everything they inherit or this is not Amerikkka. Organize, take to the streets, jam the wheels until it's better for the majority of people.
2
Especially since we taxpayers are paying for corporate welfare
3
The most important part of this article. The rage on her part was earned. No one trains the security guards and the cops to assess the situation and act like grown-ups. They just follow suit, take ridiculous offense and hit back. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
“You’re a joke,” Ms. Headley replied, then turned to go, according to the person who was briefed. The peace officer replied: “Really?” then lunged at Ms. Headley and grabbed her arm, the person said, and “everyone tumbles down.”
If the guard “had just swallowed it, this would have been over,” a law enforcement official briefed on the body-camera evidence said."
16
This story comes on a day with several others bemoaning the Russians expliotng racial and class differences. Is the times aware that this article will do the same thing? Is the difference in motivation what makes this article ok?
3
..." The Brooklyn district attorney dropped charges of resisting arrest and child endangerment, and New Jersey authorities agreed to dismiss the unrelated charges against her if she completes a pretrial diversion program." .....
What a crock!
15
Jazmine Headley's main problem is that she is poor. Her second big problem is she's not a white man. Once she corrects these two mistakes, the system will treat her just fine.
120
This article tries very hard to portray this woman in the best possible light, mentioning charity work in high school among other things. She had a criminal record...for credit card fraud. It glosses over that prior to the video taped episode she was being disruptive for 40 minutes and bit the security guard during the encounter. She does not appear to be a model citizen or the innocent victim they are trying to portray.
When I worked at one of New York’s public hospitals we had similar issues with long waits due to incredible demand and bureaucratic requirements. There was always a minority of people making unreasonable demands, forgetting they were getting services for free. They would provoke staff on the floor repeatedly with inappropriate behavior, and when confronted it was never, never, their fault.
The NYT Should be careful about going to bat for this woman: it sounds like she was being disruptive for nearly an hour and then refused to follow directions when asked to move. A financially strapped woman with a history of credit card fraud is now trying to capitalize on this with a “lucrative lawsuit“ which will drain public resources.
Maybe it’s just me, but I want to hear both sides
41
And we have upstanding and honest republicans in the Congress, and just a fabulously forthright president in the "White" House, eh?
8
I am almost in tears watching what those police officers and security guards are doing to this young mother. Those guys should be arrested for that abuse of power. It is so disgraceful, I am ashamed of our NYC officers.
7
Just last week there was a heart wrenching story of the sad lives led by white substance abusers in rural America. How much we needed to help, understand, support, etc. We were told not to judge them by their worst day ever. Several of the interviewees seriously neglected their children, at least one child may have been born addicted.
Can we please extend that same compassion, thoughtfulness and consideration to an African American woman who maybe was not having her best day but sure was trying. She works, she cares for her child and in my view deserves at least as much compassion as white addicts.
16
Headley was the one being "super-rude". She could have simply followed instructions and either went home and tried again tomorrow or sat in a chair. In third world countries, where police are too scared to assert their authority, you cannot find justice and poverty soon ensues. Give these cops a break. Notice that they too are people of color. Headley should get NOTHING for her bad behavior.
28
Thank you for telling the story with more detail than we had before. So basically a peace officer assaulted her ("they tumbled down") because she was rude and then the cops decided to arrest her because they didn't know what else to do... wow, just wow.
7
So many valid comments here on the deplorable performance of this organization. From my experience with many other government entities, sadly, this is not at all unusual. Yet so many of us encourage government solutions for a multitude of societal challenges. Anyone else see the problem here? We should spend a lot more ink on the need for government effectiveness and efficiency. We wouldn't take this rubbish from Apple or Amazon. Why do we accept it every day from our government?
2
If someone has a baby regardless of their ability to provide for that child, why should the rest of society pay for this? Is this sustainable? If everyone did this what would happen?
If I had made a choice like this and now was asking the public to pay for my choice, and security/police asked me to move, I most certainly would move. So what I can have a baby at everyone else's expense, but not move?
Can we please verify our expectations?
22
@marjorie.yang it's called common decency! Society tries to help those in need, ie handicap parking, news broadcast which offer sign language for the deaf, and supposedly our society believes in helping mom's w kids. The guard could have helped her find a seat instead of belittling her. He is the one who is a lowlife. I'm glad he is in the process of getting fired.
11
Same goes for those opioid-addicted whites to?
10
We do not have to be perfect, but some things are fundamental. Many lives are affected negatively and for many years when people do not seem to know enough not to be single parents. If we can change this one thing, many people will be able to live their lives and raise their families without tragedies happening to them. Unlike a lot of people, I do believe that we have the power to accomplish this.
8
@Alan Snipes if you are against single parents than you need to make great strides to support pro-choice.
BTW, I chose to become a single mom by anonymous sperm donation -- best choice I ever made!
9
Different people watching an event may see the same event differently.
Yesterday in church, a couple's young daughter was speaking loudly for several minutes and it was disrupting the ability for some to hear the new minister's first sermon.
When an elderly man turned to ask them to do something about it (I'm not sure what his exact words were), the mother exclaimed, "I have every right to be here!"
She could've apologized and moved the young girl from the front of the church to the back, or spoken to the daughter, but instead it turned into a scene. It's all how someone receives the message as well as how they respond.
Westfield, NJ
20
@mainesummers The elderly man asked and the mom didn't jump to accommodate him, oye oye. When you have a kid it's not always possible to prioritize the needs of others. But everyone expects you to.
2
The taxpayers were paying her $3,360/yr. in food stamps, $1,680/yr. in cash and $14,400/yr. in the form of her child’s day care = $19,440/yr. FOR DOING NOTHING. Not an upstanding citizen, she had been arrested on charges of credit-card fraud. Despite having a sweet deal of what was a FREE amount of about $20,000 per year, FOR DOING NOTHING, she refused to simply move out of the way, when asked to move from a part of the room where people were not supposed to be lined up. Instead of SIMPLY MOVING, she created a near riot. Now, she is a “victim” and plans to sue the city accordingly for big, big, bucks. This is why politicians like DeBlasio, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez lose support to people like Trump. Trump won’t stand for such nonsense. No wonder everyone wants to come here to America. Just exist and breed, and there’s free money to be had. And, incite a riot and you might be able to score even bigger bucks by playing the victim card in a lawsuit. You just can’t make this stuff up. I don’t recognize this country anymore.
42
Funny that you didn’t mentioned that she is working part time , and that some of her benefits were cut or stopped. Seems to me like she is trying to get her life back in order.
15
@Mellonie Kirby how much does that work bring in. Was her decision to have a child exonerated by her ability to provide for that child?
Currently the audit process for adopting a child would have prevented this situation, however natural birth, there is nothing like that.
Society cannot prevent/protect us from all of our decisions.
9
@ABC123 You talk as though you think $20k/yr is a lot of money. You've probably never had to survive, work a low-paying job, and support a child who was conceived when life seemed to be going well but who ended up with a single parent when the other parent bailed. $20k is chump change.
4
No need to feel sorry for her. She's about to reap a windfall from her litigation against the City. With a couple of million dollars, she won't need to work or get involved in credit card scams.
24
I am a white landlord with several section 8 tenants. I understand the outrage from people looking for assistance from social services because these agencies treat everyone, regardless of skincolor or wealth, with absolute disdain. I think someone else made the comment that these "public service" agencies exist for their own convenience and I agree 100%. There is so much waste and inefficiency.
12
There is much truth we don't know here. What is evident is bad behavior all around. Yes, the security guards should treat folks with a bit more dignity and respect but the best way to get that respect is to earn it. No one likes to be told they cannot do something but there are proper ways to respond. Yes it's frustrating to wait hours for results but I've often spent an hour holding on the phone to solve less trivial matters. Bad behavior never helps the situation.
Ms. Headley apparently has a criminal record (no mention of the outcome of her fraudulent acts is provided) so she is no "angel". This was more than simply "a difficult two years" as the Times reports. I'd be curious to know if she has made restitution or personally apologized to the folks whose lives she made miserable by her actions since those who bothered her have lost their jobs.
So yes, the guards could have acted better. Defusing the situation would have been a preferred outcome. Once the melee began though, any reasonable person would try to remove a small child from a situation with an increasingly agitated and unstable woman yelling obscenities. If Ms. Headley does win her award from the taxpayers she has relied on for all her life, I do hope she takes the opportunity to obtain some personal therapy to learn how to better deal with other people and make her way through the world, for the benefit of herself and her child, the only real victim here I suspect.
21
It seems to me that there are so many conflicting stories from various participants in this incident that it is going to take a serious inquiry to untangle them. A newspaper article is no place to attempt to do so. Someone is inevitably being done an injustice by this unfinished account, and we have no way of knowing which of them it is.
10
I feel a great deal of rage watching that one female officer try to violently yank the poor baby from his mother's arms.
FIRE THEM NOW!
9
Many years ago my first job out of college was a welfare/food stamp caseworker. It was a thankless job. The stress we workers were under was incredible-- high caseloads, deadlines, complex and frequently changing regulations, and dealing with clients in crisis. The pay we received was so low, several of my fellow workers also received food stamps. Having come from a poor family, I understood the stresses that many of our clients were experiencing--job loss, unable to pay the rent and utilities, a bare pantry, and scrounging for change to pay bus fare. Poverty is not gentle nor pretty. I had on been on food stamps and I knew first hand visiting the welfare office as a client was demeaning. While many of my peers were compassionate, others were terrible to clients. Once I finished my Masters Degree, I changed jobs. I've had a number of senior-level executive level jobs since then but can honestly say, I have never carried as much responsibility as I did back then. If I made a mistake or failed to meet deadlines, my clients did not get their checks and food stamps and were at risk for eviction from their homes and without food. My heart breaks for the young mother. The system is cruel. In this case there is no excuse for how she was treated.
18
Imagine the temper tantrums that that would be thrown by well-to-do parents if they were kept waiting with a small child and no where to sit for 2+ hours like this.
17
@j
Well-to-do parents don't apply for government benefits.
7
@j Right? Imagine a young white woman with an "I want to see your manager" haircut enduring a circumstance like this one.
3
She committed the ultimate sin when dealing with the police, disrespect. For that, the punishment s a beatdown and an arrest with the obligatory resisting arrest and assault on a police office charge thrown in. This happens ALL the time. It's ubiquitous and practically accepted police practice. Many pro-police people support it and offer excuses that it's what she and others that question and express their feeling to the police deserve. Unlike many in the past though, she is lucky to be alive and physically unhurt. Thank God for that. And de Blasio, shame on you for letting this woman sit in prison WITHOUT bail after this. Where were you?
11
She was held pending a bench warrant from NJ for failing to appear on charges of credit card fraud and identity theft. Pick your heroes better.
3
@Matt Does someone need to be a hero before we treat them compassionately? No one has said she's a hero.
NJ has dropped charges BTW.
3
I fell ill and was unable to work and pay rent while living in a reasonably-priced apartment on the Upper West Side. When I applied for a rent-assistance benefit at the Welfare Office, I was denied without cause, while a co-worker who lived in the East Village was getting his approved every year. That was not the last time I experienced discrimination.
6
What comes through in many of the comments is the unacceptably rude behavior of the staff in the office that Ms. Headley needed to attend. I suspect that the office workers are underpaid, and the office is seriously understaffed! If the office workers are underpaid, and the office is understaffed, they are going to feel a lot of frustration and anger--which is often directed at the poor people applying for benefits, rather than at the real culprits, politicians and officials in the city.
7
A baby being wrenched from his mother's arms by police because she was sitting on the floor of a government agency, a 7 year-old Guatemalan girl dying alone in Border Patrol custody because her family were economic refugees, a one year-old baby being brought before an immigration judge...How did the US come to this? Why is war being waged against the poor by one of the richest countries in the world? Against the most vulnerable victims of poverty on the planet, the children? It is heartbreaking. Impossible to understand. And completely unjustifiable.
12
NY Times.....despite your agenda, take a gander at many (most?) of the comments here: Sympathy for Ms. Headley's general plight, but calling her out for her refusal to listen to security guards or NYPD. Once again, something as simple as following an "order" -- obeying a command from security or police -- would have diffused the situation. But in this day and age, when police are consistently maligned, respecting authority is becoming an antiquated concept.
42
@HW I am happy to know I am not the only reader who thought the same thing. You don't fight or argue with the police in the heat of the moment; if something unjust is occuring you present it in the proper venue, like court or to your local news reporter.
32
Once again Debalsio's tenure as Mayor has done nothing for New Yorkers. When he isnt at the gym or flying across the country his city needs leadership. He has none. He exploited his own family to get elected and them into great colleges. Maybe the city council will step up.
4
Five syllables:
Deescalation.
8
Absolutely unacceptable on so many levels.....but let's be crystal clear about one thing: you don't need to be on public assistance, and you don't need to be a person of color, to encounter consistent and utterly unprovoked hostility from government employees in our city. Welcome to NYC.
13
Oddly, this demeaning treatment of people without money or the means to change their lives through education and a good job, mirrors what is happening at the U.S. border with Mexico, where agents are separating children from their parents to be housed in tents and cages for the foreseeable future. Christans want us to believe in their way of life, but many of them have taken the lead to harass the poor and insult uneducated "others" who are different than they are. As if believing in the Christian God harder and better, will change lives. In reality, their Lord Jesus, taught followers to feed the poor, help their neighbors, treat others well. America has lost its way. Charles Dickens warned the World of the dangers of ignoring poverty and ignorance in A Christmas Carol, written in 1843. Remember the warning from the Ghost of Christmas Present?
7
Why does a victims past have to be taken into account to tell their story? We all have a past, and Jazmine is no different. What happened to her and the baby was horrific. The Police Officers were wrong to try and snatch the baby out of her arms.
I took my mother to a Social Security office a few years ago. My mom worked her entire life! They treated her like she was dirt asking for a government handout. She became disabled from the waist down after having had a tumor removed from her lower spine. The Government needs to do better in how the poor and disabled are treated at these offices.
12
Past behavior predicates future behavior. Ms. Headley doesn’t have a clean record. I feel sorry for her victims who had their identity stolen. Have you never had your identity or credit stolen? It’s a real crime and I hope more of you experience it soon to see the other perspective. Ms. Headley is not innocent in this situation. “That summer, she was arrested outside Trenton, N.J., and charged with taking part in an identity theft and credit-card fraud scheme, prosecutors said. The police seized five phony cards with her name on them.”
6
Of course child care should be a given in this country, as health care. I live in a state that has energy resources and yet remains stingy on the side of public assistance. This story grew legs for some reason, perhaps because the mother is attractive and black and single. The credit card theft doesn't help her case. It's tough being poor, worse with a child. Again, all the pro-life people are not helping those poor children who are surely in many places in addition to NYC. There's no easy answer to this dilemma. I'm sure the cops and the workers in the welfare office barely make enough to live themselves.
3
The entire public assistance process is designed to work for the people who administer it, not for the customers (public) who use it and need it. And yes, they ARE your customers---you would not have a job if they didn't need your services!
So from a customer perspective: Why do you have to wait in two different lines to find out about different types of benefits? Why isn't there cross training so that a person can get all their questions answered at one time by one point of contact? Why can't you make an appointment? Why can't you do an "even-odd" kind of process (where people whose SSN end in an even number go on one day, and odd numbers go on another day) so that you reduce how many people are in line at any given time? Why can't you use online services and get a timely response?
And finally, why can't you sit down if you need to? If you don't have enough chairs, how about buying some more? You can probably even get a thrift shop to donate some!
7
When I first read the report of this incident I thought, a person has to be really tired to be willing to sit on the floor of a public space. I know, I've done it and the weariness is deep.
When I watched the video, I cringed at this mothers screams. Her screams were hers, for her child and they also seemed to be the screams of her ancestors at the slave suction, as children were being pulled from their mother's arms.
5
More than anything, this woman needs counseling. Anyone engaging in credit card fraud, will never gain my sympathy. Attacking administrators seals her fate.
This person has demonstrated that she will not use assistance to lift herself up. She will simply use it as a stopgap measure to continue playing the system.
No sympathy for her.
30
Outrageous. The welfare system in this country is draconion. It is an embarrasment. One of the richest advanced countries in the world and we treat human beings who need our compassion and assistance like they are criminals. People who need help are made to wait for long hours in cramped rooms with desperate families, women with small children with no place to care for them during long hours of waiting, elderly and mentally ill people all gathered in one place. There is no water, coffee, or snacks available. People who are stressed financially and mentally need care and kindness, not brutality. The system is nearly impossible to navigate let alone for people who are already struggling with reality. I defy anyone to apply and go through the process of getting a little help that adds up to so little no one could survive on it. Assistance is stopped suddenly for ridiculous reasons and you are back to square one having to take time to reapply and wait while you are unable to buy food or pay rent. No one is there because they are taking advantage or trying to commit fraud. Who would go through such an excruciating exercise unless they absolutely had no choice? Anyone who works in these offices from the workers to the guards should be picked for their compassion and ability to handle people who are tired, scared, angry, confused with dignity and kindness and understanding, not violence and police brutality and fear.
4
"she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit to prevent what happened to her from happening to others." New York Times, why in THIS story do you include the phrase "potentially lucrative?" This is so indicative of your bias. The emphasis should be on "to prevent what happened to her from happening to others." Lawsuits like this -- meant for deterrence and to prevent violence or unfair treatment -- have to have large fines attached to them, or no deterrent would be conveyed. The fact that you frame this as "potentially lucrative" implies that this woman is seeking to profit rather than deter. Anyone who has watched the video of this horrific event, over SITTING ON THE FLOOR WHEN THERE WAS NO SEAT, would agree that the treatment she received was horrible and should never happen again.
3
The New York Daily News has a different version of this story -
“Mother used child as 'shield' to evade arrest, bit a peace officer during incident caught on video, agency documents say” -
Which one is true? Also it is amazing to me that so many people who are in Europe and are commenting on this.
18
On the immediate, urgency level, where is the comprehensive training for all police and security guards in de-escalation of arguments, of disputes, of potentially dangerous fights?
This is not rocket science; it is a well established and successful practice to avoid this kind of craziness.
On a longer term level, where is the willingness to fund and train sufficient staff to help out the poor, the discriminated-against, the disabled, the disadvantaged?
Surely, despite the generations of practicing active or passive abuse, we can and must do better.
2
It's difficult to know exactly what happened as the whole incident, from start to finish, was not recorded. Then we'd have a clearer picture. However, it's seems somewhat clear from the mother's own account that both she and guard handled this situation quite poorly. This incident seems to have escalated to such an ugly end point because it involved two highly combative people, locking horns and refusing to give in or accord the other one with any degree of respect. It seems that both woman missed numerous opportunities to allow this situation to end peacefully.
