Cop Who Punched Homeless Man On Train Won't Face Discipline: Shea

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The police officer who repeatedly punched a homeless man who refused to get off a train in a Midtown subway station will not face discipline, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Wednesday.

Shea told reporters Wednesday that he doesn't anticipate NYPD officer Adonis Long will be placed on modified duty for his use of force against a homeless man named Joseph in May. The Legal Aid society, which is representing Joseph, called for the officer's firing last week while releasing body camera footage of Long punching their client in the face, kicking his belongings on a subway platform and then macing the man after he asked why police were attacking him while pushed up against a subway platform wall.

The NYPD commissioner did say he found video of the arrest "troubling" but also implied the four-minute video released by the Legal Aid society did not capture the full interaction between Joseph and police officers. Shea claimed that Joseph had initially complied with orders to leave the train before re-boarding it before the actions captured in the video.

"My analysis of the entirety of it, where it goes on for nearly 30 minutes, an officer's kicked, etcetera, I don't foresee any change in duty status, but any use of force, and this is an incident certainly falls within that, is reviewed," Shea said Wednesday.

Body camera footage of the incident does not show officer Long being kicked.

Shea said that "a punch should not be assumed to be excessive force," in a public statement about three weeks before Joseph's arrest. At the time of the statement, Shea was responding to questions about a violent East Village social distancing arrest that resulted in discipline for the officers involved.

The Legal Aid Society issued a statement Wednesday condemning the lack of discipline for officer Long.

"NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea’s refusal to discipline the officers who brutally assaulted our client should alarm all New Yorkers," Legal Aid Staff Attorney Edda Ness said in a statement. "But it’s not surprising, as Shea is the same Commissioner who commended his own officers for exercising ‘incredible restraint’ during the George Floyd demonstration despite a tidal wave of first hand accounts, social media posts, videos, and news reports showing the exact opposite."

Mayor Bill de Blasio again commented that he was "troubled" by video of Joseph's arrest during his Wednesday press briefing after evading questions about the arrest following the Legal Aid Society's video release on July 15. Last week de Blasio claimed he couldn't comment because he hadn't seen the video.

In de Blasio's first statements on the arrest during a Monday night appearance on NY1's "Inside City Hall," the mayor criticized officer Long for using excessive force but also justified his actions by pointing out that Joseph disobeyed orders and swiped at the officers hand while being grabbed.

"We believe in de-escalation. We also — I don't like anytime I see someone refusing to follow an instruction by an officer. That's an obvious valid instruction. In fact, apparently from what we see in the video, the guy also, you know, strikes at the officer and that's not acceptable," de Blasio said Monday.

Joseph was asked by officers Long and Shimul Saha to exit a train in the East 51st Street and Lexington Avenue subway station shortly after midnight on May 25 because the rider was "occupying more than one seat on the train," according to Saha's criminal complaint. Saha writes that the man began "flailing his arms and kicking his legs" while Saha and Long attempted to drag him off the train.

Officer Saha writes in the complaint that Long told him he was kicked in the right hand, causing "swelling" to the knuckles that required hospitalization and prevents Long from opening and closing his hand without pain. Body camera footage shows that Joseph did not kick the police officer but instead swiped his hand away when Long attempted to grab him. The Legal Aid Society also called for Saha's firing from the NYPD.

Joseph initially faced charges for resisting arrest and assault. THE CITY, which first reported the incident, reported last week that the Manhattan DA's office is planning to drop the assault charges.