A mobile phone video exhibiting a White police officer in Jacksonville, Florida, putting a Black man within the face during a February traffic stop earlier than officers dragged the motive force from his automobile has sparked outrage on-line as conflicting accounts of the incident have emerged.
The video, which 22-year-old driver William McNeil Jr. took from inside his automobile, is a transparent depiction of brutality, say his civil rights legal professionals, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, and comes as regulation enforcement officers – from masked ICE agents to local police officers – have been scrutinized for their use of power, significantly towards individuals of coloration.
“I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and why I needed to step out of the car,” McNeil, an undergraduate scholar and church musician, stated at a information convention Wednesday. “I know I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office argues the video doesn’t present the total context of the incident. “Yes, there absolutely was force used by the arresting officers, and yes, that force is ugly,” Sheriff TK Waters stated Monday at a information convention. “Just because force is ugly does not mean it’s unlawful or contrary to policy.”
The sheriff stated he wouldn’t keep silent whereas “facts and information are buried to advance an anti-police agenda.”
McNeil, alongside along with his household and authorized crew, are calling on the sheriff to instantly terminate the officer who struck the younger man, in what they describe as a case of racial profiling and extreme power, Crump stated Wednesday.
“The sheriff cannot justify this. He cannot condone this. You must condemn this,” Crump stated. “I mean, there is no way you can say this reflects your policies, your training, your values. This is very disturbing on every level.”
Here’s what we all know:
Police bodycam video launched Monday exhibits McNeil opening his automobile door to talk to an officer, who tells him he was pulled over for driving with out his headlights or seat belt on. Florida regulation states drivers should use seat belts while operating a car and use headlights from sundown to dawn and in instances of rain, smoke or fog.
“It’s daylight, I don’t need the lights. And it’s not weather – it’s not raining,” McNeil says within the video.
McNeil requested the officer to name his supervisor, refused to provide him his license, and closed his door. He locked it because the officer requested him to step out of the car, bodycam video exhibits.
“Open the door and exit, or we are going to break the window,” the officer says as one other patrol automobile pulls up in entrance of McNeil’s car.
McNeil was warned seven occasions he was under arrest and wanted to open his door, Waters stated.
The video from inside McNeil’s automobile begins with him sitting within the driver’s seat, speaking to a different officer by the passenger facet window. He asks the officer to indicate him the regulation stating that he will need to have his headlights on.
One officer then says he’s going forward with breaking the window, in response to physique digital camera footage. “All right, go for it,” a second police officer is heard saying.
Seconds later, the motive force’s window is smashed in, McNeil is punched within the face, and officers open the door and pull him to the bottom subsequent to his automobile, putting his face once more, McNeil’s video exhibits.
McNeil’s “only crime, allegedly, was he didn’t have his headlights on and he didn’t have his seatbelt on – things that most people would get a notice to appear. He got punches in his face, head beat against the concrete and a gun drawn on him. That that is excessive,” Crump stated Wednesday.
“This is about driving while Black. We don’t believe they ever would have done that had this been a young White citizen,” Crump stated.
McNeil’s legal professionals say he sustained a tooth fracture, concussion and a traumatic mind harm. He additionally had cognitive impairment and short-term reminiscence deficits after the traffic stop, they added.
The physique digital camera footage launched Monday didn’t present the preliminary strike between the arresting officer and McNeil, Waters stated.
McNeil was arrested following the incident on February 19 and charged with resisting a police officer with out violence, driving on a suspended license and possession of lower than 20 grams of marijuana, Waters stated. The subsequent day, he pleaded responsible to the resisting and suspended license fees.
Thrown punches and a big knife
D. Bowers, the arresting officer who pulled McNeil over, made no point out of McNeil being punched in his police report. He wrote that the suspect, McNeil, refused to conform, which led him to interrupt the window to open the motive force’s door.
“Physical force was applied to the suspect and he was taken to the ground,” Bowers continued.
A second officer, nevertheless, described in a separate report six punches to McNeil’s leg earlier than he stopped resisting, in response to the Associated Press.
“He simply asks for a supervisor and then they break his window and beat him yet, somehow, the report failed to mention that,” McNeil’s legal professionals stated in a press release.
Bowers’ report additionally claimed McNeil was “reaching for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting,” as he was faraway from the automobile. Deputies discovered a knife whereas they searched McNeil’s car after taking him into custody, in response to police studies.
The knife in that automobile was not a weapon, “because he did not weaponize it,” McNeil’s legal professionals stated Wednesday, reiterating their stance that the younger man by no means reached for the knife.
McNeil stored his cool all through the interplay, at one level calmly taking a punch to the face with out retaliating, his legal professionals famous.
When requested Monday about what he noticed within the footage, Waters, the sheriff, stated he couldn’t see the place McNeil’s arms have been.
Waters stated McNeil hadn’t filed a criticism or shared his video with the division earlier than it was launched on social media. Had he accomplished so, he stated, the division would have began an investigation.
The sheriff stated the mobile phone footage confirmed there have been elements of the arrest the division wanted to research, however stated he assumed the video was “intended to inflame the public.”
“The context of this video should tell you everything you need to know,” he stated.
A prison investigation on the sheriff’s workplace started Sunday, as quickly because it grew to become conscious of the viral footage, Waters stated, including the State Attorney’s Office decided Monday no officers concerned within the arrest violated any prison legal guidelines.
An administrative evaluation over whether or not the deputies violated division insurance policies can be ongoing, Waters stated.
The arresting officer has been “stripped of his law enforcement authority” pending the result of the executive evaluation, in response to the sheriff.
McNeil’s legal professionals referred to as Wednesday for an impartial investigation, separate from the one performed by the state lawyer’s workplace, which they are saying by no means tried to interview McNeil.
“We do not believe that is an independent investigation,” Crump stated.
The authorized crew additionally referred to as on the sheriff’s workplace to launch the names of the officers within the video. “If they’re proud of the conduct on the video, then they should release the officers’ names,” Crump stated.
McNeil’s lawyer Daniels stated he was disgusted however not shocked by the actions of the officers.
“The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has a long history of this kind of needless violence and brutality,” Daniels stated in a information launch.
“It should be obvious to anyone watching this video that William McNeil wasn’t a threat to anyone,” Crump added. “He was calmly exercising his constitutional rights, and they beat him for it.”
McNeil did all the things proper during the incident and was nonetheless brutalized by police, his legal professionals stated.
“We all give our children the talk, and he mastered the talk,” Atlanta civil rights lawyer Gerald Griggs stated Wednesday.
Many Black parents say they really feel they should have a dialog with their kids about systemic racism and how you can deal with encounters with police within the US.
McNeil’s stepfather, Alton Solomon, spoke a few comparable expertise he had with regulation enforcement years in the past.
“I’ve been through what he’s been through,” he stated. “To see that video made me go back to the moment when I was 22. It hurts.”
“The day I seen that video, I couldn’t finish it past the window breaking,” McNeil’s mom, Latoya Solomon, stated. “It wasn’t until maybe a few months ago, I finally finished the whole video.”
McNeil is a self-taught musician – having mastered the trombone, keyboard and drums – who performs music in church, Latoya Solomon stated.
“He is a really, really good man of God,” she stated. “He’s a mentor of all the children in the neighborhood.”
McNeil is a biology main and member of the marching band at Livingstone College, a traditionally Black faculty in North Carolina, the college’s President Anthony Davis stated Wednesday.
Davis famous McNeil usually volunteers his time on the weekends to provide again to his group, commending the school scholar for the restraint, resolve and resilience he has proven during and after the incident.