[Courtesy of Marin Flores / Facebook]
Berkeley, California - A UC Berkeley officer is still in hot water after seizing money from a hot dog vendor who was not permitted to sell food on the street, The video of the encounter was recorded by an onlooker and UC Berkeley alumnus, Martin Flores, and was posted on Facebook.
The news went viral and people started to donate on a GoFundMe page set up by Flores to support the hot dog vendor who is only identified as his first name Juan. Over $85,000 donations were made of its original $10,000 goal. A petition to remove the officer who took the money away from the vendor garnered 54,810 signs of its 55,000 goal within seven days since it was set up.
The vendor who didn't reveal his full name said in an interview with NBC Bay Area that he works as a construction worker but he sold hot dogs for extra income. He said, "People saw I wasn't doing anything wrong. I wasn't stealing or drinking. I was just working to sustain my family."
On the day of the incident, there were three other street vendors working without permits but they only got away with warnings.
UCPD began a complaint investigation and the officer, Sean Aranas, in the video will continue to work until proven guilty.
From left: Juan the hot dog vendor and Martin Flores, who posted the viral video.[Courtesy of Martin Flores / Facebook ]
Martin Flores who posted the viral video of the officer seizing money from the vendor wrote on his Facebook that Aranas opened the vendor's wallet and seized all the cash Juan earned that day, $60, from him.
Flores wrote in another post that it was the vendor's dream to own a food truck. With all the donations made on GoFundMe page, his dream will come true.
Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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