5 hours ago
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Save the drama.
A wild caught-on-video street brawl over a Queens parking space has reignited a longtime debate over whether it’s ever OK to claim a public spot on the street with an item — or even your body.
“No, it’s not OK. If you don’t have a car, you shouldn’t be standing there,” said Daniel Rosario, 52, of the Upper East Side, who owns a car and parks on the street.
“This is public parking. You can’t be reserving spaces if they’re not there,” Rosario added, noting he once pulled into a spot anyway when someone tried to guard it for a friend who was nowhere to be seen.
The comments come after the now-viral video captured a mother-daughter duo, Andreea Dumitru, 45, and Sabrina Starman, 21, savagely attacking driver Jada McPherson after she tried to pull into a Ridgewood street spot that the pair were allegedly “guarding” with their bodies.
The battle broke out at 18-28 Putnam Ave, where an unidentified man also joined in on the gang-up on McPherson, but apparently high-tailed it out of the area before police arrived, cops said.
When McPherson couldn’t find another spot on the block, she came back to tell the family they couldn’t guard parking spots, she previously told The Post. That’s when the man went “ballistic” and the mother-daughter pair flung racist language at McPherson, who is black.
But some Big Apple drivers and residents — accustomed to circling blocks in search of a coveted parking space — said everyone was a little at fault under the unwritten rules of city parking.
“Honestly, if you have a friend that you know is literally coming around the corner in like a minute? Yeah, what’s the problem with that? But standing there longer than five minutes… absolutely not,” said Freddie Bennett, 41, a Ridgewood resident who doesn’t own a car.
“But that’s just how New Yorkers are, territorial… I understand why, but it’s not something I’d ever consider doing.”
Mika Cook-Wraight, 25, agreed that the desperation is real, but it isn’t worth putting your safety on the line.
“I personally wouldn’t get into a fight over it … because of how people drive here, I would not put my body on the line in front of cars,” she said.
“I’d be scared to stand in the street to save a spot. Because of how people drive here, I wouldn’t put my body on the line.”
Cook-Wraight, who’s originally from Boston, said saving spots with chairs or cones might work there, “but that’s just not sustainable here,” she quipped.
Starman and Dumitru were arrested and charged with first-degree assault and second-degree harassment, police said.
The mother-daughter duo has since apologized for the brawl after being hit with a slew of online death threats.
English (US)