8
When will people listen to the police when they are told to do something? When the officer tells you to move, the discussion is over. She refused an officer's command. Shame on those who support this action of chaos.
22
@Dave k
She WAS leaving, but a security guard grabbed her; their own videos show this.
4
I totally agree that this child should not have been ripped from her arms. I also strongly agree that the whole system is rigged against the poor. My problem with the mother was that she was holding on to that baby like a means of protection instead of just letting him go so the baby wouldn't be hurt in the struggle and then arguing about it all once she got up and knew the baby to be safe. I thought of King Solomon telling two women if they couldn't come to some agreement, he would split the baby in half. The real mother was willing to give up her child versus seeing it hurt.
18
@Murphy4
In King Solomon’s time, they probably did not have the fear of the King taking the baby under his wing if he thought she was an unfit mother. In our world, to a poor woman, trying very hard to do something right and obviously a connected, loving mother, the grabbing of the only person who truly loves her, no strings attached must have been the most heart wrenching moment of her life. The fear that the baby could be taken away by the state at any time is always a sword of Damocles hanging over parents from a financially insecure background. Heck if someone tried to take my child from me, I too would hang on for dear life. The sentiment does not arise from cold, pragmatic logic, it is a primeval emotion that connects mother to child.
9
@Meena
My comment still stands. The video speaks for itself. It doesn't lesson my deep anger at those who tried to pull the baby away. Someone had to be the grown up in the room but, unfortunately, neither were.
2
@Murphy4 I would not have given up my kid "to be safe" with people who clearly don't see either of them as human.
4
Short tempers in individuals having to wait half a day or longer, in many cases missing work to do so, to jump through the public assistance system's hoops shouldn't come as any surprise. Nor should bullying tactics on the part of those with a little power and less training who have to deal with those tempers. One solution never mentioned as under consideration: hiring a lot more staff to interview claimants and process applications leading to shorter waiting times, smaller caseloads, and less stress and tension. Of course that might mean raising taxes.
10
How could this possibly happen in NYC, it should only happen in the evil racists states. So surprised!!!
1
New York is just as evil and racist as anywhere in the U.S., and I'm speaking as a Southerner and person of color who has lived in multiple regions of the country, including New York City and the Deep South. The main difference is that in New York, many are delusional enough to believe they are truly progressive (and better than...) -- Southerners don't pretend, they either are or they're not. No group or place is monolithic. Part of the problem is the disdain that many seem to have for the poor.
5
There is NO EXCUSE for violently ripping a child out of this woman’s arms and speaking to her in a violent way. This will haunt both mother and son forever. Shame On those that attacked this woman and for the police handling it so poorly.
At the same time - let’s remember this woman had a criminal record for fraud and theft. She was no angel. They child was. The NYPD still has a job to do and it doesn’t help that the woman had a serious criminal history, which is the only excuse for the NYPD treating her like... a criminal.
4
When I read the story, I could not believe it! Why didn‘t somebody offer a chair to her or allow her to play with her baby at the play area? Or provide a chair from a buero? Maybe NY is a city thats to big for seeing the needs of a young mother. Unbelievable! You should really learn to look around you and not arrest people for sitting on the floor, because there is no chair left.
3
What I see is a mother clinging to her baby in a scary situation. Every mother would do the same. She wasn't asking for a conflict, she was frustrated and trying to leave. I see a broken system that punishes mothers disproportionately for doing their best and a bunch of red tape and physical abuse that get in the way.
Ugh, this makes me sick.
11
I cannot imagine telling a police officer "You're a joke" and getting away with it. (I am white.)
I'm tired of reading stories about single mothers that say nothing about child support. The child has a father too.
27
She is not a victim.
23
The cops have a license to do whatever they want to minorities, and citizen videos are the evidence we need to prove it.
You have a right to film the police!
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/07/third_circuit_affirms_the_constitutional_right_to_record_police_officers.html
~
2
Could you kindly do a full investigative report on the one sentence that stuck to me like a magnet: "The practice of prematurely closing public benefits cases and forcing recipients to reapply is so common that advocates for the poor have a word for it: churning."
This is horrific. We know that poverty is like having not slept for 48 hours. It is so all consuming that it lowers IQs. It makes for unconscionable time poverty, its an unbearable cognitive load, and doesn't allow any planning for the future, or strategic thinking. It reduces thought to the pragmatic thinking of the now, of fulfilling the immediate.
Public policy should be making things as easy/comprehensive as possible for people to access services. Yes, there are check points, but the roadblocks dont seem to be designed to keep fraud out, they seem designed to keep everyone out. Public policy should be trained in providing services with empathy, dignity and in respecting people first and foremost, because these are people with feelings, just like the rest of us, and to have the added burden of suffering emotional trauma at the hand of government services is not a government that is doing well its job.
We live in a society that looks down on the poor. Those paid to help should provide respite not add to the problem.
18
The compassion expressed here for Ms. Headly is laudable. However, she could be the poster child for urban poverty, i.e. she has a child she cannot afford, while lacking with skills that cannot command a living wage. Predictably, her child has an absentee dad.
She may be trying to work, but it is unlikely that she will escape the trap that her poor decisions have created. She is destined to be a resentful ward of the state.
36
If people waited until until they could “afford” a child, very few people would have children. Certainly not very many millennials, and very few Gen-X. Most people these day, unless their parents had wealth, don’t start getting financial security until their 40’s when it’s too late to start a family. Blaming this woman for having a kid before she could afford one is part of the problem not part of the solution.
8
@Bongo
Predictably, the comfortably numb who suffer only from the height of arrogance are the ones who are so myopic in scope they are capable of only one decision when it comes to a tough situtation: i.e., buy yourself our of it.
These arrogant buffoons are destined to suffer from moral cowardice.
2
What happened to this single mother could happen to any of us. Have you never made a poor choice in your life? Should you be condemned to suffer the consequences forever, and your children as well? Where you see a woman who reaps what she’s sown, I see a woman struggling to raise a child and having to fight enormous obstacles. And when we treat poor people like criminals we are irreparably harming their innocent children. Stop seeing the poor as “other” and open your eyes. Unless you are in the 1%, “these people” could just as easily be you. If that does happen I hope you are treated with more dignity and respect than the young mother in this story.
12
This is the truth about our rotten capitalist society. Capital is KING and if you do not have $$, you are trash. Americans love to criticize the Nordic countries as Socialist, but they are not Socialist---they are social-democracies. This means they are governed for the good of the citizens. All citizens, not just the elite. Nordics are free to save and invest capital, but are free of the anxiety which drives us to save for health problems, retirement and education for our kids, since the country provides for these needs. In a truly socialist country, citizens do not own capital---the government does. Please learn this distinction, and start to get smarter, America! We will be MORE FREE when our government starts assuring us more of our human needs will be provided for.
7
A reminder that while society in general tends to look down on the poor, the 1% of this country are the true welfare Kings and Queens as are corporations that pay little to no taxes.
We just handed the worlds's richest man a $3 billion tax break to open his Queens headquarters.
16
It seems like this woman was doing some of the things that conservatives would want her to do. She didn’t have an abortion and she’s working even though the job isn’t paying a living wage. I don’t understand why there is this need to pick on poor people. We can talk about people getting educated and getting a better job but if everyone could and did, who would do these jobs that need to be done. Yes she is accused of committing fraud but we elected a person for president that has done multi-million dollar frauds. Obviously fraud isn’t a big deal for many Americans. It seems to me that there was no need for her to take off work and go down there anyway. It seems this system is just designed to harass poor Americans. I don’t understand exactly what is expected of poor working class Americans. I guess we just want to punish people for not coming out from the right vagina.
18
@Timothy Phillips
Conservatives don't believe that poor people should be allowed to have sex. If she had an abortion she's a baby-killer, and if she has the baby, she's a woman "having a baby she can't afford.
7
There is so much of this I don't understand.
A person is quoted as saying there were seats available. Were there? Is that person just lying or did the mother not sit in them for some reason?
And why would it matter if a child was toilet trained or in diapers in a play area?
I wish someone would sort out those kinds of things.
And while I feel sorry for what this young mother went through, being arrested with 5 fake credit cards does not help to support her honesty.
18
@Talbot The person who said there were seats available is one of the "Peace Officers" who is about to be fired for egregiously escalating this situation. So, yes, they are absolutely 100% lying.
Why in God's name would she sit on the nasty dirty floor of a public building, if there actually WERE seats available? That's preposterous.
7
I know this young lady was upset about all the red tape involved in getting her daycare benefits, but I really wish she just got up when the security people asked her. The security guard should have ignored her "You're s joke" comment and let her go. I know those offices can be tension-filled. People are uptight about their finances. Something needs to be done to improve the way the clients' forms are processed. Better customer service is needed. Clients have to cooperative, too.
10
I have a friend who works in these offices, and the contempt is both externalized and turned on fellow workers. Bullying is rampant. Supervisors are never monitored or disciplined. There is zero observation of how clients are treated, and zero supervision of how workers treat each other. Sexism, racism, ageism - all rampant within the ranks. No surprise that the bullying doesn't stop with coworkers.
8
Why the choice of the word 'lucrative' in connection with a lawsuit which infers a deceptive motivation. The facts show she has legitimate reasons to file.
12
What Ms Headley needs is not money from a lawsuit but counseling on decision making and impulse control. Her own life attests to a pattern of poor decisions that has left the taxpayer paying for yet another child who will be born into limited opportunities while his single mother bounces in and out of the criminal justice system.
I have not doubt that Ms Headley felt disrespected by both the police officers and HRA staff. I also have no doubt that she gave them as much respect as she got - which helped escalate this situation. Ms Headley was not the only patron at that office and indeed may not have been the neediest one either. Her disruptive behavior prevented the staff from dealing with other people.
Now, there's nothing wrong with investigating and potentially even disciplining the officers or staff involved if clear wrongdoing is shown. However, Ms Headley needs to learn to be accountable for her own actions as well. In this particular instance she was yelling, screaming, biting, disrespecting, and refusing to listen to staff. In previous instances, she's engaged in identity theft and credit card fraud.
Ms Headley literally lay on the ground and threw a temper trantrum. Does she have or 1-year-old child or is she a 1-year-old child? The only thing this woman is a victim of is her own bad choices.
43
I am sorry, I see the human side of this, everyone deserves to be treated its civility... That said, all I see is someone who should be in jail, instead of milking the system.
We have thousands and thousands of single parents struggling to make it without committing felonies. Further, now she will receive a large settlement for, at worst a bit of rudeness.
This can not continue.
24
@Jay Forest A bit of rudeness? Are you quite mad? They ripped her baby from her arms, sent her to *Riker's* and charged *her* with child endangerment when they are the ones who endangered the child.
2
I'd be curious to know if there actually were extra seats there, as the guards attest, or not. If so, I wonder whether the issue lay in asking rudely, which triggered reciprocal rudeness in Ms. Headley.
The vibe is very shaming at those offices. What is the problem with a citizen going to pick up a guaranteed social benefit? We're all Americans, and if you are evaluated as meeting the requirements for the benefit, it is yours. Let the people have their benefits without the sides of judgment and self loathing please.
9
They pay $1,200 a month for child care? Does she even make that in a month?! That being said, where is the father of this child? Why is it always left up to the mother and the government to support these kids?
33
This is New York. Childcare is super expensive.
6
This idea of “churning” began with that “great” mayor Bloomberg. He initiated it to prevent “fraud” . I remember thinking at the time this was a cheap, hypocritical way to save a few bucks and make those in need truly earn the benefits they were entitled to. How and why does the city decide to cut off child care benefits? Does the day care center tell the city the child no longer attends? Or is it an arbitrary date of cut off? Regardless, it is a nasty, brutish way to treat people. This young women was working, isn’t that what all the experts say they want? Child care in this nation is a joke, workers are underpaid and the agency overprice their services. I didn’t see Bloomberg going after scofflaw violators in an equal fashion. And as far as the current mayor, he has shown his true colours too many times now. A shallow, ego driven incompetent. The poor kids in nyc are treated with contempt: one day we will all regret this callous treatment of those less fortunate.
4
Let's stop talking about what Headley is 'entitled' to and discuss what her responsibilities to her child, society and herself are.
She must do her part before expecting undeserving entitlements.
28
@Glenn Thomas
Undeserving entitlements? She works, which means she's paying taxes.
2
I thank God every day that my daughter and granddaughter moved away from Brooklyn, and now live with us in NC. Her husband, the baby's father, is a bully, and treated them both horribly. In order for her to stay nearby, my daughter would have had to withstand this horrific situation of applying for financial support. I am so grateful that she is willing to live with her parents to avoid this nightmare.
9
If I am being arrested and I am carrying a child, are the officers not supposed to arrest me? Can I use a child as a shield against law enforcement and hope someone catches it on video?
22
Could any of this have been prevented if someone had given up their seat for a mother with a small child?
10
This story is interesting for several reasons.
I'm a white college grad who worked as a project manager until retirement. And I am on a first name basis with local NYPD managers.
My mother-in-law had several strokes so I went to the local HRA office for some information. I would not say that the staff was overly friendly, but they became downright hostile when I started asking for specific information. Supervisors names. Legal authority for what they were doing, etc. They became downright hostile and negan to threaten me.
My response was to offer to call the precinct's commanding officer or a police chief, whereupon they stopped threatening me but still provided no information. When I took a picture for evidence they became apoplectic, particularly when I said that I'd give it to the police.
I left, but I can't imagine what would happen to someone who couldn't keep his cool AND wasn't secure with NYPD contacts. Certainly in the area of this HRA office (mostly minority) the I know that the police work hard to protect their constituents, even vis a vis city agencies but I can't say what happens elsewhere, or to someone without contacts.
18
Public assistance systems, at least the ones I've seen in action, are designed to humiliate, shame, and dehumanize those who seek to get benefits. And once they've gone through that, it's not uncommon for benefits that they're qualified for and necessary for their very survival to be denied or arbitrarily cut off for absolutely no reason. The goals seems to be to ensure that absolutely any alternative is seen as preferable. Any alternative including: committing crimes (even if you're caught, at least you get food and housing in jail), entering into an abusive relationship (which can and does put kids at risk), living on the streets, working under the table for less than minimum wage, and even suicide.
Republicans like to paint these policies as "promoting personal responsibility" and "saving taxpayer dollars", neither of which is true. What this is all really about is telling people who've been laid low that they are completely disposable, that their very survival at best does not matter and at worst is actively opposed by the authorities, all to support a myth that the reason people are poor is that their lives aren't miserable enough.
Not coincidentally, the people most heavily targeted by this, like Ms Headley, are black and Hispanic women.
16
To someone in dire need, especially a working, single mom, it can seem like everything and everyone is against you. Times one hundred.
But that is only one perspective. And the frustration of that cannot rule, or we have chaos, and then the other families who also depend on public assistance aren't served.
Beginning with refusing to comply with fire code regulations, Ms. Headley was on a path of confrontation. Her choice, however understandable, was wrong.
And the hardness of many government employees who become beleaguered from years of people raging at them for enforcing rules that they did not make, can be very hard to take.
But as soon as you erupt and rage at people, you lose. Being upset is not the same as being right. The key here is that the video only begins with the physical struggle, and we are left to imagine what preceded it. Would anything excuse such rough handling? Possibly, it might, as unkind as that sounds.
Her (or anyone's) bad behavior cannot be permitted to hold everyone else hostage. Not when thousands of other people manage to conduct their affairs in the same office, dealing with the same employees, under the same rules.
Respect is a two way street.
19
I understand Ms. Headley's plight and the frustration that a single mom has with a system that's better at blocking her way than helping her navigate it. Without money in your pocket your freedom of choice is all but gone. It's a mother's instinct to do whatever necessary to ensure your child's welfare.
However I have no tolerance for thieves. Prior to her son's birth she was arrested for identity theft and in possession of phony credit cards with her name on them. The pain and suffering of the people she stole from cannot be ignored just because she's poor. It doesn't give her the right to steal.
27
Points up, yet again, the inability of many officers to defuse a situation. Whether Ms Headley ultimately behaved badly or rudely is not the issue. The issue is simply that officers let a petty issue lead to chaos. That is the epitome of bad policing.
In the U.S. so-called 'fire codes' in public places have become nonsensical, and these codes are basically arbitrarily established and enforced by folks who are often entirely overly zealous in enforcement.
I was at a concert once when, trying to dance in the aisles, was brusquely told to sit down because doing so violated 'fire codes'. I quickly retorted 'so when the aisles fill up with people coming and going before and after the, that doesn't violate fire codes as well?' No answer.
I'd say the obvious overweight status of the average law enforcement officer in this video was much more of a 'fire code' violation than a much-slighter woman with a baby.
9
Where is her responsibility in all this? I have been asked to stand up when sitting on the floor in Penn Station. I stood up. And if I had refused, I would have expected to be carted off by the MTA police. She behaved in an uncivilized manner, so she was treated accordingly.
38
This is a working mother doing the best for her son. Shame on you, Mayor. You should be helping these people instead of getting on your high horse. Shame on you.
4
Flexibility and tolerance. Two things that are quickly disappearing in our societies.
7
Free daycare for all, regardless of income. Problem solved. Rich don't like it? - take your kids to private day care like you take them to private schools. Destigmatize parents, especially single and female ones that need help. This poor lady was living with her mother, trying to work and take care of her son. You all realize that, if daycare in her neighborhood is $1200/month, that she would have to work 40/hrs wk, for 2.3 weeks of every month just to pay for daycare! Insane. No wonder a resilient, caring and hardworking person in her situation can't get ahead...
14
Jazmine is undoubtedly a good person and a caring nother. Regardless of whose fault it is, she is experiencing a really horrendous level of chaos and failure in her personal life.
She needs social coping skills. She needs to learn how to make better decisions. This is a process which can be taught and learned.
Finally, she needs to accept the fact that she herselfis the master of her fate, and that she needs to take responsibility fo it. Many people we have to deal with treat us badly for one reason or another. You can't do anything about that. All you can do it to try to live your own life the best way you can.
She's in a bad position financially because she folowed a cad to North Carolina on a whim, because she got pregnant with a man who didn't want to marry her or be a supportive father. These were her personal choices. Sadly, her family and teachers didn't provide her with better decision skills. That's something she can and should work on now - for her self and for her son. Don't get distracted by the static in life.
Learn a few ways to deal with dumb, vicious administrators. It doesn't work to up the level of anger they have - that's counter productive. A better path is to learn good manners (how to be nice when you are furious, etc.) beause it works better than blowing up.
Good luck Jaxmine. You are better than the situation you are currently in. End the cycle of poverty, anger at racism, and poor education that doomed you to such a frustrating life.
