Judging from the video I saw I’d probably vote,as a juror,to award $$$ in a civil trial.It *did* look to me as if the cops could have handled that matter differently.But in a criminal trial I,a juror,would have voted “not guilty” on any and all charges,having seen no evidence of anything resembling criminal intent.
Criminal intent? Perhaps not. But the cops were criminally negligent. That guy posed no threat....all the cops needed to do was keep talking to try and calm him down- or just leave him be. There were 3 or 4 cops hassling a guy for something as trivial and meaningless as spitting on the sidewalk. If you can spare 3 cops and a seargent for such trivialities, that means there’s no real crime on Staten Island. Transfer them to some of the high-crime areas of brooklyn or the Bronx and let them do real police work Instead of harassing people. That was a disgrace. The seargent on scene should be fired. The situation was clearly mishandled.