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.
Just watched a few minutes of the video again...staring at the part just before the scuffle started."I told you before,leave me alone"..."don't touch me".
The cops either did,or did no,have legal justification to detain him.My understanding is that they did.But even if they didn't...in fact,*particularly* if they didn't...the proper response of that guy would have been to comply with their orders and,while so doing,calmly yet firmly inform them that because of their illegal acts he would own them *and* the City of New York when all the dust had settled.
But he didn't...he resisted.Violently resisted.Six foot six,300 pounds.
Not guilty on all criminal charges.