Read.
14
Wow. We've been mansplained.
5
Thank God neither of the security guards seem to have been white and/or male, or there would be another dimension to this sordid affair to reckon with.
11
Come on NYT. “She plans to file a POTENTIALLY LUCRATIVE lawsuit...”
Drop the dog whistle. Let’s keep the focus and blame where they belong: on the behavior of the cops and guards.
6
I would have watched the video had I not been forced to watch a commercial first. All the news that fit to print, but first, a word from our sponsors.
7
What...so now she’s a hero? She was previously charged with stealing credit card numbers...accounts that belonged to other people! That’s identity theft. When will she answer to those charges?....before or after she collects on her soon-to-be-announced lawsuit against the city....
33
Sue them for millions! Get them fired!
3
The bottom line is that is a crime alone to be poor in the US. And we enjoy punishing the poor. It is a very sickening society.
3
I think that you have left out quotation marks when labeling the "peace officer" who said "Really" as a peace officer.
1
Just make the system more client friendly. What’s the big deal. Telling people they have to reapply because of bureaucratic mishaps is ridiculous. You want to get cheats just hire investigators to check on what a client promised to do to receive benefits. That will stream line office work and remind clients that they have resposibities.
Ms. Headley is right, those guards and police officers are a joke. Who treats a woman with a baby like that in ANY circumstance? People commenting about how she deserves to be treated this way because of her past are simply ignorant racists who don’t want to bother understanding how devastatingly hard it is to be poor and black in this country and how it has nothing to do with choice. It’s called RESPECT. I hope she gets the help she deserves for her and her son. Policemen, please start treating people with real dignity, or our trust in you will continue to deteriorate.
2
My 14 year old son, just completed a project for social studies on a book about a young girl kidnapped and sold into slavery, this was in the mid-1700’s. The title is poignant, ‘Someone knows my name’ (Lawrence Hill). One can strip people of dignity and humanity in many ways, but to rob someone of their name, is to make them a non entity, invisible and immaterial. How dare any guard or police person attack-arrest any person without giving due consideration. They violated not just her rights, but that of an innocent infant who could have been injured. I sure hope all the officers concerned receive proper remediation training and the guards at the facility should not be working there if they have no compassion for the people flocking to such welfare offices.
1
In almost any situation once the police become involved there will be an arrest or a lot bad feelings at the end. The police often exacerbate the problem they are called to solve. I live a small village. There, if you complain about certain people, if the police are friends with them, nothing will be done about the problem. They will tell you, in so many words, that they know this person and it's your problem to solve, not theirs.
After watching how our local police force behaves I and others have come to the conclusion that they do not work for us. They work for the mechanics who service the squad cars, the mayor of our little village, and anyone who is willing to be submissive and full of praise for them. The only things they take seriously are their badges and being able to sit in their shiny SUVs with the tinted windows rolled up and the computers out and running. But interacting pleasantly with the public, no way.
3
As a victim of credit card fraud, I don't have as much sympathy for her. The article states she "had a difficult two years" as if the credit card fraud was not her fault.
I'm worried this case will encourage others to behave this way in order to seek a monetary settlement.
35
@M She is a criminal.
10
This was an unfortunate situation that clearly escalated unnecessarily. Although Ms. Headley was treated poorly, I am frustrated that she is considering a huge lawsuit against NYC that if won, will be paid by already overburdened taxpayers like me. I wish the effects from the visibility of the incident, a commitment to retraining staff and ongoing support from the community would be enough for Ms. Headley.
12
To all the commenters who have criticized the mother saying she broke the rules, or she provoked the guards, or she had a criminal history, or even, so cynically and cluelessly, that she was staging a setup to sue the City: you are missing the point. Do you really think anything she did or meant to do justifies ripping her baby from her arms?
8
For those berating Ms. Headley;perhaps it is time for the legendary social conscience of Stevland Hardaway Morris (aka Stevie Wonder) and Erykah Badu to team up for the hit single:
"All She Had To Do is- Comply."
3
"Her criminal record" is irrelevant. At...the...time...her toddler was being yanked from her arms, no one knew her record. This was about a young sitting on the floor after hours upon hours of waiting and being told to "wait some more."
It never fails, when authorities are caught being thugs- the victim's life is scrutinized- after the fact in an effort to justify the unjustifiable.
6
The security guards should be fired. The supervisor they reported to should be fired. The NYPD offices should have deescalated the situation instead of trying to wrestle this little child from his mother’s arms. Who does that to a mother unless she is threatening the life of the child? What is the matter with people? This has huge lawsuit written all of it. And frankly, I hope she takes them to the cleaners.
4
There are three sides to every story. Ms Headley could have acted differently, but she was frustrated and her child was getting cranky. The security guards could have been more respectful, but they are probably fed up with being treated like dirt. Both sides were wrong in some way. The other day I was treated disrespectfully, unfairly and issued a summons by a guard at an airport pickup area. My life circumstances are quite different from Ms Headley's but I flew off the handle too and I'm not proud of my behavior during that interaction.
In my mind the overarching issue of this case is the need for affordable, easily accessible child care that is offered to all parents, rich or poor. As evidenced by this case, the current patchwork system that requires the working poor to jump through hoops or luck out with a lottery isn't working.
8
When I applied for food stamps at a Los Angeles office some years ago, I saw many people not just sitting, but lying on the floor. I was appalled and rather disdainful. A week later after 5 days of waiting all day to be seen, I too lay on the filthy floor. I had already been seen once but had to come back for some reason. When I was first seen, my counselor (whom I had told I was a photo student) encouraged me to bring my camera to the Welfare Office which I did. So when a fight broke out between a man applying for benefits and the guards, I jumped up and photographed it. After a week of waiting I was thrown out. When I at first refused to leave, other Welfare clients waiting to be admitted to the office, shouted at me to get out.
18
The main takeaway I have is that law enforcement should treat everyone with respect and not resort to physical violence, even if that person is disobeying the rules. The only time this maxim should be ignored is if a person has a weapon. The police are supposed to be the grownups in the room, not thugs and certainly not be ripping a baby from a mother's arms, even if she's carrying bad credit cards.
12
Our public welfare system has become a disgrace.
Poor people are routinely treated like suspects - including poor white people.
I know the story of an older, high-school educated white woman in my apartment building who was laid off during the World Financial Crisis. She ended up exhausting her unemployment benefits while trying to find a job at the height of the crisis.
Once she went on public assistance (after having worked her entire life as a dental assistant), she was hounded by the welfare department - who gave her the worst financial advice possible, that of taking her social security early, and thus locking in benefit rate that would both make her dependent of government assistance for the rest of her life AND penalize her once she went back to work (since she was not yet 66 years old, and thus would have to pay back $1 for every $2 earned over roughly $29,000.
Meanwhile, our mayor at the time was one of the richest men in the world, Michael Bloomberg.
The welfare reform of the 1990s was a sham and a disgrace - and the attitude that underlies that "reform" remains with us to this day.
Meanwhile, while all these "reforms" were taking place, knaves like Donald Trump were making lavish campaign contributions to both parties - thus insulating him from the same kind of harsh scrutiny that poor people routinely receive.
14
It seems most government agencies function with a masochistic mindset; Social Security agencies and Departments of Motor Vehicles are just as bad as the so-called Human Services agencies.
Most-if-not-all are accompanied by armed personnel and bullet-proof shields behind which employees work. Why?
Could it be because the agency's unspoken philosophies are to make citizen's experiences miserable to the extent, people snap?
Here is California, appointments to pay license fees, registration fees, title transfers and driver tests can take weeks or months- and then one prays you happen upon a competent employee.
I cannot imagine going through what this young lady endured- with a toddler. and still manage to stay sane.
4
Instead of paying $1200 a month for Ms. Headley to work a minimum wage job that keeps her away from her child, why not give her the $1200 voucher to stay home and take care of her own child? This is better for the baby, better for the mother, and might give her a chance to take classes that allow her to get a better job and pull her family out of poverty.
30
Because that makes too much sense.
6
@Debbie Penetration
That would be Welfare. Clinton (a Democrat) did away with most Welfare.
5
@Debbie Penetration
Hey that sounds pretty good, can I get $1200 a month to stay home?
14
I’m hearing a lot of commenters talking about very sensible, plausible solutions, like adding chairs or creating a system that would make receiving benefits easier. I agree these solutions could help things tremendously. Unfortunately, they require money. Yes, even chairs. I am a public school teacher. As a government employee myself, I know that even an extra chair is hard to come by. So I think the real question is why don’t these government agencies have more money to serve the people they are meant to serve?
It is my opinion that this is because a lot of people needing these public programs are not valued enough in our communities, as is evidenced by the way Ms. Headley was treated. As a community, we need to show our elected officials that we value people in need by fighting for more money going to government programs like education and public assistance.
Moreover, we need to show that we value populations that are disproportionately mistreated by police by requiring community policing and police accountability.
10
@Nell
"So I think the real question is why don’t these government agencies have more money to serve the people they are meant to serve?"
Because we like to waste the money on going to war. Let me rephrase, we have money galore to go to war.
1
Social Services/Human Services agencies seem to go out of their way to make their offices intolerable confines of indignity. Most have sparse seating and/or cracked chairs or chairs so uncomfortable- standing is preferable.
Just think what- adding more seats would have avoided?
8
This is disgraceful in so many ways but to cuttoff childcare for a working mom is the height of ignorance and cruelty. Childcare, healthcare, and transportation should be provided by all states to help low income families and I mean families who make below a living wage not minimum, stay working and their children safe. This not just the right thing to do, but it's the sane thing to do.
8
Just a note of appreciation to photographer Sara Lewkowicz for those lovely photos of Ms. Headley. So many photographers do not seem to know how to do lighting and black complexions well. Thank you for according her dignity through these exquisite images.
16
@Elizabeth
My first thought seeing this articles was - she has such a beautiful face, maybe she could model and make enough money to get out of her financial situation.
2
To me it sounds nothing but gross incompetence at the NY City government office. The Social Security office is no different in its functioning. Many of the benefits should be accessible through online applications with clear guidelines. This would allow the poorest of the poor to work and look after their children and not take unpaid time off from work to spend a whole day reapplying for benefits. Could not the office have given a month's notice to the lady before cutting off benefits? All involved in this including the security guards, the lady in question could have de-escalated this from developing to a full blown disaster in a public setting.
6
Dealing with government bureaucrats is never pleasant. They are stuck in systems designed by third-rate contractors, they are rarely empowered to do more than standard, rote procedures, and most view the work as a joyless dead end. It always takes to long and very often involves nonsensical starts and restarts.
As bad as the situation might be, the best way to handle it is usually with patience and grace. The person in line arguing with the clerk, making demands and refusing to follow instructions makes it worse for everyone and rarely even succeeds at making it better for themselves. One person's bad behavior wastes everyone's time.
Ms. Headley -- a person whose life decisions obviously have put her in poor circumstances -- was insistent on making a bad situation worse. While I can feel sorry for her situation, I don't have excuse her behavior. The arrest, the tug or war over the baby, the entire spectacle could have been avoided had she just acted with a bit of grace and patience. And while we are having this outpouring of sympathy over her plight, what about all of the other people seeking services who were delayed and inconvenienced by her nonsense.
Rather than paying to settle her frivolous lawsuit, the city should send her a bill for all of the time and energy it has expended dealing with her nonsense.
23
@AR Clayboy she doesn't have the money to pay them back. How is sending her a bill going to improve the situation?
2
@AR Clayboy
"the entire spectacle could have been avoided had she just acted with a bit of grace and patience."
She was waiting for hours only to be told to wait a few more. I'd say that's pretty patient. Let's not forget most of us behave poorly under stress because stress clouds the mind.
2
I have been on government assistance for the past few years so I could feed my children as a single parent. The bureaucracy is atrocious, and every time I have to go down with my documents to recertify, my day at the center and the hours' wait is hellish.
But I am also a parent, and I teach my children that being in a bad mood, or being forced to deal with inefficiency, does not entitle you to bad behavior. They have to follow instructions, even when they're upset, from me, from their teachers, and from any officer. Obeying authority is the foundation for civil society. Otherwise, being tired or upset would entitle us all to run red lights.
The video shows an unfortunate altercation, but this wasn't officers looking for a fight. For those who decry the officers here -- I am curious as to what you think the alternative should be, when someone is refusing to comply with rules designed to assure everyone's safety, and further refuses to heed instructions of an officer, instead becoming belligerent and aggressive?
18
No doubt about it, dealing with the public benefits bureaucracy sounds like a Kafkaesque nightmare.
I was also struck by the $1,200/month ($14,400/year) that Ms. Headley receives in day care benefits for her son. Given the many kids in NYC receiving day care benefits, surely it would be more cost-effective and safer/better for children and parents for the NYC government to establish and operate its own day care facilities and programs. I don't know the exact number of kids who receive such benefits, but, for example, 10,000 kids x $14,400/year for day care adds up to a cool $144 MILLION per year. Such city-operated facilities could also provide training and work opportunities--and a way out of poverty and welfare dependence--for parents such as Ms. Headley.
Perhaps the myriads of NYC managers and statisticians who put together NYC's 254-page application to lure Amazon to Long Island City could be tasked with modeling the costs and benefits of an NYC-operated day care system for its welfare recipients.
13
@Mon Ray That would make too much sense.
1
@Mon Ray NYC operated daycare? Might want to look into an agency called NYCHA before making such crazy statements.
1
Did I see an officer pull out a Taser and keep it pointed very close to a mother gripping her baby? Please tell me it isn’t true.
7
Ms. Headley sounds more or less even-headed, though I'll bet she probably would act differently if she were given a do-over. But you can bet that there are people whispering in her ear, and what they are whispering is..."ka-ching, ka-ching."
17
@Connecticut Yankee You can be sure no lawyer(s) would take this lawsuit without an excellent chance of prevailing - because this egregious, abusive assault deserves civil penalties.
1
A few years ago I was threatened with arrest for trying to apply for assistance in Jamaica Queens. That's right, TRYING to apply. They told me "we don't do that here," and told me I'd have to use the internet to apply. I didn't have the internet.
They laughed at me, said they didn't care, and told me to go somewhere else. I pointed out that they had SIGNS on the wall, saying that THIS was where you could apply. They didn't care about the signs. They told me to leave and got on the phone to talk to the guards. I couldn't go somewhere else. I had a 9-5 job and the Jamaica office was the only one open late. They threatened me with arrest while smiling and laughing about it.
I assumed they were nasty racists because I was the pale-est one in the office and I was the only one they picked on. But apparently, these city employees are petty tyrants who enjoy treating people like garbage.
20
We've all made one or two bad choices but your financial status determines if that choice is FATAL...
4
If folks act out without repercussion rather comply with police officers we invite chaos...especially if a big financial payoff is possible. This women deserves zero sympathy.
24
@Lane I agree with you.
4
The cop pulling out his taser gun on other children and watchers, and the woman while she's holding her baby. At no point did they give her space and ask her to stand up. Of course she's terrified, these cops are grabbing her baby with such force, they're stepping on her hair, they're pinning her to the floor. Disgusting. This isn't protective work. I have been on benefits, I've stood in those lines. My own mother was yelled at by a social worker because she brought me with her, to help translate, when I should have been in school (mind you, I was not even enrolled in school yet). This isn't public assistance. This isn't protective service.
9
What are they supposed to do if she was argumentative, trying to leave, and refusing to cooperate?
Violence is never the answer, but they have no choice but to implement force in this case.
8
@Anne To answer your question with your own comment, "violence is never the answer". They have a choice. They have every choice to not throw this woman to the ground and endanger her child. The choice is patience and understanding. The choice is to step away, keep her contained, and let her stand up, let her hold her child.
I hope you never have to go through such an experience, but if you do, I would have a hard time believing you would not react in a similar manner as this woman.
4
Do what they tell you and this doesn't happen. Living with this in mind, this has never happened to me or my family. This was completely avoidable. That and credit card fraud, caught with 5 credit cards that were fraudulent. I don't get the sympathy here. By the way, where is BabyDaddy? How much child support does he pay? I know, I know.
26
your comment about a "babydaddy" is pretty racist.
2
Why is baby daddy racist??
9
It's the way they used it, because she's a black woman. It's also a classist comment as well, talking down to someone because the woman in the article is a single black mom living in poverty.
If this woman were white, these comments would not be nearly so shameful; I bet 100 dollars there would be more sympathy.
On a side note, lots of people blame individuals for their problems, but no one seems to bother to blame the system that keeps these folks in these types of situations.
4
The US has become a gladiator state where the corporations and wall street's winner takes all mindset is the norm and where those who were tasked with overseeing the good/fair operations of the state are holding the small person, the poor person, the common man who has no connections or political might, by their throat. In this case, the slightest infraction - take away your healthcare, your next chance at at meal or joke of a compensation they claim to handout as welfare. Give me a break! Jazmine should have been treated with compassion and kindness regardless of her circumstances. After state of NY gave out a whole welfare corporate sponsorship and red carpet rollout to Amazon, it had the nerve to mistreat Jazmine headley for a fraction of what she was asking for so she can survive another day. I pray for your success Jazmine Headley and wish you the very best in life and I hope your baby was not affected by this. Unbelievable to say the least.
9
Our country is unreasonably scared of poverty-stricken people.
15
Desperate people are dangerous people.
4
Probably because taxpayers have had it up to here taking care of others "bad choices".
5
Wait, she was trying to leave peaceably and she was prevented - essentially assaulted and held against her will, her only crime being attempting to leave? And what about the officer waving a taser around in a chaotic, crowded situation? Was he/she just itching for a chance to use it? The militarization and excessive use of force against poor people (and all of us, really) HAS to stop! If trying to hold onto your infant = resisting arrest, God help us all. I hope she does get a large settlement.
11
I'm not sure why the article has to say this: "she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit to prevent what happened to her from happening to others."
Are you judging her for her past, and casting her as a gold digger? She has a job, is raising a child alone, and the criminal she palled around with is out of her life. She wasn't looking for fame and fortune when she went to the benefits office, was she?
I doubt that suing the city is very lucrative. If people sue to get justice, they are awarded legal expenses and exoneration. Lawyers take most of it. So no, people don't get rich for suing. If she makes money, it'll be from TV appearances.
6
I dont' see anything in this case that merits a lawsuit.
As described by people who live nearby, this office was a frequent scene of angry outbursts, fights and inappropriate behavior. Jazmine was rude, the security guards were rude, and police got drawn into yet another ugly scene resulting from stress, impatience and people unwilling to follow instructions.
When people misbehave, act rude, scream and tussle, and then police respond and authorities don't behave absolutely perfectly in these stressful conditions, the result should not be a large $ payout to one of the rude actors.
