Bid to find rail vendor solutions

The NYPD’s top transit cop and civil rights advocates broke bread Thursday to discuss a string of contentious subway vendor arrests, in the hopes of planning a multiborough “summit” over subway policing issues, advocates said.

The Rev. Kevin McCall announced the sitdown Thursday at a press event with Ricardo Shark, the father of Byron Shark, whose arrest in the 125th St. subway station in Harlem was recorded in a viral video, and several other community activists and clergy members.

“We talked about vending justice. These vendors in New York City deserve to be a vendor and have rights just like a regular citizen does,” McCall said. “We had a candid, open conversation with Chief [Edward] Delatorre.”

Police walked up to candy vendor Byron Shark on the northbound Nos. 4, 5 and 6 train platform Nov. 12 and asked him for ID.

He refused and went limp when officers moved in to arrest him. Cops charged him with obstructing governmental administration, but the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the case.

His arrest came just days after two subway churro sellers were handcuffed and pulled from subway platforms.

“We know that it’s illegal now to vend in the subway but we got to change the narrative, that it’s a human being that’s trying to make ends meet for their family,” McCall said. “That’s all the churro lady was doing, that’s all the candy peddler was doing. That’s all they were doing, was trying to make ends meet for their family.”

The arrests took place as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moves to hire 500 new state-employed police officers to patrol the city’s subways and buses.

McCall said the group asked Delatorre to commit to a “four-borough tour where they will host with clergy and community-based organizations to provide resources to vendors.”