VIDEO: Homeless Man Beaten By NYPD, Then Charged With Assault

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NYPD Officer Long seen punching Joseph in the face twice (Source: Screenshot from YouTube)

NEW YORK (VINnews) — After being punched and having his neck held by police on a New York subway, a homeless man was also charged with assault by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.

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Joseph, a 30-year-old Bronx hair stylist was riding the 6 train on Monday May 25 on his way to Brooklyn, when he was ordered by NYPD Officers Adonis Long and Shimul Saha to exit the train, since he was allegedly taking up 2 seats.

When Joseph hesitated, one officer told him “Step off or I have to drag you off.”

“Why am I holding up a train when I’m sitting on here when I’m going to Brooklyn?” asked Joseph.

In a video made public by the Legal Aid Society, Officer Long is seen attempting to physically remove Joseph from the train. Joseph tries to pull Long’s hand off of him. Long immediately punched him twice in the face, sending his glasses flying.

“Don’t touch me, get off of me,” Joseph says. “Why are you (expeletive) hitting me?”

Joseph is then dragged off the train and thrown to the ground, while his possessions are kicked off the train.

When he makes it back to his feet and is standing a few feet away from the officers, Long appears to pepper spray him in the face.

He then is surrounded by a group of officers, who rummage through his belongings, while pulling his hair, grabbing his neck, and yelling at him to relax while he tells them he is experiencing a panic attack.

Joseph is then seen being forced onto his stomach while his hand and legs are bent behind his back.

Emergency personnell then arrive and transport Jospeh away as blood flows from his face.

WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE AND VIDEO – VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

“I felt like my heart was going to fall out,” Joseph told THE CITY, who initially reported the story.

The charges for Joseph’s arrest originally included resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration and a local law violation for taking up more than one seat on the subway. But Attorney General Vance ended up reducing the charges to second degree assault and resisting arrest.

According to the criminal complaint, Joseph had kicked Officer Long’s hand while “flailing his arms and kicking his legs.” Long claims that he is “he is unable to open and close his hand without experiencing pain” due to swelling from the incident.

It is not evident from the video released by Legal Aid Society just when Joseph kicked Officer Long. In fact, the 2 devastating punches delivered by Long were thrown with the same hand that was injured.

“We are reviewing the footage and continuing to investigate all aspects of this interaction,” DA Vance’s spokesperson Caitlyn Fowles originally said in an email.

Joseph’s lawyer, Edda Ness with the Manhattan Trial office at Legal Aid, called for officers Long and Saha to be immediately fired, as well as for all charges to be dropped against her client.

“The brutal attack on Joseph by these officers is both unconscionable and completely indefensible,” said Ness. “It’s equally shocking that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, despite seeing this video, chose to bump up the charges against our client.”

The NYPD did not initially respond to requests for comment.

After the story was initially reported, Manhattan DA Vance’s spokesperson Fowles announced that due to the “available footage” that was now released, Joseph’s felony assault charge would be dropped.

The DA would also be willing to offer an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal (ACD), for the separate misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, which would open the door for dismissing the case entirely. The case would go away if Joseph were to not get arrested for 6 months.

Potential police misconduct was also under review, said Fowles.

“Our office has charged dozens of uniformed officers for official misconduct and violence since 2010, and will continue to do so in any case where such charges are supported by the facts and the law,” Fowles said.

Ness was not satisfied with the DA’s proposal, saying the “offer of an ACD falls woefully short.”

“Up until yesterday, the DA’s office fully intended to prosecute this case as a felony. It’s shameful that it takes a bad headline for Vance and his ADA’s to finally do right by our vulnerable clients,” said Ness. “We demand that DA Vance immediately dismiss all charges pending against Joseph.”

According to the NYPD, the matter is currently under review.


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32 Comments
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Triumphinwhitehouse
Triumphinwhitehouse
3 years ago

Violent black cop i bet he wont get the pantaleo treatment

Educated Archy
Educated Archy
3 years ago

Nah it was a black cop to a white guy so its fine. Trump is crazy

ah yid
ah yid
3 years ago

We don’t need to defund the police We need ego training.

henry reitzenstein
henry reitzenstein
3 years ago

Blue Lives Matter!…heroes!…they’ve always been one step removed from criminals…video simply exposes the consistent brutality that has always happened…bullies with authority and a gun…they fully deserve all the scorn they’re receiving

Yossi
Yossi
3 years ago

Black cop, white victim. No one will care.