27
Whether poverty is a result of self-inflicted decisions, or through unfortunate circumstances, those at or near the bottom of the income level are usually treated with indifference and resentment.
We also have a nation that, with ultra-right-wing conservatism rising since the early years of Reagan, has adopted the Ayn Rand philosophy that empathy and compassion are signs of weakness. Instead, greed and other self-absorbed beliefs have become the Republican mantra.
Spurred on by Reagan's choice for Fed Chairman, the self-proclaimed libertarian economist Alan Greenspan, greed became the driving force for all conservative policies. This has resulted in what we still have 30 years later: unfettered mergers and acquisitions that have destroyed millions of American jobs and the families who depended on those jobs; it also has reduced competition while raising the cost of living for essential goods and services.
What Ms. Headly experienced is the result of increasing animosity for the poor by bureaucrats and the conservative lawmakers who hire them.
This is not Eisenhower's Republican Party. It is no longer the Party of Lincoln. It's now the party of greed and corruption. And we can correctly blame the so-called think tanks such as, The Federalist Society, The Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and the Koch brothers, among others. They call it "freedom." But it's really about keeping power by suppressing the have-nots through restricting voting rights and access to social services.
14
Well said.
1
The frustrating response 'our officers need retraining' makes one wonder how they were trained in the first place. Perhaps, officers should only be hired if they show a level of common sense.
6
What about training your kids that you are not in control? Or in charge? You are there getting free child care and money. Act like it.
10
@BorisRoberts And a Merry Christmas to you.
Why do some individuals choose confrontation with police rather than simply following their commands? Just as in the horrible Eric Garner case, here the police were called to handle a situation and they encountered someone who would not obey their orders. That is not the time to cry for your civil rights! You can do that later! Just do what the police say so they don't have the opportunity to hurt you! That's what my mother taught me!
24
You’re right in saying to do just what an officer says, because unless you’re wealthy and can afford expensive attorneys you really don’t have many rights.
1
because police are not gods to be obeyed. The penalty for disobeying a cop should be that laid down by the law not being shot dead by the cops which obvously did not happen here but all too often does here in NYC where the cops are totally lawless
3
@Donna Gray Maybe because not all of us believe that we are obligated to simply bend over for some government jackboots because they told us to.
If you want to live in a place where you must obey every order the government gives you without question, move to North Korea.
3
What strikes this reader is the pettiness of the officials involved. In fact the entire system is set up to wear people down, to discourage them from asking for help, and to force them to waste time. It appears that no matter how responsible a person is in this system there is always a "gotcha". What kind of welfare system is this if this is the normal functioning of it?
A parent comes in to do the right thing by a child and is arrested, or threatened, or treated like trash? How nice. Let's not forget that poor people are treated like all they want to do is defraud the system as if the system isn't out to trip them up, lie to them, etc.
Welcome to America where, when you really need help, it's cut off by petty bureaucrats or their assistants who decide outside the guidelines whether someone is worthy of receiving cash assistance, etc., or not. And politicians wonder why people are angry and yell at them at public meetings? This is one reason. It's easier if you're rich and have money to get money.
23
The article should include the video so you can see the police officers attempting to rip her child away with no concern for their safety.
9
There is no excuse for treating this woman and her innocent child with such disrespect and aggression. Her "sin" was sitting on the floor. It's absolutely pathetic. We hear all this talk about police "training." What is that "training" worth if it fails to ensure basic common sense and decency? Putting hands on a civilian, let alone a child, should be the absolute last resort, when all other techniques, including standing there and waiting, have failed. Have we not seen enough incidents of police violence kicked off by nearly nothing?
15
To all the comments who referenced Ms Headley's warrant for credit card fraud in NJ, did it ever occur to you to ask what is the record of the police officers and security guards?
Or is that not relevant?
A common tactic used by law enforcement when they are criticized in these situations is to smear the victim so they drag up everything in the person's life that can possibly besmirch the and publicize it. While they spend all their efforts shielding the personnel record of the officers involved from public scrutiny on the basis that it would prejudice.
People need to start reading and thinking more critically and stop having such knee-jerk responses!!
22
@AC Thank you!
Well AC, people need to listen more and do what people in positions of minimal authority say to do. And she was arrested for credit card fraud. It isn't like it was a false accusation.
5
When I arrived from France 20 years ago, I was shocked by the way any person in uniform in the US think that they have to right to be immediately harsh if one shows the slightest sign of non-compliance. They are there to make sure that some sort of order is ensured, granted, but they are at the service of the public and should never forget that.
You have authority, you don't need to be harsh - didn't anybody tell you during your training?
That being said, I am pretty sure that the difference of income between the two people on each side of window number 7 isn't that great, and these employees must be under an enormous stress having to face these desperate citizens to which they have to say "no" again and again.
Economic, mental and emotional misery all around - another sign that the United States of America are sick, sick, sick.
I think that a lot of problems would be solved very fast if our lawmakers were forced to spend a month behind a window at one of these public benefits centers, forced to look at these desperate people in the eye, day after day after day.
24
Given the information in this article, it sounds like the police officers should have arrested the security guards for assault.
8
The bureaucratic practice that hulks oppressively in this story, is the insistence that Ms. Headley wait in ANOTHER line to deal with the cash assistance piece of her benefits. She was through the gate, and could have been sent to another desk without having to be sent back to purgatory with another number, and if so, why not?! I say this as someone who has been a beneficiary of assistance, and waited in my fair share of lines. Why - also - don't guards, "peace" officers, and public assistance employees not have training in facilitating overflow in the waiting area? Why indeed, don't people whose job it is to work with the public, (and I have a lot of sympathy for them, believe me), not understand that it's important to practice civility, and patience beyond measure? For the soccer moms and western state apologists for the guards and law enforcement who treated this case as another nail to hammer: walk a mile in the shoes of the poor. It's the hardest mile you'll ever travel.
15
This does not only occur in NYC,but in many other social service and criminal justice offices around the country. Untrained or poorly trained security and client service personnel do not have the skills to reduce conflict and often escalate the situation. The adage that an army travels on its stomach is true. Individuals coming to these offices often have severe stresses and anxiety, often incorrect data entry results in loss of benefits, waiting to be seen often results in a lost job.The prospect of a traumatized child is very real as is the prospect that the client may have great difficulty regaining custody when a child is taken in such an altercation.
Hopefully this will send a message not only to NYC but to other areas. First line staff, i.e. security, law enforcement, clerical, reception who are not social service professionals but who see the client first- usually in the most stressed time, need conflict resolution training and strict guidelines as to who to call and what to do to reduce conflict, not add to it- then blame the victim.
11
I respect that need for rules and that being a public administrator is not an easy job. The heart of this though, is that there need to be serious reforms to not just the Human Resources Administrations but all the NYC bureaucracies. Again NYC is a huge city and in some ways the NYC government apparatus is incredibly well organized. But a person shouldn't have to take an entire day off of work to check on what happened to her child care payments-- it just doesn't have to be so painful and so hard. This is a solvable problem. These bureaucracies need to be reformed and reminded that their job is to help people and not to punish them. There is no reason why it has to be this way; it needs to be less painful.
The recent story about the DOB fines for signage in Bay Ridge is another example of this. The fact that you have to pay an expeditor thousand of dollars to get permits through the DOB, and that a business that has had a sign in place for 50 years would get a $6000 fine out of nowhere is outrageous. And, again it's a solvable problem.
Mayor DeBlasio needs to take a break from the big ideas and delve into the details about how to actually fix these things on a daily basis for people. It's not glamorous, but it will make a difference.
7
@Geoff They want people to suffer to discourage them. It's obvious deBlasio is "too busy" to care. No respect for him after the way he handled this tragedy.
4
I just don’t think people understand what it’s like to be treated with absolute disdain by bureaucracy. I say that because I hadn’t until recently. Yes, I went to the DMV in New York and waited in 3 different lines for 5 hours to transfer my license. But that wasn’t because of who I am—they treat everyone like that. A few years ago, however, I moved into a new apartment, and although I had a lot of savings, I didn’t have a current job or much of a credit history. I tried to set up home heating oil in advance of the winter. The employees at the oil company clearly understood me as a poor, young, woman of color who was trying to cheat and lie to them at every turn. When I asked if I could have a co-signer to get around my lack of credit, they accused me of trying to defraud them by using someone else’s name instead of my own. I was saying X and they were hearing Y. I pushed through and signed up with them eventually because if I didn’t I would have to go with another company that would make me stay home during the workday to pay them in person. This was more than two years ago now and I still think about the indignity of our phone calls regularly, and cringe when I send them a check. While I don’t hope for other people to experience this, I also in a way do so other people can have that visceral ah-ha moment that will let them begin to understand what it’s like to walk around in Ms. Headley’s shoes.
18
The physical force used to drag Jazmine's child from her is chilling, but the psychological damage Jazmine and other suffer is harder to document, but it is much more lasting. What happened to "Protect and Serve'? My situation years ago was no way as brutal as hers, but it left its mark. Being white, middle class and a rules-follower doesn't mean you'll be treated well by government workers. After I was "let go" due to "downsizing" I was told I was entitled to unemployment compensation and how to apply. After a whole day at the unemployment office ,I was grilled by a sarcastic counselor as to why I lost my job. A few weeks later a verdict- I didn't qualify because I'd told the interviewer I only wanted part time work. Not true, but the case stood. In a few weeks I was asked back my company--with a raise --so crisis averted, but I will NEVER forget the humiliation of sitting in that government waiting area with hundreds of others, discouraged, worried, waiting for hours for a human being to help me; being made to feel I was a deadbeat and a liar; lazy, wanting government hand outs. Ii wanted to hit someone, to scream how horrible this was and
still amazes me that I just walked away without a fuss. I feel pain for women like Jazmine who have even more at stake than I did, who have fewer resources and support systems.Why does our society continue to punish those we should "protect and serve"?
16
one more argument for free and universal health care, including birth control.
13
Condoms are inexpensive and widely available.
2
What I see is power trips from the police, the guards, and the welfare office itself. Having to spend days on end to apply for benefits or have them restored. It is just preying on the weakest links of our society. If there is a silver lining in what happened to Ms. Headley, she will sue and get a hefty compensation from the city. Hopefully, she will be wise enough to put that money to work for her kid.
And last but not least, I would fire both the guards and the police officer; maybe when they have to present themselves at the same office to apply for unemployment benefits their ways will change. I would also fire the police chief!
7
I am always struck how inured we are to criminal behavior. This woman was part of a credit card fraud ring. We’ve become a society that blithely assumes everyone gets a couple of criminal convictions in their past. We see this in our willingness to allow someone like Trump in office down to the daily criminals like this woman. It’s a sad state of affairs
24
@Chris Well, according to the FBI, 73.5 Million Americans have been arrested on a felony charge, which is their standard for judging whether or not someone "has a criminal record". That means that just under 30% of the adult population in this country has been arrested for a felony, even if they haven't been convicted. I bet if you drop the standard to misdemeanors (Ms. Headley's NJ charge was for a minor misdemeanor, NOT a felony), the percentage grows even higher.
1
Plus on cable news, the video showed one uniformed enforcement sort attempting to put her hand over the camera filming this tragedy in an obvious attempt to prevent the recording, just like in China and other repressive regimes. More training for the police, Mr. de Blasio?
7
It seems too many of our police don't understand the concept of STEPPING BACK from a situation and taking the moment to ASSESS. An unarmed woman refusing to get up from the floor doesn't warrant this kind of abuse... but then she is black, and we have seen this too many times before. I wonder why we have not seen similar videos with white people? Do they exist? Are white men and women being mistreated as the same rate as black men and women? Has this been explored?
4
Yes it has been explored and people of color are treated worse.
One quick fix will stop this garbage immediately: Don’t indemnify the officers, at least not completely. When officers behave like thugs there need to be consequences. The taxpayer can assist, but the officers need to have skin in the game. The culture of police impunity for crimes against citizens needs to stop.
8
Ashley Southall and Nikita Stewart,
Your choice of words: "...she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit..."
Ms. Jazmine Headley filed a lawsuit over this incident. It's your subjectivity about whether or not this is potentially lucrative. This reads as another narrative about making money rather than fighting an injustice.
Your choice of language is unfortunate.
15
@nalani It's not about social injustice, this is totally about the money. Cha-ching.
9
"The bureaucratic headache that kept Ms. Headley at the Brooklyn office for hours is not unusual. The practice of prematurely closing public benefits cases and forcing recipients to reapply is so common that advocates for the poor have a word for it: churning." Is the author confirming that Ms. Headley's account was closed prematurely?
7
The police union needs to stop defending the indefensible. The absolute immorality, unlawfulness and abject stupidity of some of the mindless police actions they defend leaves the union without a shred of credibility and destroys much-needed public support. The truth is that every officer who jeopardized the life and limb of the baby by ripping it from mother's arms should be terminated and tried for reckless endangerment and assault. Anyone as stupid and reckless and uncaring as that gang of mindless officers should never have been hired. And where is their training? The buck stops with the Police Commissioner and the Mayor who are both obviously asleep at the switch.
9
This young lady did not help to de-escalate the situation and is not blameless; however, she didn’t deserve to have her son ripped out of her arms. Those guards treated her like a chattel slave; though she fought not to have her son taken from her, she was ultimately powerless to do anything about it. That is just wrong, no matter whether she refused to move from the floor or not.
Many people look down on poor people seeking public assistance. Yes, some people do “game the system,” and that’s wrong, but there are many more - the majority, I’d say - who genuinely need the help and are embarrassed and ashamed to ask for it, but have no other choice. No self-respecting person wants to ask for a handout, even temporarily. Those people should be shown the same dignity as any other human being. Furthermore, unfortunate incidents could befall any of us and put us into a precarious situation; maybe not one where we have to seek out public assistance, but where we are no less made to feel “less than” as a result.
8
Being poor is not an excuse to treat people with contempt. That is the training that needs to be inculcated to the people who work for the social services agencies, to the contractors who provide security, and most of all to the police who failed to de- escalate the situation.
4
If the police officers testimony and the body camera evidence show that the guards caused the problem by grabbing her, then I don't understand why the guards were not arrested for battery.
8
Jazmine Headley is presumably an adult and not a child. At any step of the way she could have avoided this escalation, and this unfortunate incident. She did not. Does she have any accountability for her behavior?
27
@Really The security guards are presumably adults and not children. At any step of the way they could have avoided this escalation. They did not. Do they have any accountability for their behaviour in your eyes? It's literally THEIR JOB to de-escalate situations and to deal with members of the public who are stressed, exhausted and at their breaking point. They failed, spectacularly. End of story.
1
THe main thing I take away from this is that inspite of wrongheaded decisions in the past this is a young woman determined to work to provide for herself and her child. The fact that she had to take off from her minimum wage job which probably does not pay for her time off, to get day care payments for her baby so that she can work at that minimum wage job strikes me as an insane game of ring around the rosy we all fall down. No pun intended.
594
“They never asked me my name,” Ms. Headley said. “They never said, ‘Hello, who are you?’ They never asked me.”
That says it all. Do we require people to be perfect in order to accord them respect? Or to be totally subservient to avoid being threatened?
Treating her and her child with decency and understanding doesn't have anything to do with condoning past criminal behavior. Or encouraging disruptive behavior.
She was there to correct a problem that threatened her job, and therefore her entire living situation. She went totally prepared to care for Damone. And because she didn't jump when told to jump,. she was, among other things, threatened with the removal of her child:on whose behalf she was doggedly pursuing benefits.
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@cheryl
Her name wasn't relevant. All that was relevant was that she not occupy the reserved space she decided occupy. She failed to comply with basic instructions from a police officer.
Don't argue with cops and you won't get detained. Very simple stuff.
23
@asdfj
I'm a upper middle class white women advancing in years. I've had cops get tough with me, doing their stupid macho thing. I've been order round by cops, given a order and then given no time to respond before they up the tension.
"Don't argue with cops" is advice for a police state.
68
@asdfj
"Arguing" with a police officer isn't a crime.
18
I saw a television news story that reported that Ms. Headley bit one of the officers, and showed a bite mark on one officer’s body. It seemed to suggest that this was the reason the police were called. Why is this not mentioned in this article? Perhaps there is more to this story than is reported here?
23
@Debra. it's mentioned in the interview with gregory floyd.
Ah the good ole' NYPD strikes again. A big reason why this Native New Yorker hasn't been back since 2004, and has no plans of ever returning.
1
@Rick And the LAPD are so great? NYPD are the best in the country.
2
The blame may well be about her getting benefits she should have received. A WORKING mom who wanted day care assistance! Why ever decline that if she has proof of work. But... she argues with a security guard regarding rules that one cannot sit on the floor. Really? The mom was in the wrong. And what should the police do when called for a disturbance? Their job was to arrest if necessary. Sorry but she’s in the wrong. We do have rules in Public buildings regardless how stupid they are.
11
Amazing to see the comments just focusing on her past history of crime, when we as a society will benefit if we give her the support to become a productive citizen tax-payer. Is redemption only possible for certain segments of the population? We have a possible/alleged sex offender in the highest office of the land AND on the Supreme Court. But let's hate on someone who comes from a historically disenfranchised population in dysfunctional circumstances who somehow is supposed to be perfect. We forgive the powerful white men and hate on the poor and people of color in this country.
She's from the projects where looking weak and fighting to protect yourself is the only way you survive. She is primed to this behavior because this is how she survived.
But let's punish her like a criminal because she should let some stranger rip her child out of her arms because she was sitting on the floor.
10
Wouldn’t it be nice if all the farmers now getting welfare checks had to wait hours sitting on the floor, reapply after being...churned....and maybe having their nice, shiny new behemoth tractors wrested from their grip as they demand their nieces and nephews get added to their welfare claim.
Forget firing the security guards- who ever is in charge of this office, this abysmally run department, should get the axe.
17
Sounds like the rent-a-cops need to be going on unemployment.
3
I have a question for The NY Times. What editor allowed the phrase “potentially lucrative lawsuit” to slip into this article?
Intentional or not, it plays to the stereotype that people in Ms. Headley’s situation are only looking for a chance to score big with a frivolous lawsuit.
What happened to her was outrageous; she was trying to do the right thing - look after her child and be able to keep working. She was looking for nothing more than she was entitled to by law - and that includes her right to sue. The use of that phrasing implies something very different.
I would suggest that perhaps it is not only the police or the public benefits staff who need training - the Times may need to look to its own.
I would also suggest that a knee-jerk response that puts lawsuits in a Mercenary context is a diminishment of the right of ordinary citizens to seek legal redress, especially those of lesser means. Given the outsized impact of money - and who has it - in America today, it seems to take a major hit to the pocket book to get justice.
