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Demands for the arrest of “Soho Karen” continue
I am playing catchup on this story but if you are reading this, so are you: A 14-year-old guest of the Arlo Hotel — the son of prominent jazz trumpet player Keyon Harrold — was assaulted in the hotel’s lobby on Dec. 26 by a woman who claimed he stole her phone, when in fact she left it in her Uber. The story was first reported by The Times, after Harrold posted the incident on Instagram.
Harrold shot part of the incident on his phone, and that along with hotel security camera footage quickly went viral as an abject example of racial profiling made worse by the fact that the victim was a child. In the video, Harrold is forced not only to literally run interference between the woman and his son, who tackles the boy to the ground and scratches Harrold as he breaks them up, but also defend his own presence with the hotel’s manager, who seems to advocate for the woman while she rants.
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The caption from Harrold’s initial post on Instagram is heartbreaking, as he explains that the two were coming down from their room for brunch when the woman, who had checked out of the hotel on Dec. 23, started her assault. (Harrold had been staying at the hotel since mid-December as a way to get some work done; needless to say he has since checked out.)
But the story does not end there. Calls are made to report an assault at the hotel that day, but it takes another four days for the NYPD to ask for the public’s help in identifying the woman. Yet somehow CNN was able to speak to her on the phone. She was finally identified by The Post as 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto, and is now in LA where activists there are calling for her arrest.
Meanwhile, Harrold, with the help of civil rights attorney Ben Crump, has posted a petition demanding that the Manhattan DA press charges. The petition is here.
Kat Rodriguez, the boy’s mother, perhaps encapsulated the issue best at a news conference on Dec. 30, held at City Hall with the support of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network: “This fight is not only for our son. It’s for all of our sons and daughters,” said Rodrigruez, who’s a musician and a teacher. “If we were a family that didn’t have these connections … if I was a maid, this story wouldn’t have hit the news. What about those people that don’t get to get heard? I want to thank God because this incident could have ended very different…I pray for the mothers and fathers who have lost their sons to racial injustice.”
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On Saturday, December 26, the woman in this video falsely accused an innocent 14-year-old teenager of stealing her cellphone. She then proceeded to physically attack him and fled the location before police officers arrived on scene. pic.twitter.com/qtZZWetBWH
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) December 31, 2020
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This was first time I heard. Heartbreaking and enraging. I signed the linked petition. Thanks for bringing light to this story. Change can’t come soon enough.
I’ve recommended this hotel many times, but no more. The Arlo has had plenty of time to educate its staff and create awareness re: racial profiling. It’s been open since at least 2017…And were the events of 2020 not enough of a catalyst for them to make this kind of training a priority? That the manager took the side of this woman, with her irrational demands, and then allowed her to leave (after tackling/assualting Mr. Harrold’s son) before the police arrived, is further evidence of her privilege and the manager’s (and the hotel’s) grievous error in judgement. I doubt very much that this incident would have unfolded in this manner had Ms. Ponsetto been obviously a woman of color. The Arlo took its time in responding to the incident publicly, as well. And on their Twitter feed, there’s no evidence of the incident at all. As of today, she’s still not been questioned, nor charged.
NYPD is sending detectives to California to interview her. WTF, she fled the scene of a crime. She should be forced to turn herself in and travel back to NYC on her own dime to be charged and interviewed. She physically attacked a 14 year old kid.
I’m not condoning the objectionable nature of the woman’s conduct. However, why are we wasting taxpayer dollars to send detectives (plural-more than one) to California when those resources could be better spent searching for criminals wanted for committing crimes such as murder and rape in NYC. I suppose there are no unsolved murders, rapes or serious assaults with hospitalized victims? The rush to assume that this was a racially motivated incident (which I would not discount) does seem highly unfair. Yes her conduct was rude. Yes she did grab the kid and pull him down but he landed on her and he does not appear to be physically injured. Lets just keep things in perspective. Right now there are countless relatives of murder and rape victims who want justice. In a city that routinely releases people accused of crimes without bail provided the victims are not hospitalized this seems to be a total overreaction and waste of resources
You are the one that needs the reality check. This is the incident
that you are worried about where our tax payer dollars are going? For god sales; a young man was assaulted. Thank god his father was there because the situation would have turned out very differently if he wasn’t. And none of us have to be geniuses to understand that.
Absolutely agree. There are heinous crimes being committed every single day in NYC and NYPD resources are better spent catching these criminals and preventing these rapes, assaults of innocent New Yorkers. What happened regarding the arrest of the bicycle gang that attacked the BMW. Also, and I say this as a person of color myself the girls behavior had nothing to do with the boy being black. She would have pounced on anyone who she thought had her phone.
+1 why does media attention set our priorities?
Absolutely agree. There are heinous crimes being committed every single day in NYC and NYPD resources are better spent catching these criminals and preventing these rapes, assaults of innocent New Yorkers. What happened regarding the arrest of the bicycle gang that attacked the BMW. Also, and I say this as a person of color myself the girls behavior had nothing to do with the boy being black. She would have pounced on anyone who she thought had her phone.
Hey Reality Check –
I got a reality check for you – the NYPD is the biggest police force in the world – how about they do both – catch the murderers , rapists AND the racist Karens? I think they can handle it.
Also, they wouldn’t have to send the cops anywhere if they had arrested her on the day she did it.
I would love to see you “keep things in perspective” if your kid was tackled and accused of a something they had NOTHING to do with.
And since when is tackling a minor “rude” and not assualt?
Absolutely agree. There are heinous crimes being committed every single day in NYC and NYPD resources are better spent catching these criminals and preventing these rapes, assaults of innocent New Yorkers. What happened regarding the arrest of the bicycle gang that attacked the BMW. Also, and I say this as a person of color myself the girls behavior had nothing to do with the boy being black. She would have pounced on anyone who she thought had her phone.
Is the predators name Karen or dod you choose the criminal’s name?