July 21, 2025
Hopefully the officers will be held accountable as McNeil says the ordeal resulted in a chipped tooth, nine lip stitches, a concussion, and short-term memory loss.
A Black man may have a hefty lawsuit on his hands after allegedly being assaulted by police officers in a viral video for allegedly failing to have his headlights on.
The incident took place in February 2025 in Jacksonville, Florida, while the man in the video, identified as William McNeil Jr., according to Action News Jax, was talking to an officer of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office out of his passenger window, claiming he let the officers standing outside the driver’s window know the window didn’t work. McNeil then inquired why he was being pulled over in the first place when the officer let him know that he was driving without headlights on during inclement weather.
Then things went left after he asked the officer to pull up the law requiring headlights and a request for a supervisor to be called. Suddenly, an unidentified officer was seen smashing the driver’s window open with his elbow and demanding McNeil exit the vehicle — right before punching him in the face while his hands were in his lap. After he was assaulted, McNeil was asked to show the officers his hands.
When the victim was pulled out of the car, a police officer was seen giving him an uppercut punch to the chin while being arrested. “I was putting my hands behind my back….what is going on?” McNeil can be heard asking.
“I was just trying to have a regular conversation with yall.”
The lawsuit may come to light as civil rights lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels are on the case to “fight for justice.” Crump has fought after many police brutality cases including the case of Tyre Nichols, where five Black Memphis cops were seen brutally attacking him when the victim was calling for his mother.
Attorneys like Chris Carson reviewed the highly disturbing video and said there should be no way these officers get away with this since there was no criminal activity seen. “I will say that video seems very over-the-top in terms of the officer’s behavior,” he said. “It doesn’t really seem there was any criminal behavior that was alleged on the part of the gentlemen. It’s a traffic stop. It happens 100 times a day.”
Social media users feel the same way, calling the actions unnecessary. While some claim the assault is a result of lack of training, others slammed that narrative. “It’s not a training problem; these people take the job so they can get their rocks off abusing people, especially black people. This is what they sign up for,” @insancegraphic wrote.
In a statement, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said an internal investigation is on the horizon “We hold our officers to the highest standards and are committed to thoroughly exacting what occurred,” the statement read.
Hopefully, the officers will be held accountable, as McNeil says the ordeal resulted in a chipped tooth, nine lip stitches, a concussion, and short-term memory loss.
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