17
I would suggest all poor people move out of New York because the cost of living is simply impossible- housing, food, childcare? I don't know how this woman tried it. Although this is what life is like for ALL poor people in America- you are treated like sub-human trash. I was born and raised in NJ, me my mom and sister and to this day all three of us still have to wrestle with the "bureaucracy"- fight for housing help, disability help, food help, having to go into those depressing, grimy offices where all the staff scowl at you, don't give you a place to sit or even a cup of water, nothing. When I am forced to visit my local Social Security office they make us (disabled people!) stand outside in the cold in line for over an HOUR until the office "opens" at 9 AM. Its sick the way we humans treat each other, no wonder the world is a garbage dump. I hope the best for Jazmine and her baby in this cold world. Fight on sister.
9
@Keely. They stay here and come here from other states because the government benefits are so much more generous than in other cities.
8
Volunteer to go with someone—to family court, to apply for Medicaid for a child, to question why welfare was docked after they got emergency heating cost help. I’ve helped out with all three, and though my whiteness, education and experience dealing with bureaucracy meant something, they didn’t mean enough. The black woman unable to find a court official, instructions or sign-in page— because there *was* no court official, sign-in page or instructions—went to the bathroom and thus missed the moment when a court clerk came out of a court to call her name. She was forced to reschedule and sent home, never mind her three-hour three-transfer (one-way) bus trip. When I, with permission, intervened, the judge called both of us in to rail at how this woman had wasted the judge’s time. And a friend, laid off and looking for work, spent hours over days seeking state insurance for his kids, received two letters dated minutes apart, one confirming insurance, one denying it.
I now believe that judges at every level and every candidate for public office should have to spend a week living in public housing on a welfare budget—sans computer, smart phone, nice clothe and any support staff. During that week, they should have to cook for themselves, file for three public benefits, bus tables,apply for four jobs each at least two bus rides away, (waiting for transfers, under time constraint.) And to return to privilege, they should have to persuade an arrogant judge of their worthiness.
23
@Tutti
The public servants should do at least one month to get a taste of the desperation and helplessness that being so stretched out imply.
1
I'm wondering why the New York Times thinks it is relevant to note Ms. Headley's arrest record. What does this have to do with what happened to her and her baby? If the Times thinks this is relevant information to the story, then surely some background information on the officers who abused her would be relevant as well. But, I don't see this in the story.
3
@Roxanne It provides the whole story, not a biased one.
14
I really fear for our society that we are so eager to rush to judgment on videos where we see part of what happened. We have gone from a society that, IMO, was often too cold hearted to the poor to a society that always sees the poor as victims. Now the administration/law enforcement are always the bad guys. I understand why the term SJW is a pejorative. I used to think I was liberal, but now think too many have lost their rationality.
Please, go volunteer to work with the disenfranchised! They run the full spectrum of good-hearted and civil to unreasonably demanding and righteous. My SIL was volunteering at a food shelf, and would get yelled at so often for not having what they wanted that she quit. Her son was victimized by black gangs close to her neighborhood. My sister’s lovely middle-class neighborhood has become very violent with Hispanic? gangs. This changes your perspective. I’m fearful that while SJW are interfering with police doing their jobs, they are going to support someone like Trump (one already does). I’m not saying you shouldn’t speak up, I’m saying keep in mind there are two sides and the police/administrators often have frustrating and scary jobs too.
79
@Karen. Maybe because we see video after video after video. Maybe the police deserve the benefit of the doubt for first couple of time, but by now we have thousands of videos of police beating up innocent people, shooting them in the back, harassing them, and on and on and on. And there are endless jury verdicts to back up the conclusion of ongoing police misconduct. It is disingenuous to pretend there isn’t mountain of evidence of a concrete pattern and practice among police. Those who cry “wait for the evidence” in the face of vast quatinities of evidence are doing nothing less than providing cover for violence
54
@Karen Dealing with those things is part of being a police officer. Yes, it is a very difficult job. But you signed up for those difficulties when you became a police officer. If you don't like it, quit and get a job riding a desk someplace.
If a person can look at an unarmed woman and her child, and feel so threatened that he has to throw her to the ground and assault her, then that coward has no business being a police officer.
These cops are thugs, plain and simple. And if they don't like being called thugs, they shouldn't act like them.
47
@Doug K How do you think these videos become viral? The boring, thoughtful, kind-hearted interactions aren’t captured. The naive are getting a very skewed view of the world by social media where only the sensational bits are hits.
23
Ms. Headley’s story is familiar to anyone who has been in an HRA office in NYC, stories that go unheard though they occur daily. The places are depressing. The first thing one notices upon entering is the immediate assumption that the person seeking assistance is completely at fault for her situation, no matter how many bruises she may have, physical or mental. I have witnessed this directly. This mental assault continues uninterrupted from that point. “Why are you so useless?” is the refrain. Some of the workers are clearly burned out and unhappy. Others who try are probably guided by supervisors trying to keep the numbers down. A palpable suspicion permeates the offices. Someone is trying to get a few extra crumbs! The fact that they are indeed crumbs is never examined. She has a nice cell phone! Good god, surely she is living in luxury! That slumlord apartment or shelter belies the assertion. Another bowl of mac and cheese for the kids while she eats bread. The larger public has little compassion, if the papers are to be believed. They drop a few coins in a bucket to soothe their consciences - Starbucks is hardly about to reduce the cost of that latte after all. But the developers and landlords comfortably accept millions of tax breaks that our elected reps keep tossing their way. Like the water cycle I learned in sixth grade biology, it all comes steaming back in campaign donations, you see. It has a strange beauty to it if one ignores the obvious pain.
9
While this violent and unnecessary event should be addressed, the DSS Commissioner and the City should be focused on fixing the underlying problem in this article- the archaic bureaucratic processes, outdated requirements and technology, and reams of paperwork needed at these job centers for a person to access benefits. Reprimanding and retraining security is one thing by why not defuse tensions with figuring out shorter wait periods, improved efficiencies, and cutting out a few hoops that people must jump through. Simplifying life for the clients and the workers. Why does the City just continue to accept that these processes are just how things must be done rather than seek actual reform? Over 2,000 documented security-related events in a year! At what point does the City finally stop and say the system isn’t working? At what point does the State intervene? Its ironic that the system helping those in need is also perpetuating the trauma of their need.
18
There seem to be many people here itching to blame the victim. She may or may not be a quality person. She may have criminal tendencies. She may be hoping to cash in big time from this incident. Or perhaps she is just another casualty of societal inequality. Readers can not make accurate deductions from the facts as printed, yet feel free to represent their own bias. Ms. Headley's character should not be on trial here, only her mistreatment by public servants. It is obvious that she has no power and that others armed with a badge or a pen feel justified at abusing her and others like her with impunity.
19
As a middle class male I had to follow rules all of my life and when I broke them I was either arrested or more often fined. That included being polite to Police. The fact that Ms. Headley is charged with credit card fraud makes me suspicious of her honesty. But she doesn't even deny what happened. She admits she doesn't believe she has to follow the instructions of government employees if she feels she is being rolled over. When she moved to the Carolinas did she stop her NY benefits? Does she have a drivers license or state ID? From which state? Did she change it when she moved south? Does she have a car registered somewhere? Benefits fraud, like credit card fraud is rampant but the government rarely investigates or prosecutes. This woman should be investigated and if she is guilty of crimes she should be prosecuted. If not, it still doesn't give you the right to challenge the authority of police.
88
@Mike. You ask great questions. Benefits fraud is an overlooked scam.
19
@Mike From what I've read here, neither the staff nor the police were aware that Ms. Headley was under the shadow of benefits fraud--nor should it impact the way she was treated. Her move to Carolina played no part in it either. And the "right to challenge the authority of police," belongs to all of us when our rights are abused. Drivers license? ID? Auto? Nothing ameliorates the brutal behavior of the "authorities" depicted in the video dated Dec 9, 2018, below the article.
49
@Olivia And totally unknown (I assume) and immaterial to the situation about which we're reading.
17
So many people vilified this woman without understanding the full story. They called her a welfare queen when in fact she was working. All she was doing was trying to get by. She's not perfect, she could have handled things better. But when life and bureaucracy keeps beating you down every day sometimes you snap, even more so when they threaten to take your child away.
Big picture - if we had universal day care then the working poor wouldn't need vouchers or have to leave their kids with unlicensed providers because that's all they could afford. America fails families, badly.
510
@northeastsoccermum
Who are you to decide what childcare services should be provided.
You have a right to a opinion and nothing more.
You don't have the right to condemn people who have other opinions.
Big picture.
You shouldn't have children if you are not able to take care of them and instead rely upon the government to do what you should do.
27
It’s unfortunate then that the government also puts so many roadblocks in the way for the poor or needy to have access to birth control, so they don’t have children they cannot provide for.
That seems like a rational counter argument though, and I think you just like to blame women or the poor.
55
I'm so glad you have a crystal ball that allows you to see clearly that your life will always go as planned and that you'll never need help. Good for you!
54
A close friend worked at what was called the Welfare Department in New York City 50 years ago. Then mayor John Lindsay was touting a decline in the welfare caseload as a sign of how well he was running the city. My friend said the decline in welfare cases was a direct result of a directive to close cases no matter the cause and to not open new cases. Looks like the city's social services offices have only gotten worse.
7
Wouldn't this have been avoided altogether if someone with a heart had offered Ms. Headley a chair? How many people sans baby sat and watched this craziness occur? Couldn't one of the guards have found her a chair from another room? This is a canary in the cave of the way poor people and people of color are treated in plenty of situations--particularly when it is obvious they are in need. I had a glimpse of this years ago when I was pregnant and my regular OB/GYN was out of the office, and I was instructed to go to a clinic for one of my routine checkups instead. I waited with others for hours, and when a doctor finally saw me he treated me as if I were a farm animal. Literally. I left shaken. I'm white. I can only imagine how a person of color &/or someone in need of regular contact with such bureaucrats must feel every time she leaves an appointment. Shame on the employees for their inhumanity.
14
@123jojoba--if the office doesn't have enough chairs--why is that the fault of the lowly employees? Also, maybe others (i.e., disabled/elderly) needed those chairs as well.
2
My goodness - the differences from one country to another. I'm American and live in France. I have dealt with social services here, at a time when I was out of work and bringing up 2 boys alone. My pay was 2710euros plus 261euros from my neighborhood mayor, plus 130euros from the Family Allocations department, plus 530euros in child support. I was living rent free since I owned the home. In the US if you accept social aid, you are looked upon as a "loafer" or a lazy person. How is a single mum going to survive with everything she has to do ? I feel bad for this lady and others that are walked upon because they don't have money. Poverty is not an illness. Poverty is a sad reality that a lot of people go through due to a number of inequalities. The system is upside down and in peril and when I read these stories it breaks my heart. I knew that stress. I knew that lonely feeling. We should be acknowledging those who need help. The US is a very very rich country. Start socializing the system a bit so others can live decently, too.
309
@Cheryl
The problem is that many abuse the system to get benefits they don't qualify for. Unfortunately, those who defraud the system ruin it for others. And the article does mention she was arrested before for fraudulent credit cards. Why is it that all the readers ignore this stated fact?
35
@Cheryl Unfortunately the US is very rich only to a very few.
30
Because being arrested for something is not the same as being convicted of a crime.
22
How different would this and many similar situations have been if there were two parents available to deal with the issues and interruptions associated with raising a child? Children are not easy even when there are two adults with more resources, more parenting time and more emotional support for each other.
6
Your point? My daughter is a widow with two toddlers. Undoubtedly her life would be easier if she had not lost her husband. And there are millions of women with small kids and a husband working multiple jobs, who could not help them in these situations. Actually your post sounds like blaming the victim.
14
@Chuck Burton You are correct. Widowhood is a much different situation. And while I do not entirely blame the victim in this case, I do believe she has some responsibility for her difficulties. (By the way, one of the unheralded successes of the Affordable Care Act is that it provides for birth control at no out of pocket expense.)
2
As a fellow Black woman, I feel bad for Ms. Headley. Though I've never been arrested and I'm upper income, I still experience various micro-aggressions and racism from the larger society.
Based on the video footage, it is quite evident that Ms. Headley and her son were mistreated by the security officers and NYPD. I imagine those involved, perceived her as insignificant and inferior (due to her race and impoverished status). Regretfully, the treatment that Ms. Headley received is pretty much standard, if you are Black and/or poor.
As an aside, I do find it problematic that major news outlets, like the NY Times, tends to only report on Black people who are low income and/or suffering. Is it too much to ask, that the NY Times occasionally feature stories about Black people who are thriving and despite life's many challenges, still living well and giving back to our communities?
Black American people are not a monolithic group, but unfortunately, we are often depicted as such, by the media on a regular basis. Perhaps this explains why Black people overall, continue to be perceived as inferior and targeted accordingly..
15
@Dia Exactly. Or at least show and/or profile white women who are on public assistance. I know it's not only black women who are on welfare, food stamps and need child care assistance. The Times plays the same stereotypical game as everyone else.
@Bravo! However, I wish that black Americans ( as well as another group of Americans to which I happen to belong) would VOTE less monolithically!
2
The article states that Ms Headley “had” 2 bad years. But the facts suggest that she was responsible for making those years bad ones for her and, more importantly, for the victims of her identity theft and credit card fraud. That fraud also suggests that Ms Headley might not be s terribly credible witness. And finally, the fact she now has legal representation and no doubt hopes to profit financially from her actions that day raises the possibility that her motivation for disobeying the rules was the same one that motivated her involvement in credit card fraud.
25
Totally agree. And I don’t understand why so many commenters ignore this aspect of her troubles. Having been a victim of identity theft it’s hard for me to muster much sympathy.
16
She should be severely punished! Lock her up!
5
@Tom K
Perhaps because the goal of the criminal justice system in this country is rehabilitation and re-entry into society and not life-long stigma and punishment? Or maybe the commenters feel simple empathy for someone who may have taken a wrong turn in life? Do you really think that someone who has been guilty of theft in the past deserves to have her child ripped from her arms?
5
Anyone with the title "peace officer" (as the security guards are called), should be skilled at defusing a situation rather than escalating the conflict. The same is true for the police. If the police and security officers had approached Ms. Headley with the attitude of "how can we solve this problem" rather than just charging in to enforce the rules, none of this would have happened.
14
I had a friend that took a job at the welfare office. He described the job as being extremely flexible and lenient. He told me about how one time they left the office with his boss to go to the track and the many extended lunches they took. The attitude at the office was "these people need the benefits and will still be here when we get back". While I have no evidence to confirm any of this it does seem plausible. Just look at all the problems in other government run agencies from NYCHA, MTA to the NYPD. There is abuse at all levels of government. with little to no incentive to be efficient. Sadly large government is no lesser of an evil then large business.
15
Not sure but I think a more skilled officer could de-escalate that situation in a NY minute.
We need to teach de-escalation skills to all law enforcement officers.
20
She ran an identity theft ring? Gosh, her troubles sound an awful lot like karma coming to collect. Hard to feel sympathy for a crook...nice try, though.
21
Gee why do poor people and people of color hate and fear the NYPD?
I can't imagine.
16
@Ignatz Farquad. Because they don’t follow police orders.
8
Push someone until they snap, then arrest them when they do. We have here a broken system and victims of it.
16
The culprit in this scenario is Mayor Bill de Blasio and his predecessors! The unrelenting, dogmatic bureaucracy churns on and on and on. It’s as simple, and yet as impossible as that. Why is it so difficult to change the existing policies to make them more humane for the applicants and the employees Who are being fueled by frustration. Oh, my bad I forgot about the unrelenting, dogmatic bureaucracy!
8
One has to ask about the kind of training these officers get, both security and police. The security guard could have told the lady that the she was not allowed to sit there but she should stay put until a seat could be found for her, like a peace officer should. The police could have deescalated. Yeah, that’s a vocabulary word they should learn before taser or handcuffs! America needs to wake up!
8
Cha-Ching! And working class people who make too much money to get a $1200 subsidy from taxpayers each month shake their heads and wonder if it just wouldn't be easier to milk the welfare and civil justice systems like Ms. Headley.
17
I have to wonder if we read the same story. I mean, the one I read clearly states that Ms. Headley was working and in fact, had to take the day off to visit the benefits office (unpaid time off, I am sure.)
The biggest scam is that people like her, who provide valuable services, making life better and easier for many others, aren't being paid a living wage.
20
@Earl W.
Does her experience sound like something you would enjoy? Is it worth it to be assaulted by police and have your child ripped frmo your arms to save a few bucks?
If you wanted to make so little money that you qualify for that subsidy, you are free to do so. You can choose to reduce you income to a level where you are eligible for it. So why don't you do that? Could it possibly be that life at your income level is better than life at hers, even though she is entitled to receive this subsidy and you are not?
If being on welfare is so great, why aren't you on it?
7
@Earl W. Another red state so-called "christian" heard from.
1
I am glad that her story was publicized. Some of the city workers from those benefits office act as if everyone that need aid are refusing to better themselves and because of that they are not courteous and rude. All people need to be treated with respect no matter the circumstances. The employees are the ones with the attitude a lot of time.
11
Years ago I applied for temporary food stamps for my then 5-year-old daughter and me. After waiting for 4 or 5 hours to be seen at the office in Inwood, Manhattan, and being treated super rudely by staff, including one who laughed at me for needing to apply, another staff member suggested to me in private that if I were to become one of his girlfriends (ie sleep with him), I would get through the process faster. Obviously I declined and had to keep waiting. It was a horrible experience from start to finish. Well-off New Yorkers don't understand the misery and malfunction that people go through when they apply for even the smallest help. And don't anyone start in on how we deserve this treatment, I studied and worked and paid taxes all my life, but when you are a mother of a small child and something happens to the your husband, you need help to continue, and should receive it without harassment and abuse.
549
@Franziska. Thank you for this very important testimony. I hope that you and your family are in a better place now.
51
@Franziska .... So so sorry you had that experience. If it were me I probably would have broken down and slept with the sleaze ball. We can be that desperate. This is an age old story. All one need do is read Dickens as a previous poster has said. New York has the ability to change things. C'mon Mayor de Blasio. Set an example for all other states. Give this woman what she needs. Stop being so afraid of what so many call socialism. It's about helping the less fortunate. They can only recover with our help. And please train and educate your civic employees. Obviously these guards didn't try to reason with their client. It begins with..."I'm going to help you...don't worry. Let's begin by getting you a chair. It must be so hard on you standing so long with your little one." Is that so hard??? Really???
