Where Is the “Savior” Now? NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch Silent as Troubled 46th Precinct Faces Command-Misconduct Fallout

After former 46th Precinct commanding officer Jeremy Scheublin’s indictment and a new human-rights lawsuit against his replacement, Deputy Inspector Juan O. Moran, the NYPD’s self-styled reform narrative collapses under the weight of command-level sexual-misconduct allegations.

The NYPD’s public statement regarding former Inspector Jeremy Scheublin may be the joke of the century.

The Department wants the public to believe that it “conducts thorough investigations into any allegation that a member of the department failed to meet those standards — and that’s exactly what happened here.” Really? That is the official position? That this is the example the NYPD wants to parade before the public as proof that the system worked?

According to public reporting, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced that Scheublin, the former commanding officer of the 46th Precinct, was indicted on charges including attempted rape in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree, unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, forcible touching, official misconduct, and obstructing governmental administration in the second degree. The charges arise from an alleged sexual assault of a female subordinate inside Scheublin’s office at the 46th Precinct stationhouse.

Norwood News further reported that investigators allege Scheublin approached the victim the next day and stated, “The last person who made accusations against me, it didn’t go well for them,” in an apparent attempt to discourage her from reporting the incident. That allegation is not a minor footnote. It goes directly to command power, workplace fear, retaliation, and the ability of a high-ranking supervisor to make a subordinate female officer believe that reporting him could cost her professionally.

So spare the public the self-congratulatory nonsense.

A commanding officer is allegedly accused of attempting to rape a subordinate inside his own precinct office, allegedly threatens retaliation the next day, and somehow the Department wants applause because it made a referral?

That is not accountability. That is institutional exposure.

That is not a complete answer. That is a failure to protect subordinate women inside a police command.

That is not reform. That is damage control dressed up as process.

Gothamist’s reporting makes the contradiction impossible to ignore. The matter was referred to prosecutors in January 2025, yet Scheublin reportedly continued to oversee the 46th Precinct until December 2025. Almost a full year. If the allegation was serious enough for criminal referral, how was the same commanding officer allowed to remain in charge of the same precinct for that long? What safeguards were put in place? Who supervised the command? Who protected women inside that building? Who made the decision to leave him there? Who owns that decision?

And where is Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch?

The so-called “Savior” Police Commissioner is always available when the story makes her look tough, polished, disciplined, or reform-minded. She knows how to own a microphone when the headline flatters the brand. But when the issue calls her own leadership, appointments, supervision, discipline, and command accountability into question, suddenly the public gets a generic NYPD spokesperson statement.

For more than a year, the public has been fed glowing media profiles portraying Tisch as the wealthy public servant, the tough boss, the modernizer, the corruption cleaner, the adult in the room, the person supposedly brought in to restore discipline and competence to a dysfunctional NYPD. That is the branding. This is the test.

It is easy to accept applause when the story is trash collection, crime statistics, public-order messaging, or removing people whose presence made the prior administration look bad. It is much harder to answer why the 46th Precinct allegedly remained a sexually compromised command, why a former commanding officer reportedly stayed in command for nearly a year after Internal Affairs referred a sexual-assault case to prosecutors, and why another commanding officer later placed in that same precinct is now accused in a civil-rights lawsuit of sexual harassment, retaliation, humiliation, unwanted touching, and abuse of command authority.

I thought Commissioner Tisch said no one messes with her cops. So where is she now?

Female NYPD members of service are cops too. Latina female officers are cops too. Subordinate women working inside precinct commands are cops too. If a former commanding officer is indicted on attempted rape and related charges involving a subordinate inside the 46th Precinct stationhouse, and if another commanding officer later placed in that same precinct is accused of sexually harassing, touching, humiliating, pressuring, and retaliating against subordinate Latina female members of service, then this is exactly the moment when the Police Commissioner should be speaking directly to the public.

Instead, silence.

