A Florida sheriff’s office has suspended an officer who punched a driver in the face during a traffic stop that went viral.
William McNeil Jr posted video of himself sitting in his car as the policeman smashed the window, hit him and dragged him to the ground in the city of Jacksonville on 19 February this year.
After the clip spread online, police released bodycam footage that shows McNeil, 22, refusing demands to exit the vehicle after being told he has been pulled over for traffic violations.
The sheriff’s office said a state prosecutor had found no misconduct by the officers, but an internal review was also under way.
In his Instagram video, McNeil said his tooth was chipped and he required stitches to his mouth after the arrest, and suffered a concussion.
No misconduct?
So it is perfectly fine for a cop to break someone’s window and then punch them repeatedly while they’re not fighting back, while also there being no emergency or threat, all of it over a minor traffic violation that was clearly a bullshit one to begin with?
The guy wanted to continue the interaction when the cop’s supervisor was present because he had reasonable suspicion that the cop’s intentions were malicious, and his suspicions were immediately proven right.
Suspended with pay and will be found to have done nothing wrong and will face no consequences.
You’re not wrong:
In a news conference on Monday, Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters said: “The State Attorney’s Office has determined that none of the involved officers violated criminal law, even though the administrative review has yet to be completed.”
But he said one officer, D Bowers, had been stripped of law-enforcement duties pending a review into whether he violated any of the sheriff’s office policies.
I bet the accused violator spoke out against another cop or the department.
This is the fucking video they posted to refute what the driver posted? What the actual fuck? Florida, if this is what you post as a defense, you are racist fucks.
*Florida: in court* “Aaaaand let’s freeze the video right there. This is barely even the beginning of the video and we can already see dozens, if not hundreds, of causes for concern to ask the driver to exit the vehicle. See right here, in the dark, poorly lit area of the car, that’s the driver! Look at how black he is! Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I implore you to ask yourself, ‘why would an innocent man be doing such an egregious black? Wouldn’t doing a white raise fewer suspicions?’”
So you need to exit your vehicle for a traffic violation? If you run a stop sign you have to get out to receive your ticket???
Pennsylvania v Mimms.
It is lawful for a cop to tell you to get out of the car, you must comply and if you don’t, you can be charged with failure to obey a lawful order or obstruction. There is no real criteria that must be met for you to be ordered out of the car that would differentiate between a lawful command and unlawful command except that the stop is lawful in the first place. Since there are oodles of reasons why a cop can initiate a lawful stop, pretty much every case is a lawful stop. So yes, if you run a stop sign, you can lawfully be ordered to exit the vehicle.
All the same, just do what you are told and deal with it in court, which may end up with you getting paid if you are in the right. The side of the road is no place to make a shit situation worse by arguing, getting arrested, opening yourself up to physical harm, etc. By not complying, all you are doing is constructing the pretext for whatever comes next and that leaves you at a huge disadvantage in a court case that you could have otherwise won and gotten paid.
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Sheriff Waters added: “A person must comply with an officer’s commands, even if that person disagrees with that officer’s reasons for the stop.”
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He refuses to leave the vehicle and asks to speak to the officer’s supervisor before locking the doors.
After warning him to get out of the car for about three minutes, the officer smashes the window.
when i saw the first hit i thought “at least its not that bad” and it immeatideadly became "that bad"😭
That’s interesting that you didn’t think the first one was that bad. The officer took a sideswipe at him that the driver wasn’t prepared to get. I keep thinking about what if that was my white uncle or dad? I suspect the driver has been down this road before by him saying it isn’t raining and it’s during the day. The driver knew he was going to get shit on no matter what he did.
i mean he barely responded to it, it didnt seem like he was hurt in the slightest
Again, it seems like he’s been down this road before. IMO, he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction, it was a pride thing.