8
To Olivia and those like you - you have obviously never been poor, not white, and on the receiving end of the scorn and hatred that a poor mother receives. She sat on the floor so she could be at eye-level to engage with her child, which is what all elite parenting books recommend. I too have done so in public. If the kid screamed out of boredom, she would also have been scorned. She can't win. And a criminal record is not an excuse for others to treat you like garbage.
$1200/month for childcare? For a person making $13/hour? Yet another injustice in one of the wealthiest cities of the world...
467
@CDH $1200 a month would pay a child minder $7.50 an hour. Child care is expensive, but are people supposed to babysit for free?
6
oh k Oh, this type of treatment happens to those of us who are poor AND white, too. Not to this degree, I admit, but, yes, we are treated with disdain and constant rudeness.
21
@CDH I didn't see this situation as a racial issue, and there was no mention of it in the article.
7
Lack of empathy seems to overtake so many people. Ms. Headley has no assets, no family network that can provide a timely loan or support. This isn't accidental; African-Americans have been excluded from economic wealth creation for centuries. Sure, poor whites may have just as limited a bank account. But most have networks and weak ties they can draw on, if they want. Someone who owns a store, or has a profession. It takes social support to build these, and that's been denied to African-Americans, over and over.
If you want to imagine that everyone has a chance, and some just blow it, then you miss the import of events like Ms. Headley's. She's exposed the cruelty of a system that uses people's difficulties with transportation, schedule, housing to deny them benefits. To the tax payer loath that a few dollars gets siphoned off for these benefits: so much more goes to farmers and big companies. Oh, and about her brush with criminality. 4 out of 5 of us, if we're broke, hungry, and homeless, will do something illegal to get money and food.
280
@Brian No, “4 out of 5 of us” will not do something illegal if we’re broke. Hundreds of thousands of young Americans died in the fight against slavery which Lincoln ended in 1863. It’s 2018. Enough with the culture of victimhood. If people cannot succeed in this country, and they are of sound mind and body, they need to take a closer look at the choices they are making.
56
@Olivia You have made your point of view abundantly clear with the repetitive replies you've made on nearly every comment here. Many of us disagree.
If you think poverty in this country is all about "choices," you are part of the problem. There are complex, multi-layered issues at work, and most of us are far more interested in figuring out how we can improve the system AND its results to help empower people, rather than play the blame game and brush off our hands with a sanctimonious smirk.
138
@Olivia What choices are you speaking of anyway? And slavery did not end in 1863. Perhaps you should "look at the choices you are making" that relate to historical facts.
47
This story is another reminder of what happens when people are overwhemed, overworked, and undertrained. For decades we have been stigmatizing both people in difficult life situations and the people who provide services for/with them. Welfare offices never look like or function like offices that serve the middle class. They tend to be drab, lack natural light, and comfortable waiting spaces while providing service at such a snail's pace that frustration is nearly assured for everyone there, staff as well as clients.
Calling the police is the last thing that should happen and only when there is violence occurring. As a nation, our police are a disgrace. They are far, far, far too quick to escalate situations when they should be trained to de-escalate. People generally respond to a calm, respectful demeanor. Given an opportunity to explain, they do. Send our police to Scandinavia to learn to treat everyone - not just the wealth and well connected - with respect and dignity. ( The police never seem to drag financiers out of their cars or shoot them in the back.) Officers who can't learn to be respectful need to be dismissed. They are a danger to the community that pays their wages.
23
As is often the case, there are two sides to every story. Here we hear from Ms. Headley, who understandably feels upset that the situation escalated to the point of a physical altercation. But why don't we hear from the staff?
I live right down the street from this office. The scene outside and spilling into the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station is not exactly a portrait of civic grace. Verbal and physical fights, screaming adults, crying children, litter everywhere. I don't pretend to know what the city workers inside of this facility deal with on a daily basis but from my vantage point it can't be pretty.
Ms. Headley refused to follow directions from the security guard. I understand that recipients of public assistance may feel disparaged by the bureaucracy, but that's not an excuse to disobey the rules. Those of us who visit the DMV or IRS likewise need to deal with annoying procedures and crowded waiting rooms, but we still follow orders from the staff. That's how society works.
I truly empathize with what she is going through as a single parent and feel badly for this situation. But the idea that she is an innocent victim of violent security guards who now gets to take the city - already paying her public assistance - to court in hopes of a mass payout is just wrong.
330
@Solaris Provide a safe, efficient, honestly managed system, and all of the litter, and the physical fights, and the screaming and the crying children will dissipate and civic civility will develop.
120
That is for the judge and jury to decide then, isn’t it?
20
How many of us could stand for 5 hours with an infant? This agencies ridiculous queuing process is how government tries to keep people out of the program.
They seek to punish and frustrate - which is why what happened is not surprising but an element of the policy
154
Many of these agencies have folks working there with unempathetic attitudes . They are not in a profit making business and have no competitors so they feel like they can treat you anyway they feel . You see this at the DMV those people know you have no choice . They get off on a little power trip because they know your at their mercy . Government assistance agencies need to especially treat people with respect . People don't go in there because life is good they are looking for help . If your into shaming folks for their predicament get a job somewhere else .
13
Why did the agency cut off the child care payments to begin with? That’s the real question here. Everything else would never have happened if the payments were made as normal. Instead of being arrested, the young lady would have been working.
16
So this young woman had to take time off from work to learn that her benefits had been prematurely halted and she would have to reapply ... they left her waiting, with a small child, for two and a half hours before giving her this bad news. Then they tell her she has to wait again to ask another question. And then they call the cops on her because she sits on the floor? How about calling the cops on an agency that leaves a mother and baby to wait for so long? They need to get organized to help people more efficiently, and more courteously. After the aggravation of waiting for two and a half hours, couldn’t they just give the young woman a break? A little kindness and understanding goes a long way ...
653
@Rose Many people have to take off from work to take care of their family and it is often not pleasant - taking elderly parents to the emergency room, waiting hours until they get a room, waiting 2 hours in a doctor’s office - not uncommon, it happens to me all the time. Next time I’ll throw a fit and sue the city when the police show up and have to restrain me.
61
@Olivia From the sound of your life, I think you should sue the city, or hospital, or doctor for the disdain with which you are treated. You can bet the politicians and the wealthy owners of hospitals or doctors don't have to spend their time waiting for medical aide or financial assistance.
27
@Olivia
Yes, but we are provided with some measure of comfort, like chairs, old magazines and elevator music. I'm not sure what type of doctor makes you wait two hours but you will probably not be told to wait an additional two hours for another question.
75
I challenge most of the commenters to go any social services office take a number and wait to speak with someone. For that matter, even Social Security offices in urban centers can very much be the same experience. I don’t know how to resolve this as the income gap grows and those offices increasingly can’t cope.
6
Security officers think they’re police officers and police officers think they’re god.
Did nobody have the decency to offer a mother with a young child a chair? With all the sitting employees do in city agencies, I’m sure there was an extra.
12
“The practice of prematurely closing public benefits cases and forcing recipients to reapply is so common that advocates for the poor have a word for it: churning.”
Social Services Law and state regulations require a 10-day notice before cutting off benefits. If a fair hearing is requested, aid must be continued. If NYCHRA is closing cases without due process, then NYS OTDA should THOROUGHLY investigate NYC HRA and the city must provide training for its social welfare investigators. Closing cases, cutting off aid, without the required due process is a violation and definitely outside the scope of ‘following the rules’. As for the ‘peace officers’ abuse and calling the police because someone was sitting on the floor with her young baby, well, I could go on and on, but where is the humanity?
11
Get out the check book. Another costly error.
3
You have to ask if this would have happened if she was white? Clearly the office needs streamlining - should be one case not having two separate cases for one person. So yes - I would sit on the floor after hours of waiting. Here you are trying to get people to work and then keep them detained for hours at the “assistance” office. I hear of similar stories across the country - paperwork to prove people are working when all that is needed is their paystubs. Useless bureaucracy and a waste of money.
6
I was interested to read this article to see if there might be a more clear indication of responsibility. But instead it has become more clear that all parties involved could have handled the situation much more tactfully and with RESPECT for one another. The most at fault to me seem to be the "Peace Guards" who really kept no peace at all.
I feel (in general) there is an enormous lack of empathy for these people, who are already struggling, already missing work, losing more money by having to spend hours waiting, and then being treated in such a manner that degrades them for asking for help.
15
What childish nonsense! To arrest someone for sitting on the floor! This is an office where there are obviously many clients under substantial stress. It requires very little commonsense to understand that these clients need to be treated with respect and patience. That's exactly the way I want to be treated when I'm under stress. There's a clear need for a culture change at this office, and based on the number of law enforcement incidents, at many other similar offices. This is a simple issue to solve. It is not difficult for workers to learn to treat clients in a positive and kind fashion.
And in the same vein for management to set policies for offices that are welcoming and reasonable. Perhaps there are a few who are unable to conform to this. Unfortunately they need to seek other employment. But ultimately the question is of accountability. Who is the official is in charge of all of these offices? Who is the elected official in turn in charge of this official?
28
@David Rosen What about her accountability?
14
Well said! Agreed!
1
@David Rosen
Well said. The old shaming is out and new compassion is in. Those who will not or cannot become more empathetic need to find a different vocation.
1
Ms Headley
“Sue them well and with the award .... buy a plane ticket to my home state Ct. “
we have wicked social services too.
But we wouldn’t arrest a mom with a baby for no reason other than .....
Ms Headley is a strong assertive woman with 100% concern for her child and her success in life.
The guards are not mental giants and as racist and hurtful as Ice running child concentration camps at our borders.
DeBlasio is a fake to his true feelings.
Shame on him
What must his biracial family think. ?
1
Such compassion, humanity and efficiency ... all brought to you by the Democrat Party and the NYTimes candidate for mayor.
2
his conduct was disgraceful during this whole episode. he was happy to let her sit in jail over the weekend but once CNN got the video on Monday he was outraged and determined to "get to the bottom of this"
I voted for him the first time (not the second) and he's been a pretty gigantic disappointment. bring back Bloomberg please.
2
@sam
No more billionaires, please!
professionals have to remain professional!!the setting already implies that people are at the worst points in their lives and expecting them to behave in a typical way is unrealistic. those security guards never should have taken her comments personally, more of an indication that the professionals don't know how to deescalate an already sensitive situation; they have to have better training , and the attitude towards recipients must be improved because they are disrespected
3
The lady and her child are getting their chops busted for sitting on the floor of a crowded benefits center. All of this could have been avoided if someone had had the brains to provide the lady and her child with a chair!
8
Apparently there were empty chairs available, but she didn’t want to get up from where she was settled. Not sure why though. But it is in the article
10
@Lora
Probably because just wanted to be difficult rather than behave like a civilized human being. She was looking to cause trouble, she was successful in doing so and now wants to profit by it. Absurd.
3
If I was sitting on the floor and security for that place asked me to not sit on the floor I would not sit on the floor. I guess it's a case of sitting while Black.
12
@Bill
Bill, your point is made with some snark, but the truth is, many of these people are so sick of the runaround, the lack of opportunity, that they have no will to be obedient or cooperative, because, really, what's the point?
It's called "learned helplessness" and if you studied psychology 101, you will know that it caused the depression and ultimate death in the animal subjects.
5
Endless queues at the welfare office and not enough seating, what a surprise! Geez, when there is no seating at the airport, I will gladly plop down onto the floor, against a wall to wait. Never been harassed about that. What is wrong with these people?
She was doing the best she could and they were doing their worst.
On another note, Sara Naomi Lewkowicz's photograph could be a modeling headshot. Maybe someone will get on that and give Ms. Headley a job.
11
This isn't news and even if it is it's not news that deserves to be on the front page of this paper. Tabloid absurdity. According to Unicef, 29,000 children under the age of 5 die every single day from disease, starvation and dysentery. Where is the moral outrage? Back in this country an entire generation of young kids are killing each other on the streets of Chicago. I could go on and on. And this one sensationalized incident ends up on the front page? Pathetic.
12
@Collin--Anytime you mention "lawsuit" it always gets sensationalized treatment in the press. Money is the deciding factor, it seems, on what issues get the full play.
1
Front page news. Really? There is a difference between reporting the news and generating the news.
There are at least two stories here: the insensitive manner in which this woman and her child were treated; and that she stands accused of credit card fraud. Irrespective of her financial situation, using a stolen card is wrong. Where is the story of the person whose card was stolen and used and the cost to all of us in the long run because of this criminal behavior? And how many paragraphs down was this part of the story first noted?
12
“Miss, it looks like you need a chair. Let me find a place for you to sit with your child.”
That’s all that was needed. Compassion. Simple.
8
@Heather
Apparently that was not necessary as there were chairs available. But go on trying to make excuses for the lady's belligerent behavior. She was just behaving badly.
3
The police blame security and yet they tried to arrest her? That's adding fuel to the fire and fanning the flames. They should have broken up the tussle and helped her up to her feet to leave, and let her leave the building.
6
How about offering the mother a chair from one of the surrounding offices! I suppose that in the land of the fee and home of the brave that is to much to ask (common decency).
2
So many angles to this story. Sadly, there is probably right and wrong on both sides. Comments are revealing anger flashpoints that highlight the divisions in American society. This mother is either a hard-working woman trying to raise her child with maddening gaps in her day care payments, or she is a welfare-queen credit card grifter with a bad attitude who saw a chance to be a YouTube star and sue the city big-time. The security staff and police are either rigid monsters who would play tug-of-war with a toddler's body or frustrated professionals who cannot keep us safe and achieve order if citizens don't follow their very simple instructions.
Sometimes I wonder if these things escalate so absurdly because nearly everyone in the room has the ability to take pictures or a video. Staff doesn't want visual images of citizens reduced to sitting on the floor because they can't process their work load efficiently. Security doesn't want images of them not doing anything when people start flopping onto the floor. Police are called because why not offload this problem onto NYPD, like they don't have enough to do, and everyone will whip out their cameras the minute police start interacting with a citizen. Tension escalates and then absurdities start rolling out. Everyone knows everything they are doing and saying is being filmed. Oddly, that seems to produce worse behavior, not better.
What is the address of this place? I would like to drop off a bunch of folding chairs.
17
In some other countries, when people see a person living under a viaduct they wonder 'how could the government let that person down?' In America, the response is 'how could that person let himself down?'
8
Yes, the initial encounter could have been handled more effectively by the security guards. However, the video clearly shows Headley using her child as a shield against being arrested. Why didn't she just quietly get up and talk to the police officers in a reasonable tone of voice? You don't get to cause a disturbance in a public building without consequences (unless your arrest gets videotaped). The Brooklyn D.A.'s gutless decision to drop the charges plus the N.J. prosecutor's quick disposition of her charges will just encourage more bad behaviors by Headley and others. Oh, and Headley wants to sue everyone involved, a shameless exploitation of an incident for which she bears the primary responsibility.
20
She'll get a activist lawyer, settle with DeBlasio's pathetic city government and get her millions. For what? Not getting up when lawfully asked to!!! A non-story of nonsense made from a criminal suspect using fraud to get over merchants. A New York Times slow day of news. Congratulations NYT, you have contributed to her soon to be riches. No wonder so many become Trump supporters.
9
@trucklt
Ever hear the expression that when you get hit in the head, you get in the habit of ducking? People who are treated repeatedly in a disrespectful manner come to expect it. Defensiveness is the result.
People who work in public services should be trained to understand that clients may be expecting to be treated badly and to proactively approach clients with kindness, warmth, and respect. It cost nothing to implement such a policy and it yields great benefits. Kindness is always an option and it yields an environment where neither clients nor staff dread being.
Had the guard kneeled down to face-to-face level and calmly said "I suspect you are sitting here because there were no seats. One has opened up. Would you like me to show you where it is?" the result would have been entirely different. The guard would have seen a smile of gratitude instead of resistance. It would have saved embarrassment to the client and money to the city. Police and the legal system would have been available to attend to things of more importance. Get the priorities straight to reduce disruption.
1
in this country, how is it possible authorities responsible for social discipline are the least capable in the room?
3
If NYC voluntarily pays this woman one penny to resolve her so-called lawsuit, taxpayers should revolt.
From both the video and the reporting in this article, Ms. Headley was simply demanding that she have things her way. Even spotting her some dispensation for the unfortunate circumstances her life decisions caused, it is never the appropriate response to act a fool in public or to resist the instructions of public authorities. Would any sane person believe that Ms. Headley's belligerent behavior would improve her chances of getting benefits restored? Would any sane parent involve her child as a pawn in a struggle with the police?
Whenever someone resists arrest, the picture is ugly. There is pulling and tugging and screaming and yelling and people get hurt. That is the reason you shouldn't resist. We cannot make resisting arrest a cottage industry for people who behave badly and their sleazy lawyers.
34
It's pretty sad that she had a small child with her and no one offered her seat.
8
Bad actors all around. But she wins in the end before a suit if this event has changed the approach to the serious charge of credit card fraud to a minor wrist slap. Aggrieved indeed.
2
@Seeking Truth
A bit of perspective on this situation would be helpful. Sitting on the floor is not a crime. It is a huge waste of taxpayer money to call the police and arrest someone for doing so. We have no information concerning the credit card fraud, and it should not have been included in the article because the two things are not related.
2
I learned years ago that whenever you show weakness, or exhaustion, or weariness or dismay, or anger, the sadists (police) quickly see another target to victimize (with the impunity that always attends to the police). Never sit down when others are stand ....no matter what .... even if you end up passing out.
1
It seems that everyone involved is responsible for escalating the situation with sole exception of this woman. Would you, with a baby in tow, put yourself at risk of arrest over your 'right' to sit on the floor and block a fire exit? What do you think they're going to do with the baby when they have to arrest you because you refuse to back down over something so petty? And why do we need a mayoral apology for this? Why are we even talking about this? WHY??
I feel far more pity for the people whose identities were stolen by this woman than I do for this woman.
19
Follow the rules and you won't get arrested. When told not sit on the floor you are blocking the area and causing a safety hazard get up plain and simple. Why is this so hard for people to grasp. It was not the fault of the police you cleared the problem. The police cause you to commit bank fraud in New Jersey too. Once again as I tell my children simply follow the rules.
19
$1200 per month - now that’s a crime.
10
@Dave rideout
Child care is not provided by the government as it may be elsewhere; therefore, the fee must be paid to private entities. We cannot both insist that mothers of infants work and expect them to be able to pay for child care on minimum wage. If you object to the cost of daycare, perhaps you will agree that providing the same amount of money directly to the mother so she can stay home to care for her child is the best and cheapest solution.