Commissioner Tisch cannot be the reformer only when the story makes her look good. She cannot claim ownership of discipline while avoiding ownership of command failure. She cannot take credit for cleaning up corruption while hiding behind a spokesperson when the issue is alleged command-level sexual misconduct inside a precinct already under a cloud.

You cannot claim ownership of reform and disclaim ownership of the rot. You cannot brand yourself as the defender of NYPD members while subordinate women allegedly get left to absorb sexualized command behavior, retaliation risk, public humiliation, and career consequences. You cannot say no one messes with your cops and then disappear when the cops allegedly being messed with are women inside your own Department.

That is not leadership. That is image management under pressure.

The News 12 reporting makes this even uglier. According to that article, court documents and a civil lawsuit allege that Scheublin told the subordinate officer, “I want to make biracial babies with you,” then grabbed her, threw her onto a couch, attempted to kiss her, and tried to remove her gun belt. Those allegations, if proven, are not merely sexual. They are racialized, degrading, coercive, physical, and inseparable from the power of a commanding officer over a subordinate.

And then, predictably, we get the courthouse chorus.

Former Detective Denise Melendez reportedly stated that she never experienced “weirdness” from Scheublin and does not believe the accusations. Good for her. That may be her experience. It does not mean a damn thing about what another woman says happened to her inside a commanding officer’s office, under his authority, and within his chain of command.

“He never did that to me” is not a defense.

It is the oldest, weakest, most dangerous shield used around powerful men accused of abusing women. Sexual harassment and sexual assault cases are not popularity contests. Awards do not disprove abuse. Supporters outside a courthouse do not disprove abuse. Former subordinates praising the accused do not disprove abuse. Community applause does not disprove abuse. None of that answers whether a different subordinate woman was abused, intimidated, threatened, or professionally endangered.

That kind of public defense is exactly why women in uniform stay silent. When a powerful supervisor is accused, the conversation too often shifts away from the complainant and toward the accused officer’s reputation, personality, prior good acts, support network, and career résumé. That is dangerous. It tells women that if they report a popular or connected supervisor, they will not only have to fight the misconduct; they will have to fight the loyalty machine surrounding him.

The legal and institutional question is not whether Scheublin had supporters. The question is whether the NYPD had notice that the 46th Precinct was a high-risk command. The question is whether subordinate women were protected. The question is whether retaliation concerns were taken seriously. The question is whether command authority was permitted to become a weapon against women who resisted, reported, or tried to protect themselves.

Our lawsuit is separate from the Scheublin criminal case. Deputy Inspector Juan O. Moran is not charged in that criminal case. Our clients’ claims arise from Moran’s alleged conduct after he was placed in command of the same precinct. But the institutional connection is obvious. The 46th Precinct was already under the cloud of serious command-level sexual misconduct allegations. Despite that, Moran was placed in command of that same precinct, and our clients allege he then used his rank to pressure, sexualize, touch, humiliate, and retaliate against subordinate Latina female members of service.

That is the point.

This is not about one man. It is not about one allegation. It is not about one courthouse appearance. It is not about who had friends chanting outside the courthouse. It is about an NYPD command where women allegedly had to navigate sexualized behavior, racialized and gendered stereotypes, retaliation risk, public humiliation, and career consequences while the Department protected the command structure.

The 46th Precinct was not a clean command. It was a troubled command that required heightened scrutiny, real supervision, credible anti-harassment enforcement, and actual protection for subordinate female members of service. Instead, our clients allege they were left to manage humiliation, fear, retaliation, and professional damage inside a command already known to be compromised.

The issue is notice. The issue is power. The issue is recurrence. The issue is whether women in the NYPD can work, resist, and report misconduct without being threatened, transferred, isolated, publicly doubted, racially stereotyped, sexually degraded, or professionally damaged.

Our clients filed this lawsuit because silence protects the wrong people. The Department does not get to call itself reformed while women allegedly continue paying the price for command-level rot.

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