{"id":45118,"date":"2025-07-22T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T19:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45118"},"modified":"2025-07-22T22:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T03:27:20","slug":"florida-police-officer-seen-punching-dragging-man-during-traffic-stop-in-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45118","title":{"rendered":"Florida police officer seen punching, dragging man during traffic stop in video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A video showing Florida<\/strong><\/a> deputies punching and dragging a Black man from his car during a traffic stop<\/strong><\/a> has sparked outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William McNeil Jr., 22, was sitting in the driver\u2019s seat of his car, asking to speak to the Jacksonville deputies\u2019 supervisor when authorities broke his window, punched him in the face, pulled him from the vehicle, punched him again and threw him to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage is from a Feb. 19 arrest, but it began making the rounds on social media this week after the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said it had launched an internal probe into the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are aware of a video circulating on social media showing a traffic stop represented to be from February 19, 2025. We have launched an internal investigation into it and the circumstances surrounding this incident,\u201d the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hold our officers to the highest standards and are committed to thoroughly determining exactly what occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage from the arrest shows that seconds before being dragged outside, McNeil had his hands up and did not appear to be resisting as he asked, \u201cWhat is your reason?\u201d He had been pulled over and accused of not having his headlights on, even though it was daytime, his lawyers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happened to William McNeil Jr. is a disturbing reminder that even the most basic rights \u2014 like asking why you\u2019ve been pulled over \u2014 can be met with violence for Black Americans,\u201d Crump and Daniels said in a statement. Crump is a Black civil rights lawyer who has gained national prominence representing victims of police brutality and vigilante violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWilliam was calm and compliant,\u201d they said. \u201cYet instead of answers, he got his window smashed and was punched in the face, all over a questionable claim about headlights in broad daylight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a news briefing on Monday<\/strong><\/a>, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the cellphone camera footage from inside the car \u201cdoes not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of that stems from the distance and perspective of the recording cell phone camera,\u201d the sheriff said in a statement, adding that the video did not capture events that occurred before officers decided to arrest McNeil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters said cameras \u201ccan only capture what can be seen and heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo much context and depth are absent from recorded footage because a camera simply cannot capture what is known to the people depicted in it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil was charged with resisting a police officer without violence, driving with a suspended licence and having less than 20 grams of marijuana, Waters said. McNeil pleaded guilty to the charges of resisting an officer and driving with a suspended licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheriff claimed that McNeil was warned seven times that he needed to open his car door and get out or officers would be forced to break his car window. He said that after McNeil was removed from the car, officers found a \u201clarge, serrated knife\u201d on the driver\u2019s side floor of the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters added that the sheriff\u2019s office became aware that the cellphone video was circulating on social media on July 20. At the news briefing, Waters said the agency \u201cimmediately began both a criminal and administrative review of the officers\u2019 actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe State Attorney\u2019s Office has determined that none of the involved officers violated criminal law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters noted that an \u201cadministrative review\u201d to determine whether officers violated any department policies is still ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to the ongoing internal review, no further information will be released at this time, as it is confidential under Florida law,\u201d Waters added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

globalnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A video showing Florida deputies punching and dragging a Black man from his car during a traffic stop has sparked outrage. William McNeil Jr., 22, was sitting in the driver\u2019s seat of his car, asking to speak to the Jacksonville deputies\u2019 supervisor when authorities broke his window, punched him in the face, pulled him from the vehicle, punched him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":45119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1437,1285,34052],"class_list":["post-45118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-florida","tag-his","tag-punching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45121,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45118\/revisions\/45121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}