The man at the center of a video that went viral for refusing to accept an officer’s decision to pull him over for not having his headlights on during the day talked July 23 to reporters and supporters about being arrested and hit by police.
“That day, I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and why I needed to step out of the car. I know I didn’t do nothing wrong,” said William Anthony McNeil Jr., 22. “I was just really scared.”
After several warnings during the Feb. 19 traffic stop, the officer smashed McNeil’s window, punched him in the face and dragged him out as additional officers further engaged him, as seen both in a video McNeil posted on Instagram and footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras.
Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels were joined by McNeil, his family and other lawyers at St. Paul Church of Jacksonville to talk about the arrest to reporters and community members, whom they asked to urge the Sheriff’s Office to hold the officer accountable.
“This was a classic case of driving while Black,” Crump emphatically said.
Daniels said there was no rain, fog or anything, and everybody saw the video, so anybody would have been confused why he was being pulled over.
“He exercised the right to ask that question,” Daniels said. “They bullied him, intimidated him, broke his window and beat him and caused permanent injuries.”
Daniels said McNeil suffered a fractured tooth that punctured his lip, requiring stitches, and remains under medical evaluation for a concussion.
Crump said it’s not anti-police, he was exercising his constitutional rights. Crump said McNeil kept calm and it was the officer who escalated it. He called for the officer’s immediate termination.
“You can’t justify this, you can’t condone this, you have to condemn this,” he said.
Crump noted McNeil attends Livingstone College, a historically Black college in North Carolina, and had never been arrested before the traffic stop, in which he pleaded guilty to resisting police without violence and having a suspended license. College President Anthony Davis said he is a biology major who volunteers to play in the marching band. “He showed us restraint, he showed us resolve,” in that video, he said.
Civil rights attorney Gerald Griggs spoke next.
“This is not a war on police, this is about justice and accountability for everyone,” Griggs said “… This could have been us, this could have been me, this could have been you.”
He compared McNeil to some of the heroes of the civil rights movement.
“He held his hands up, he remained calm, he took a punch without retaliating,” he said. “What more would you want?”
McNeil’s mother, Latoya Solomon, said she initially couldn’t watch the video past when the window was smashed and only watched it all later.
His stepfather, Alton Solomon, said he knows how his son felt because something happened to him similarly when he was the same age.
“To see that is a hurt feeling,” he said in tears.
After McNeil’s parents gave comments, the college student spoke briefly, thanking God for bringing everybody together.
Asked by a reporter about not reacting sooner but involving attorneys much later, McNeil said he had learned not to fight in the street when a stronger fight can be waged in court.
Crump and Daniels also noted that the State Attorney’s Office didn’t interview McNeil, with Daniels calling it “white-washing.” They said they thank God he recorded the incident.
Jacksonville sheriff’s comments about viral traffic stop video
Sheriff T.K. Waters released the following statement during McNeil and his attorneys’ news conference:
“In light of William McNeil Jr.’s public announcement that he has retained counsel, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will not offer any further comment regarding the circumstances surrounding McNeil’s February 19th arrest. Our agency has publicly released body-worn camera footage pertaining to this matter, and I provided a briefing on the status of the investigation earlier this week. This publicly shared information is currently available on all JSO’s social media platforms and our transparency portal. However, in anticipation of litigation, our agency will not speak further on this matter.”
Waters held a lengthy briefing of his own on July 21 providing an update that the State Attorney’s Office has determined none of the officers involved violated criminal law. He said the case is still under an internal administrative review but he has removed the arresting officer’s law enforcement authority until the outcome of the investigation.
He said with the administrative process ongoing, he will neither defend nor commend Officer Donald Bowers’ response to resistance.
But within 21 seconds of McNeil being stopped, the sheriff said he refused to provide his driver’s license and registration and then 14 seconds later, he shut and locked his door refusing to come out.
“I want to be clear about something, yes there absolutely was force used by the arresting officers, and yes that force is ugly,” he said. “But as I have said many times before the reality is that all force, all violence, is ugly, and just because force is ugly does not mean it’s unlawful or contrary to policy.”
He said he assumed McNeil posted the video on his Instagram in attempt to “advance an anti-police agenda” and that it is out of context without the entirety of the bodycam video he released during his briefing.
In the video McNeil kept asking why he was being pulled over when it wasn’t raining and others didn’t have their headlights on either. A second officer told him it didn’t matter. McNeil could be heard asking them to call a supervisor.
“What happened to William McNeil Jr. is a disturbing reminder that even the most basic rights — like asking why you’ve been pulled over — can be met with violence for Black Americans,” his attorneys previously said. “William was calm and compliant. Yet instead of answers, he got his window smashed and was punched in the face, all over a questionable claim about headlights in broad daylight. This wasn’t law enforcement, it was brutality.”
Waters noted that McNeil didn’t file a complaint at the time and instead pleaded guilty to some of the charges.
Additional charges of possession of not more than 20 grams of marijuana and use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia were dropped and citations for not having headlights on during rain, fog or smoke and not wearing a seat belt were dismissed, according to court records. He was sentenced to two days of time served in jail.
This story has been updated with more details from the news conference and additional visuals.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville driver in viral traffic stop arrest video speaks out. Here’s what he said
Reporting by Scott Butler and Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