3
For all my middle class suburban neighbors if you lack empathy , than take a moment to think about your own experiences at Motor Vehicle, or any other government agency that you may have had to visit once or twice in the past several years and now think what it must be like to have to go monthly or more - just to eat and have housing or get assistance for your child, plus have the people who are there to assist you look at you with distain - not just because of your lot in life, because they too hate their jobs and having to deal with this day after day!
Its a horrible system made worse by the way its implemented.
Perhaps Ms Headley will help bring about much needed change.
15
She's no angel, but the incident was obviously mishandled by the authorities. I do feel bad for her son.
7
I love the comments and judgement from the exalted who have never been down on their life luck and can judge this woman. Having been in the wards of public assistance with my adult daughter I can attest to an absolute environment of condensation at all recipients of aid. I am sure the office is stressful but where is the humanity?
10
This is not related to the indecent but symptomatic of the "system"
It is not possible from the HRA website to determine that benefits recipients receive , what eligibility requirements and why cant poor people use the phone or online to remedy issues. What is tax payer money going for? To have abusive situations arise daily ?
Recipients are treated badly and taxes are administered poorly. It is a mess and that is why people poor and middle class don't like govt services. The era of helping is gone.
9
Why was this line needed in this important story:
"On Thursday, she [Headley] notified the city that she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit to prevent what happened to her from happening to others."
On what grounds do the reporters characterize Headley's right to hold the city accountable this way? Seems like an inference they draw from Headley's struggle to find her way as a young single mother. This line is condescension passing as reportage.
18
@Jackie Or maybe it’s just a statement of the facts.
14
A person sitting on the floor is not "...blocking a fire zone." That is reserved for equipment, or a motor vehicle if outside. If there is a fire a human being can easily move herself from that spot. Nobody wants to take the time to deal with people and deescalate situations so they call the police as as first resort.
30
@DA Mann I am puzzled by the reason for asking her to move as well. Also, the guards stated that there were rows of seats available. If that was true, why would she voluntarily sit on the floor? Those guards don't sound credible at all to me.
6
@Annie It wasn't even the guards, it was their union. After the incident. Of course they're going to try to mitigate and try to make it seem like the guards weren't massively in the wrong.
2
Another example of security guards, administrators and police being unable to deescalate a simple situation.
Hopefully training for these situations will improve and relations between our public servants and the public improves.
On the other hand, I would like to see Ms. Headley not just be a 15 minutes of fame story on our news screens. I would like to see a followup story a year from now to see how she and her son are doing.
24
Free Child Care. End of story.
44
@DF She IS getting subsidized child care. If you want something for reduced cost or free, you have to go through a little trouble and effort.
7
@Frances DiBisceglia
I advocate for universal child care for all working American parents regardless of income
6
There are eight million stories in the naked city. I deal with the VA and its bureaucracy all the time for benefits I earned the old fashion way getting shot at! I get frustrated wish I could win the Lottery and pay for my health needs with cash. Being a mature Adult you manage your difficulties this young lady needs to do the same start making smart tempered judgements you are not the only single mom struggling and you will not be the last.
27
How about a story of people trying to rebuild their lives after their identity is compromised by criminals like her? Enough already. The mayor apologizing to this woman is why we have a halfwit like Trump in the White House. Stop making bad people famous.
83
@John Exactly! Maybe the NYT could do a story on the person whose credit cards she had.
14
@John
The credit cards were in her name.
1
@Umm..excuse me--If the credit cards were in her name, why on earth would she need to visit a welfare office? She has five credit cards (all hers?) Right. She admitted, btw, to being part of a stolen card ring.
6
complete nonsense. not news. "her memory is blurry" at important moments. why oh why do we try so hard to make mundane/unfortunate situations representative of greater things. maybe just maybe you have a recalcitrant citizen who was treated poorly by foolish underpaid security guards - oh yeah that's it. It's not necessarily representative of a racist and misogynistic society. NYT does us no favors with this fodder.
58
@Mr. Pram you could see it your way or you could see it as part of the larger racist misogynist threads that run through American history.
4
@Mr. Pram
You care so little for small unimportant people in their lives of quiet desperation?
3
@Mr. Pram Trauma affects memory. This is well known scientific fact. Ms. Headley was tramatised by this incident, as was her child. It's completely unsurprising she has a fuzzy memory regarding it.
Maybe the wonderful example being set by the border agencies and the Baby-Ripper-in-Chief made the guards and the police think ripping the baby from its mother was OK.
31
And where does Donald Trump come from again?
This article illustrates much of what is wrong with society today. Basic disregard for the law and authority. It was the peace officers job to maintain order and ensure that the waiting area was safe. This woman was frustrated, certainly, but she felt that this frustration entitled her to ignore the instructions of the officer in charge, and worse, to be belligerent. That’s not how life works. The face that she’s getting rewarded for this behavior makes it more likely that people will think society condones it.
69
@ b
ct....
Your kidding?
The guard was immediately condescending and rude in her command!
Better....”Miss I see you sitting there and it is not comfortable .... come with me sweetheart and let’s find you a seat in this crowd... it’s a long wait .... btw if you need a rest room w a changing table it’s over there. Come back to me if you need further assistance”
“ And how is everyone doing today”?
to all the clients observing the guards .”
Kindness, concern, love, respect, dependability,tactfulness. Empathy .... always empathy.
NYC get a soul for the downtrodden and desperate.
And hire more caseworkers
5
@B
Have you ever sat for 6 hours waiting for service?
4
No, I'm out working like a dog to pay for the services of those that do.
7
I'd like to see the video leading up to the video before the "lucrative lawsuit" begins.
30
When the police officer said to me, "you are under arrest, put your hands behind your back", there was no more discussion. I suspect for me, the rules haven't changed. If I resist arrest, I will be charged and if I inadvertently push or hit a police officer, I will be charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. Why does the NY Times feel the rules are different for this woman. Is it racism to believe everybody has to follow the same rules?
65
@Michael Green
Who gets arrested for sitting on the floor?
9
@Michael Green Just because you like to bend over for government jackboots doesn't mean everyone has to. When a cop says "You are under arrest" you ask "what am I being charged with", you don't just meekly do whatever they tell you to do. Citizens have rights, and believe it or not, the police actually have to respect those rights.
6
@Michael Green
If the woman was in the wrong, why were the others in the waiting room yelling to officers to leave her alone?
4
It's people who behave like Jazmine who unfortunately will enable Trump to get re-elected in 2020 because she will be the endless "news-loop" on FOX, etc.
She needs psychological/financial assistance, NOT 15 minutes of fame!
29
@Yeah, whatever....
It isn't about "15 minutes of fame." This article (and articles leading to this) is about raising awareness. Many of us do not have to endure such experiences, nor are we eking by on such meager earnings.
This article is not only about Ms. Headley, but about policies and practices that create the challenges that our vulnerable residents/neighbors experience. Yes, there are poor choices made. Yes, there is a lack of education and formal training. Yes, there is a lack of life skills training. Yes, there is a lack of stability (by today's economic standards). That said, there is NO excuse for the processes for available programs to be so cumbersome, and dare I say for some, insurmountable.
Many of us have no real understanding or appreciation of what it is to be poor, treated with disdain/contempt/indifference & ignored/invisible. Yes, many of us earned what we've attained and possess. Some of us had to overcome challenges and hurdles.
But how many of us started our lives in abject poverty, have been judged by the colors of our skin, have had to "fight" against unfair/unkind bigotry, have been educated in school districts lacking in resources & talent, to name a few?
Until we, collectively, make the concerted effort to create environments that will bring forth effective, sustainable change, we will have learned nothing other than those beliefs to which we cling...
6
@Yeah, whatever....
No, it is the free media plugs DJT got and continues to get with his new chaos minute by minute daily. Ignore him. Let him wither on the vine.
2
1. Glad that she is trying to work, but why does she have a baby that everyone else has to pay for?
2. She is filing a lawsuit. How is it that a felon who receives welfare benefits can sue and collect from the hand that feeds her?
I am not suggesting that the officers were in the right, but this is wrong. On many levels.
59
@Ny Surgeon
1. Accidents happen. My own accident is a wonderful teenager now.
2. She has not been convicted of anything, therefore is not a felon.
Note that she was working, trying to put her life back together and take care of her baby. What's wrong with helping her to succeed in that effort?
20
@Ny Surgeon
1) Sorry, all babies are paid for by everyone regardless of the financial status they are born into.
2) Regardless of criminal status, the hand that feeds you is not permitted to abuse you.
8
@Petersburgh
Nothing wrong with helping her. Just behave and get off the floor when asked to.
2
Why oh Why did no one give this woman a chair??? All chairs were taken but was there anyone in the room with compassion to offer the woman a seat? The security officer could of asked if anyone would give up a seat to a tired mom. Im a woman and have given up my seat to pregnant women.
17
This desperate woman seeks help with authorities and is treated worse than an animal would be treated. She was mistreated because she is black, a woman, and poor. What is this country coming to? Where is the compassion? I am embarrassed to live in a country that treats people this way; those workers should be ashamed. I hope Ms. Headley gets the help she needs and can enjoy the holidays.
11
@CJ There was a chair available, just not where she wanted it.
8
@thewriterstuff
In that case, she was wrong too, but the entire scenario seems unnecessarily hostile.
1
@thewriterstuff Were you there? Let's see a picture of this alleged empty chair.
2
Someone said "They could have solved this by bringing her a chair."
We're horrified by the violent tactics showered on this poor woman.
My best wishes to Jazmine Headley and her family.
9
In this article, the first thing we read of is the poor innocent woman's baby is pried out of her hands!
But in fact, she behaved bizarrely, sitting in the middle of the floor in a public space and then arguing with the security guard -- and it's hard to see how she could be arrested while holding a baby.
Now let's look even further down in the article:
" . . . an arrest on charges of credit-card fraud in New Jersey.
"On Thursday, she notified the city that she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit to prevent what happened to her from happening to others."
This smells like a classic lawsuit setup, and by writing such a biased lede, the Times is facilitating it.
83
@Josh Hill
I don't think sitting on the floor in a crowded waiting room is "bizarre." I just did the same thing--and I'm an Ivy League professor--while waiting in an overpacked gate area at O'Hare Airport. Students sit on and clog up stairways waiting to meet with professors for office hours or to get into classrooms. Security guards don't patrol our hallways; so, students sit and wait at ease in their squatting spots, even though they create fire hazards.
Put another way, context matters. In a public welfare assistance office, clients waiting to be seen have already subjected control over their lives to the state. In that space, security guards can feel entitled to flex authority over the clients, too.
Based on the account in this report, the guard sought to intimidate Ms. Headley. She refused to be bullied. I expect many of us reading this story and writing our comments about it would do the same.
36
@Josh Hill Yup!
2
@Jackie
As you say, context matters. It is accepted that travelers will sit on the floor in an overpacked airport waiting area or a corridor at school. It is not accepted that they will do so in a welfare office, or a bank, or a supermarket, or for that matter most public areas.
And in every case, it is the institution's right to set regulations for behavior, and the security guard's job to enforce those regulations.
What she did was bizarre, and her failure to respect the guard's instructions was of course going to lead to her arrest, as it would have led to our arrest had you or I done it.
8
I applaud the authors of this article for describing this outrageous incident from several vantage points. I am still left, however, with these questions:
Why was Ms. Headley's son's daycare cut off without an interview with her beforehand?
Does Mayor DeBlasio know that his Social Service Department acts in such an abrupt, uncaring manner?
Why didn't the police ask Ms. Headley why she was determined to remain seated?
Didn't Ms. Headly have the right to perform an act of civil disobedience without having her son forcefully removed from her arms by the police?
As others have asked, when will the Mayor stand up to his own police department?
33
I am flabbergasted by a number of comments made with regard to this incident. The choices and actions taken are questionable at best. There is a shameful, disturbing underlying current, with regard to perceptions (to include conclusions, whether substantiated or not) that is unsettling & further speaks to the lack of civility, compassion and respect that exists in our society today. I would think that those subscribing to the NYT possess the ability to assess articles with sound critical thinking skills, as well as to look at the bigger picture.
Ms. Headey is a member of the working poor; a single mother carving out a path that will, hopefully, allow her to slowly move out of poverty; with past indiscretions that do NOT define her as a person, woman &/or a human being. It seems so easy to cast aspersions on anyone who "does not fit the bill"& assume the worst, without knowing all of the facts, to include life experiences that have shaped one's consciousness with regard to surroundings and status quo.
Is it so difficult, especially for anyone who practices a faith/spirituality, to step out of one's shoes, really see the picture and have empathy? Had Ms. Headley been a white woman of the middle-class rank, who had fallen on hard times due to unforeseen circumstances & had done the same (sitting on the floor after waiting 2.5 - 4 hours), would she have been treated in the same manner. In all honesty, we all can surmise -- not.
These are, indeed, sad times...
103
@Concerned Citizen
Credit card fraud is not an “indiscretion”, it is a crime. She will have a criminal record possibly for the rest of her life.
4
@Maureen No she will not. Those charges were dropped. If you're going to comment, know the whole story.
@J. Faye Harding- no the credit card fraud charges were NOT dropped, the charges stemming from "resisting arrest" at the welfare agency were - YOU should know the story!
1
While I agree that many public officials in government offices can be rude and dismissive, this story is also evidence about the lack of self control lacking in our current society. The article hints at Ms. Headley's strong personality when it says that she knew how to stand her ground when she worked at her non-profit job. The article does not explain, either, why she had fraudulent credit hearts for which she got arrested. Perhaps these are hints that Ms. Headley is a high-strung person who is difficult to deal with and who does not have a cooperative and law-abiding personality that taunted guards with stressful duties.
61
@ART 1) she was not arrested for fraudent credit cards, she was charged with resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, obstructing governmental administration, and trespassing (all charges dropped, and never should have been filed in the first place; 2) the existence of unproven allegations concerning credit card fraud are irrelevant to what happened to her, just as police should treat you no differently if I were to allege in this post that you committed fraud against me or some other crime.
21
@Gregory Smith She had an outstanding warrant. Do you have outstanding warrants? No, you fix them. She's filing a lawsuit, she could have stood up and obeyed, but she doesn't believe in authority as is evident by her failure to address with outstanding warrants.
12
@ART
I'm a white, middle class woman. I also know how to stand my ground. In my case it's consider ASSERTIVENESS, a positive trait. What a classic example of bias.
10
She made some bad choices and is trying to work through them. The problem is that without a decent education in this country, you never get opportunities. Social services are anything but social and come with a stigma that is intended to remind you of your station in life.
18
@George it's not even necessary to have a system in which you need to apply or qualify for social services. In Sweden, everyone gets a monthly payment for their children. No need for applications, paperwork, evaluation or administration so more of the funds go to parents instead of bureaucrats. High-earners, of course, pay out much more in taxes than they receive in benefit, for others they break even, and the poor get a net benefit.
6
@Gregory Smith Sweden, a relatively homogenous society with a pretty consistent political view. Until now, when everyone is complaining about the more than 90 percent welfare rate for 'refugees' who have been in the country for 3 years and their reliance on public housing. Yeah, not a comparable country.
8
@George Why didn’t she get a decent education? Did she drop out?
9
Consider the position of the security guards and responding officers. If a fire alarm had gone off and Ms. Headley’s or her child had been trampled, then they’d be blamed. I’m sure she was tired, frustrated, and upset, but some order must be maintained in these overcrowded conditions for the safety of everyone there. Her failure to appreciate this contributed greatly to this incident.
25
@EW That's true about the fire zone but if the security guards had behaved more professionally or even more kindly, this strange and disturbing situation would have been avoided.
11
@EW Seriously, in this packed office do you really think her sitting on the floor would have made an iota of difference? It would be chaos and I suspect security would be pushing out first.
5
@Olivia
Sigh- we can be so much better than this. We can give people a more humane process.
I remember how horrible and frustrating the DMV was and then they got better signage and more people to help answer your questions and make sure you are in the right line with the right form. It is now an easy process. We can and should do this at all agencies.
38
Isn't it amazing, here she is trying to get a 1200.00 a month daycare voucher so she can work for 15 bucks an hour. And all these people working in the government offices, costing 100s of thousands of taxpayer dollars, to hand out the money, but only after harrassing, insulting and humiliating the people they're supposed to be helping.
What is wrong with this picture? I'd rather the money go directly to those in need in the form of daycare, food, housing, education, job training, etc.
This is a horrific situation, I hope Jazmine and her family recover and have a nice holiday.
86
Had her son been allowed to remain in daycare while the mother took care of the paperwork, this would not have happened. But it's never right to terrorize a baby for any reason.
44
Displacement for the public's imminent domain practices as well as the crush by private development enacts Housing Preservation and Development as an office of public assistance for relocation and financial reimbursements due was first enacted in the volumes of those kicked out of their homes during the Robert Moses Cross Bronx Expressway and Bruckner Blvd. displacements.
The tactics of this agency or whateveryoucallit have been refined to simple cut throat laws surrounding the condemn of housing which can take the form of a cornucopia of delicious nightmares for anyone living in New York City who come home to find their building shuttered by metal "tinned up" with your possessions inside and you on the sidewalk.
Housing Preservation and Development operate with the initial as a policeman does but without the checks and balances of a judge or jury. Every day this agency acts as judge and jury and executioner and should be separated into something that resembles the fairness of checks and balances, for one, and everyone knows it but love the trap door convenience of simply throwing people on the street to die or worse while watching their clock tick down and the developers build up.
In Bleak House: "move on".
3
Credit card fraud? She’s no angel. She needs to get her head right and take some responsibility for her actions and anger. But yes the guards treated her badly and shouldn’t have escalated this bad situation.
34
@Andrew So only angels deserve to be treated decently by public officials?
If you're poor, legitimately qualify for public assistance that has been unreasonably cut off, are forced to wait in a crowded lobby for hours with a fussy tired baby, and finally sit on the floor, no doubt exhausted and frustrated -- you have no right to get angry when you then get harassed by a stupid and obnoxiously entitled security guard for no good reason?
Get real. I'd like to see you put up with that.
23
@Andrew:
So because of credit card she should be smacked around and have her baby yanked from her arms? Let's make her suffer for the rest of her life. Yeah, that's the ticket!
22
@Lisa Simeone--Yeah, and let's just ignore all victims of her credit card thievery (while giving her a big fat payday for arguing with the guards.) Yeah, that's the ticket!
3
The Security Guard had no right to grab her arm or touch her at all. They started this melee and the Cops made it worse.
29
Don't know the whole story, but what is wrong with sitting on the floor as long as one is not blocking an exit or door? Where was the flak catcher to talk her off the ledge? Nope, call in the bully boys, and slap her around. That'll teach her. She's no saint but this just goes to the heart of our society. Biased against the poor and underclass.
43
@Paul She was blocking a fire exit.