Moses
Moses
3 years ago

The train was not crowded, basically empty. So what is wrong if he put his wordly possesions on the second seat. It is terrible what they did to this guy. DA Vance when he saw this footage and still now want to prosecute should go to jail or yet better commited to a mental institute

Me
Me
3 years ago

I thought a social worker would handle these types of situations?

w
w
3 years ago

white lives matter! lets go get free stuff too – our turn?
oh i guess not

White lives matter
White lives matter
3 years ago

What the video shows seems despicable and outrageous. If the victim was black and perpetrators white, there might be protests in the streets.

Based on it (assuming there are no important facts that are left out of the account above, something that needs to be ascertained), the officers should have the proverbial book thrown at them. The victim may be entitled to get a big payout from the city as well.

Just because he is white, doesn’t mean that the (minority in this case) officers can be allowed to act with such brutality and impunity towards him.

Brian Lehrer
Brian Lehrer
3 years ago

Why has DeBlasio been silent regarding this incident? Is it because his black wife told him to be quiet? This is part of whitey getting some payback for all the years blacks suffered under slavery.

lazy-boy
lazy-boy
3 years ago

First of all, the guy did not listen to the police man. That is his first mistake. Then when the police man tried to pull him, he pushed off the cop’s hand.
He should have listened to the cop and done what he asked. Showing NO respect for the law is a crime and he should be arrested and the policeman should continue to work.
sorry to disagree with ya all…..

Phineas
Phineas
3 years ago

Taking up two seats is a ticket not a beating. They could have just told him to put his stuff on the floor. This is demented.

Boroch
Boroch
3 years ago

Black and Hispanic cops can be just as brutal or even worse to Black and White civilians, as their White counterparts. Yet, the media mainly focuses on brutal brutal cops. Also, when Blacks attack and kill Jews, the media hardly reports such incidents.

ah yid
ah yid
3 years ago

The worst thing about this whole incident is that they threw the book at this guy for what taking up two seats.
If not for the videos he would have all those charges on his record and he didn’t even do anything to the cop.

Yitz
Yitz
3 years ago

What’s wrong with vosiznias & some of your comments the police ask yout to get off you do it! Even if you don’t like it! And he wasn’t complying and he HIT THE COP AND RESISTED ARREST HE GOT WHAT HE DESERVES!!

Rip Van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle
3 years ago

Taking 2 seats on an empty subway car??? Crime of the century! Beat the daylights out of him. DeBlasio killing a one year old baby is okay, but OMG, taking 2 seats, that’s it. Go after him full force!

Harry
Harry
3 years ago

He deserved all he got. The subway is meant to get you from place to place not to serve as a mobile home.

oberchuchem
oberchuchem
3 years ago

I think the black cop overreacted. Some of them have chips on their shoulders when a little power gets to them and as a result, they like to take it out on whitey.

H M
H M
3 years ago

So what do we learn from this story? Very simple. Bad cops are not necessarily racist, they’re just BAD COPS! Clearly, these were bad cops. But the guy was white. So no racism here, just bad policing, bad judgement by the police (something unfortunately too common, probably because cops aren’t too bright to begin with — oops, that sounds racist…), and resulting in a really unnecessary ugly incident. B”H there was no frumme yid involved here…

Facts Rule
Facts Rule
3 years ago

A totally and completely innocent man was falsely accused of breaking the law when all he was doing was sitting in an empty train. He was illegally asked to leave the train. A cop can’t just go over to a perfectly innocent person and kick them off their mode of transportation, period.
The animal barbarian cop & his barbarian savage friends then tortured this man beyond belief.
I am a huge supporter of law enforcement. That is NOT what this is.
It’s a vile savage attack on an innocent man no different than Leftist thugs brutally beating people as we see regularly in videos or experience ourselves.
99% of the time or more it is Leftists, non-Trump supporters, who are committing all of the violent crime in the world.
This Cyrus Vance District Attorney is the same one trying to get into President Trump’s personal information.
He, too, is a diseased thug who belongs in a damn orange jump suit like the rest of the damn DemoncRAT leadership in America & the vast majority of their stupid ignorant evil supporters.
These cops are nothing but extremely dangerous violent felons who have probably murdered people.