A young Black man seen in a viral video[1] being punched, pulled out of his car and slammed to the ground by police has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging systemic brutality and cover-ups within the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO).
William McNeil, a 22-year-old student at Livingston College[2], joined lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels this week to announce the lawsuit against Sheriff T.K. Waters, deputies Donald Bowers and D. Miller, and the city of Jacksonville.
The suit claims both excessive force in McNeil’s arrest and unconstitutional policies that enabled the violence, alleging Fourth and 14th Amendment violations.
It seeks damages for McNeil’s physical and psychological injuries, and injunctive relief to change JSO’s policies on use-of-force and reporting.
The Feb. 19 incident drew national headlines after spreading rapidly across the internet last month when the footage was posted to social media. It shows McNeil sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, asking to speak to the Jacksonville deputies’ supervisor, when authorities broke his window, punched him in the face, yanked him from the vehicle, punched him again and threw him to the ground.
McNeil suffered lacerations to his chin and lip, a fractured tooth and what doctors diagnosed as a traumatic brain injury, according to the complaint[3] Crump and Daniels, both seasoned civil rights lawyers, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
The video was viewed tens of millions of times and sparked widespread[4] outrage[5]. Last month, State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s Office released an investigative memorandum defending the officers’ actions[6], blaming McNeil’s “refusal to provide his identification, registration, and proof of insurance, followed by his refusal to exit (his vehicle), show his hands, and obey the officers’ orders” for creating “a dangerous situation for all involved.”
Waters noted shortly after McNeil’s arrest that the young man had pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence and driving with a suspended license.
Daniels said the case exemplifies a dangerous culture within JSO.
“The simple fact is that, if William McNeil hadn’t recorded this incident and posted it on social media, we’d never have known it happened. That’s not speculation. It’s a matter of policy at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,” he said.
“These policies don’t just permit JSO officers to assault the people of Jacksonville and keep it secret, they encourage it.”
The 22-page complaint takes particular aim at the JSO’s authorization of so-called “distractionary blows,” strikes to a suspect’s body or face meant to divert attention during an encounter. Crump and Daniels argue the technique, as practiced by the Department, is an excuse for violence against individuals who pose “no immediate threat of harm to the officer or to others.”
The lawsuit also highlights what it charges is a reporting loophole, citing a Jacksonville and JSO policy it says allows officers to avoid documenting uses of force if they claim the encounter caused no injury.
“This policy creates a setting that promotes its officers to engage in illegal or excessive use of force without the fear of encountering any repercussions or consequences, nor the obligation to report such actions,” the suit says. “Furthermore, this policy permits an officer to perpetrate a criminal assault on an individual without obligation to report such an act.”
Sheriff Waters, who took office in late 2022[7], has defended his Department’s use-of-force framework[8] as consistent with Florida law.
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References
- ^ viral video (youtu.be)
- ^ Livingston College (livingstone.edu)
- ^ complaint (cloudup.com)
- ^ widespread (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ outrage (apnews.com)
- ^ memorandum defending the officers’ actions (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ took office in late 2022 (www.news4jax.com)
- ^ defended his Department’s use-of-force framework (floridaphoenix.com)