Food Vendor Crackdown Spurs Revolt
Monday, December 3, 2007; Page D02


The dozens of mobile food truck vendors that had plied their trades along the waysides of Prince George's County had mostly disappeared. Police said they issued up to 200 tickets over the past two months, after several weeks attempting to warn vendors that they were operating illegally did not dissuade them.

But advocates for the vendors, most of whom are Hispanics who operate in Langley Park, say they will not go quietly. Today, a lawyer who is representing many of the vendedores plans to file suit against the county in Prince George's County Circuit Court.


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Ivan Yacub, a lawyer in Falls Church who handles many immigration cases, said he would protest the county's use of a section of the legal code that regulates commercial buses, trailers and trucks. By his reading of the statute, Yacub said in an e-mail, only commercial trucks parked overnight or on the weekends may be issued a ticket. Most of the vendors leave at the end of the day.

One night last week, a county police officer trying to impound a vending truck in the 8200 block of New Hampshire Avenue was confronted by an angry crowd of vendors. One man picked up an orange construction barrel and began walking toward the officer, said District 1 Commander Maj. Kevin Davis. She drew her firearm and pointed it at the man, who dropped the barrel and fled, Davis said.

"The issuance of these particular citations are just a tool, a means to get to an end," Davis said. "The vending is, in and of itself, an illegal activity," in violation of parking, health and often zoning laws.

More than a decade ago, the Prince George's Council ordered a halt to street sales of barbecue, crabs, pupusas and other foods from vending trucks. But the operations never really disappeared, in part because of legal challenges and apparent confusion over the law.


-- Anita Huslin


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