A unique approach of a viral arrest reveals that sheriff’s deputies in Jacksonville, Florida, escalated their response towards 22-year-old William McNeil much more than was initially reported, his attorneys say.
The picture, which McNeil’s legal professionals Ben Crump and Harry Daniels publicized on Tuesday, comes from body camera footage the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office launched final week.
In it, a sheriff’s deputy seems to be pointing a gun at McNeil, a Black faculty scholar, after deputies smashed his automotive window and punched him within the face.
“That day I used to be telling the reality,” McNeil said of his arrest during a Tuesday press conference. “From the proof within the image, I used to be being held at gunpoint, and I didn’t really feel secure.”
The newly launched findings additional spotlight deputies’ use of power within the February encounter, the newest case to return underneath longstanding scrutiny of how such violence disproportionately targets Black Americans.
“That is only a case of driving whereas Black. It’s that easy,” Crump mentioned, including that 63 of 78 individuals whom the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace has cited for driving with out headlights within the final three years have been Black drivers — though Black People solely comprise 15% of the town’s inhabitants.
The press briefing comes after McNeil posted a video of the traffic stop, which confirmed sheriff’s deputies beating him after he requested to talk to a supervisor concerning the purpose he was pulled over. Deputies accused him of not utilizing his headlights, although McNeil mentioned that there was no inclement climate and that it was nonetheless daylight.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace revealed the deputies’ physique digital camera movies and mentioned that McNeil hadn’t responded to deputies’ prior requests to exit his automobile, whereas providing little clarification for the violence that was used in opposition to him. The sheriff’s workplace has additionally mentioned that it’s conducting an inside investigation of the incident and has positioned the deputy who punched McNeil on paid administrative go away.
The sheriff’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to JS’s request for touch upon its deputy showing to level a gun through the site visitors cease.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace
McNeil’s authorized group famous that the brand new picture factors to selections by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Workplace to strategically launch sure physique digital camera movies whereas withholding different footage. The sheriff’s workplace has disclosed three physique digital camera movies, although there have been extra officers on the scene, for instance.
McNeil’s expertise additionally remembers different cases when brutal violence has been used in opposition to Black People, his attorneys mentioned. “[McNeil’s mother] thought, ‘Thank God my son didn’t develop into like Trayvon Martin or George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery,’” Crump mentioned.
Crump is asking for the sheriff’s workplace to fireside the deputy who struck McNeil, and attorneys are looking for to clear the 22-year-old’s identify. After the site visitors cease, McNeil was charged and pleaded responsible to resisting with out violence and driving with a suspended license. His attorneys mentioned he did so whereas affected by a concussion that was brought on by the site visitors cease.
“We’re going to combat to clear his identify, exonerate him,” McNeil’s lawyer Sue-Ann Robinson mentioned.