16
@Jade I have the utmost compassion for those who deserve it. The majority of police officers do their job and what is right.
13
@Olivia:
Quote: "The majority of police officers do their job and what is right."
But you still can't admit that in this case they did wrong.
9
"Gregory Floyd, the guards’ union president, said the guards, Bettina Barnett-Weekes and Toyin Ramos-Williams, tried to reason with Ms. Headley for 40 minutes before the police arrived, and that there were rows of seats available in the waiting area. He said Ms. Barnett-Weekes was bitten during the fracas."
40 minutes, that's a long time to sit on the floor. I don't know what is true here, but I would tend to believe anyone over Ms. Headley, who has a warrant out for her arrest on credit card fraud, who lives and has lived in public housing most of her life and who gave birth to a child she couldn't afford and has collected public assistance since. Plus, she immediately retained a lawyer, so she can further collect from the taxpayer trough. If a security guard told me to get up, I'd get up, I wouldn't argue that a trash can was also blocking the fire lane. Most of us don't have to go through the indignity of applying for welfare, most of us don't have kids we can't support, but all of us at some point have had to go to the DMV or Social Security, where we often deal with surly bureaucrats. I don't like airport security and think it's stupid that there's a rule that says I have to take off my shoes. I certainly don't take it up with the security guard who is deciding whether I can get on a plane. And the cheering squad in this video is appalling. Yes, the police should have acted with more restraint, but really, just play by the rules instead of breaking them.
64
Why do Americans buy houses they cannot afford and then expect taxpayers to subsidize it (mortgage income deductions) instead of waiting patiently until they have saved up the entire amount, or just borrowing from their family? Why do so many Americans stop working when they are not able to pay for their own retirement (Social Security)? Why do so many old people go into nursing homes they can’t pay for (Medicaid)? Why do people have surgeries and expect other people to subsidize it (commercial health insurance)? Come on. Life is about dealing with other people and helping other people. Getting social benefits doesn’t make someone unreliable, and even being a convicted criminal doesn’t mean a person should be mistreated and have their child ripped out of their arms, with the threat of being taken away forever. Sitting on the floor is just not a crime for which losing your child forever is the right punishment. It just isn’t.
39
@thewriterstuff Also, she retained a lawyer on the advice of her public defenders. I work for the Public Defense firm, who picked up Ms. Headley's case in arraignments on Saturday after the incident. I wasn't involved with her case, but those who were worked tirelessly until she was released from Riker's Island, and gave her the best legal advice that they could about how to proceed from there.
I don't know what that legal advice was since I was not involved in her case, but I would imagine she was advised to sue the city for treating her so poorly, which is exactly what she is going to do. If I were in her place, I would do the exact same thing. Although I'm a white man, so the NYPD would never treat me the way they treated her.
16
@Raindrop Did she lose her child forever? No. Was she told she would lose her child forever? No. I think comparing Social Security (which people pay into all of their lives) to welfare, which only taxpaying people pay into and are not eligible to collect if they are paying taxes, is a fallacious argument. Maybe there should be some personal responsibility on her part. What about the people whose credit cards she stole, or identity she stole, what about their lives? As for Medicaid, everyone should have it, not just people who don't own anything. Go ask someone who can't get insurance, has saved for a house, has paid taxes and makes to much to have free medical, go ask them about medicaid. Yes, she no doubt gets medicaid in addition to everything else a middle class person has no access to until they deplete their assets.
11
It is painful to read some of these comments where the authors show nothing but snideness and snark. It is baffling to see people who I am pretty sure are just ordinary, barricade themselves behind a sense of vast superiority to their fellow human beings.
BTW, I have always been treated well by the police, and I think it has a great deal to do with the fact that I am white and was born to upper middle-class parents. That was probably one of the best choices I ever made!
97
@December
Or maybe it's because you haven't behaved in a way towards others that that gives the police the duty to correct the situation.
This was not about race.
Those guards were black and the workers are black.
I know this because I have worked in one of these centers in Manhattan
14
@December
you probably comply and are acting normal when you interact with the PD, which is a testament of your upbringing
These 'poor' who act like everyone owes them something need to learn that lesson.
Pretty quick with the lawyer though.
Mayor Wilhelm will probably give her the 'full garner'
How about the other side (the truth) of the story NYT ?
10
How about asking why the benefits were interrupted to begin with? Why did she have to reapply? They obviously had all of her information and could have just as easily reinstated the benefits without making her wait for six hours. There is often a factor of administrative punishment by the workers that is entirely unnecessary. This person obviously exhibits bad judgment in conducting her life but the social services department deals with circumstances like hers on a regular basis and the workers have an intimate understanding of them, deciding to make conscious choices to exacerbate the situation with often purposeful delays and interruptions in the provision of benefits.
55
@William Stuber
You are assuming that fault on her part caused the benefit to be discontinued. In fact, it is most likely what is called "churn", a deliberate attempt on the part of authorities to reduce benefits to people who qualify for them.
4
Why sit on the floor? Why unable to get up when told a fire exit is blocked? Already a history of credit card theft? The point of this exposure is that we're supposed to be horrified at the mistreatment of the poor and police brutality...but this isn't the story that cuts it.
22
@Inhabitant
Somebody sits on the floor when they have a wait ahead of them and a chair is not available. A fire exit? Was there a fire? "Already a history of credit card theft"? Is that relevant to what happened in the situation at issue here? It doesn't really have anything to do with what happened to her in the welfare office, does it? Why, when she got up to leave - complying with their request not to sit on the floor blocking the fire exit - couldn't they just let her go?
43
@Inhabitant
She should stay standing up, holding a toddler, for FOUR HOURS!?!!? I think of the handful of times I sat on airport floors when weather delays meant every seat was taken -- should I have been forced to stay standing up for hours?
36
@Inhabitant Obviously you can't handle the truth. If you are not horrified, you are part of the problem.
14
“On Thursday, she notified the city that she plans to file a potentially lucrative lawsuit to prevent what happened to her from happening to others.”
Kind of a gratuitous editorial statement. It’s also a potentially valueless lawsuit if she loses. You’re implying that she’s just in it for the money.
34
@EJS
the implication is the truth - she is in it for the money, when she should be in jail for assault or the CC fraud
11
@stan sounds like you think we should assume she is guilty of a crime she has never been tried for, but don't want to pass judgment on the city until the lawsuit is resolved.
7
@stan Because the poor have no dignity in your eyes. I was going to say the security guards belong in jail!
8
To get benefits or to ask questions, our system insists upon repeated in person visits (which means days off from any job you are holding) to obtain and to maintain them. The offices you visit are filled very angry people living on the edge and very defensive civil servants who have experienced every kind of bad behavior and assume the worst. When you go, you have to have the mindset that you are walking on eggs with the civil servants and the other people in line with you and be very "yes sir" "no sir". There has to be a better way!
53
For me there are two main takeaways. First, the officer lost his or her head and created a situation that was traumatizing for the mother and child, when the situation could and should have been defused. The second takeaway is that a person who may be a criminal and who certainly has made a lot of bad choices in her life will now gain a fortune at taxpayer expense. It would be interesting to see how long it will take her to blow her new-found wealth.
13
@Jon Harrison - so many assumptions made from afar.
7
@Jon Harrison:
"New-found wealth"?? Aren't you putting the cart before the horse? How do you know she'll win? She may end up with nothing.
Your compassion really shines through.
12
@Lisa Simeone: Oh, the city will settle with her for a substantial amount. Happens all the time. As for compassion, my heart doesn't bleed for people like Ms. Headley, though certainly I think the cops were wrong and should be punished or sanctioned in some way.
11
We had a social welfare system that worked much better than this, but Clinton (Bill) ended it with the help of Congress. Just going back to the old AFDC would be a big improvement.
13
One wonders if anyone in any of the agencies and among the personnel managers involved in this situation has ever asked themselves the question, how can we do this better. At the Social Security offices, for example, there is the opportunity to schedule an appointment. And for walk-ins, there are numbers to be taken and wait times provided by a glance at the sign board. And there are enough personnel to handle the clients who walk in. Do they use that method?
As for the personnel - case workers, security, police - has anyone told them that their professional status requires them to swallow their pride and their egos to the comity of the workplace and the clients. It is a tough thing to learn to do, but it is required, obviously!
44
@vincentgaglione
Last time I went to a Social Security office, I got there well ahead of time because scheduling an appointment was not an option for the issue I needed to handle. My husband and I arrived early, as did about 50 other people who had the same goal in mind, and we all sat on the floor in a hallway outside the office for about an hour before it opened. I will say this - once we got in, we found a seat and our business was transacted swiftly.
9
@vincentgaglione “...their professional status requires them to swallow their pride...” And everyone has to follow police orders and rules.
8
This is a holdover from shaming people during the Depression and an outgrowth of the Protestant value that suggests poor people deserve it. Getting food assistance, housing assistance, and Medicaid are often designed to create a humiliating experience, whereas we have convinced everyone that Social Security is old people’s right and that it is dignified to collect it. Half of babies are born to families who use Medicaid, so I really think it is time for all services to treat people with dignity.
10
Police should always try to de-escalate. If you don’t think that’s good policy for simple human dignity, how about for other reasons?
Now have someone with an arrest record. What if employers won’t touch her? She remains on public assistance forever?
Now we have bills for how many officers & a Rikers Island visit & litigation, nor to mention potentially a settlement. That’ll all be borne by taxpayers.
Who hasn’t sat in an airport or train station or some such place on the floor?
The police could just as easily obtained her name and said “if you don’t move in X minutes you’ll receive a mailed citation and a fine for $X.”
PS - another comment said she had multiple IDs and credit cards in different names. Is that true? There’s no news on that that I’ve seen. De-escalation should STILL be the rule however; police don’t know the background of people when they escalate situations.
7
@Just Me Again A year or two ago, she was arrested for "taking part in an identity theft and credit-card fraud scheme." She had five phony cards in her name seized. There is no indication of recidivism.
7
@Just Me Again
They were trying to deescalate the situation she caused.
What you want them to do is to ignore the situation she caused.
Giving her a ticket and not correcting the situation is not acceptable.
If a cop stops a driver because they are violating the speed limit do they give the driver a warning and tell them they will get a ticket if they continue to drive that way and then let the driver continue to drive over the speed limit.
That is what you are asking these officers to do.
Giving her a ticket isn't a bad idea idea but doesn't solve the problem she created.
4
If (only) someone would figure out the cyber-security aspect of it, and safeguard our personal information, this office is exactly the kind that would be best replaced by digital management in the future. Build a secure website where Ms Headley can check in on the status of her benefits, reapply for them, and ask questions. I understand she may not have wifi at home, but I imagine she has a smart phone? She could then stay on top of things in her own time, and at her own convenience, without having to endure hours of waiting without a chair in a no-doubt pungent and chaotic waiting room.
18
In America, you get what you pay for. Over the past two decades we have bought a third rate social welfare program that focuses on cost and not benefit. Instead of planning programs that lift people out of poverty, we create road blocks to keep them there. Our short sighted political leadership is committed to the wealthiest 1% no matter the cost to any other citizen. Both Republicans and Democrats hold responsibility for this mess. Time for a change.
318
Sure but really mostly Republicans...at least half of the Democrats want to give people more social services and support. Zero of the Republicans want to help the poor. And all of them want tax cuts for the rich. So let’s not have a fake “both sides are bad” argument. Democrats are incompetent but want to help the poor. Republicans are highly competent and hate the poor.
14
@Patrick Stevens
Give a round of applause to Bill Clinton for ending welfare. Ever since he signed that bill mothers of small children have been struggling to find work and the reliable child care that requires as well as affordable housing. Homelessness among families of the working poor is another indirect result. Pettiness and contempt for people living in difficult situations has made us worse as a nation. Childhood poverty is a national disgrace. We were a little less self-righteous and shallow, we might realize it. Besides, the money that we don't allocate directly to people with dependent children is spent instead on incarceration, foster care, and shelters. Trust me, it comes under the heading of sparing no expense to save money. The private companies the run those services thank you.
5
@Patrick Stevens You put a lot of blame for this situation on government and society, i.e. "we create road blocks". However, the biggest road block was created by Jazmine herself, when she had a child without a husband or a stable life. This is quite different from a natural disaster that swept over her. One of the biggest and unheralded triumphs of the Affordable Care Act is the access to birth control that it provides.
2
This young woman is trying to raise her child given the support she can muster. Let's just ask for safe, civil public spaces. One way or another, whatever business needs to be conducted can be done more quickly, and there can be sufficient seating. Why not train and supervise your staff rather than hire and pay more "security"?
48
@annpatricia23 According to the article, workers said there was a row of seating available, but Ms. Headley chose to sit on the floor and block others from passing.
19
@Olivia No. The article said that all seats were taken. So did the the initial accounts.
30
@annpatricia23 Read the article again. The guards union said there were seats available.
8
As angry as people are over the security personnel's' behavior, has it escaped everyone's attention that it takes 2.5 hours of waiting to speak to someone at this agency, and that anyone needing to ask about a 2nd program run by the same agency will be sent to the end of the line for another 2.5 hour wait?
How can an organization so poorly run justify its failure to make changes?
475
@Green Tea. I look at it as an incentive to do what you should to get off of government assistance.
15
@Olivia, Ms. Headley was working, to "get off government assistance." Then the government took away the childcare benefits she needed to keep working. And the shoddy way people are treated at such offices is intentionally punitive. The system is rigged to make people fail. Have you done any reading about these issues? I'd recommend it.
168
@Green Tea "How can an organization so poorly run justify its failure to make changes?"'
Not being an American and much less a New Yorker, I wouldn't know, but is it that the agency is poorly run or rather that it is poorly funded and understaffed. Both are plausible hypothesis in this situation.
As to the incident in itself it seems like yet another "respect my authority" kind of thing where the "peace" officer would rather escalate a situation rather than humble themselves to diffuse it.
48
WOMEN With Minor Children Deserve Special Treatment & Consideration
I was not physically there but I did watch a bit of the videos AND I am black so I do have a natural inclination to side with the black mother.
That aside, I do NOT believe that any mother should have her infant child forcibly violently taken from her. Child abuse is a higher crime than refusing to stand up in a room without enough seats to me. The mother did not commit child abuse, the officers did.
121
@WorldPeace2017 I am lilly white and you are absolutely correct. It's about the forced separation of child from mother. Thank You!
10
@WorldPeace2017
There were seats available.
4
@Kevin
the mother did commit child abuse when she bore a child she couldn't provide for - also when she used the child as a club to hit security - watch the video
8
She had been arrested for identity theft and credit card fraud. She had five phony cards in her possession when she was arrested. This is someone who does not respect laws, the police or authority.
116
@Olivia
I agree with you. And I think the article says she bit an officer or security guard! That's assault. I don't see why she shouldn't be responsible for criminal choices if she made them. Who bites another person? Why does the newspaper article phrase this in the passive, "was bitten?" I can't fathom her sense of entitlement, even though I sympathize with her attempts to take care of her son while handling this matter.
75
@ljw actually biting someone is battery. But I will let it slide.
14
@Olivia: Tell that to your elected president, I’m afraid!
5
It is appalling the intricate web of indignities that confront the poorest members of the society. It’s conform to arbitrary rules or go to jail.
42
@AMM Following police orders are not arbitrary rules.
12
Reported is an emotional incident and will stir emotional responses. Life's affairs in recent generations become rapidly complex while the individual's ability to cope with the complexity lags. To be considered are: the role of the "public servant"; was the event a security issue; is the organization of the assistance office suited to the conditions for customer service.
Simply from viewing the physical actions is one inclined to conclude the exercise of authority viz-a-viz the woman was in the nature of a public servant?
Is there reason to conclude one needs "security guards" under the conditions of this public gathering? Why not a public assistance assistance person that roams among the masses and offers advice?
If there is a serious dispute why not have at hand a qualified ombudsman to settle a civil dispute?
Given what one sees and reads why was there resort to city police officers? Does disobeying administrative rules, "get off the floor" warrant police intervention?
And to satisfy emotion, do not the actions in the presence of a child seem careless?
What would have been the outcome if the security guards would have asked: "How can we help you?" And then sought to expedite her transaction.
30
@Wolfgang Price I don’t think you understand what the police have to deal with in NYC and other cities where some people think they have a right to not comply with police orders or any authorities.
25
@Olivia, when you speak of people who think they don't have to comply with the law, I assume you are referring to the Trump administration and its cronies?
23
@Olivia Wrong, she followed most of the rules that were humanly possible.
2
Thank you to the NY Times for covering this story. I hope something positive comes from it.
7
@Ann. Yes, I do too. I hope people will do what the police tell them to do.
14
@Olivia. The police are not always reasonable or objective as in this case.
12
@AMM The police are not perfect, but I’m on their side in this case.
13
Our politicians - at ALL levels, including mayors, governor, and president - should be paid no more than the average salary of their poorest constituents. They should no longer be given daily "stipends" of more than $200 for food and transportation. And they should be required to live in the same building complexes as their constituents. You'll hear them demanding improvements pretty darn quickly.
I heard many years ago that a famous person once said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Sounds pretty fair to me.
12
@W. Michael O'Shea
Furthermore, executive level personnel for many gov't agencies should be required to work in the "field" with their teams so they, too, have a better understanding of the policies they put in place...
5
@W. Michael O'Shea I agree.
2
There seems to be two sides to this story. I hope she is this devoted to her child, under the onerous economic circumstances which she has put herself in. But this is one side of the story and the Social Agencies would know more than this incident shows about this mother and about how she nurtures her child without the presence of a father and without the financial wherewithal to raise a child. Sad that in these cases it is the child who is often the pawn and the victim.
14
@JHM I think that you are using a bad pulpit with no perspective. While it is true that there are usually at least 2 stories to every issue, your statement does not bear reality with items shown in the videos or the fact that a mother should never be forced away from her very minor child with violence.
I am NOT saying whe is a Virgin Saint, just that such callous statements as your are counterproductive.
We all need to get more facts so this needs to be thoroughly investigated by a non-partisan party and not by those with a real negative or pro-vent.
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@WorldPeace2017. The truth may appear to be “callous” to those who can’t and don’t want to accept it.
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@WorldPeace2017 Perhaps my statements seem callous, although I do believe wholeheartedly the child is the real issue here...I have seen so many like this mother who have children to get money. They do not work, so if she does then I may have misspoken, however, she still could have used birth control like responsible people do. I am frankly tired of all those who say it "is their right to have children" (I did not when I could not afford to!) and frankly equally tired of lawsuits for such reasons. She comes across as an opportunist in now suing. Sorry, but I am not changing my mind and live in a country where it is a business to have children to get housing and never work and the children suffer.
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