Brutal arrest of Black student in Florida shows benefits of recording police from new vantage point [View all]

Source: Associated Press

BY JEFF MARTIN
Updated 11:57 PM EDT, August 2, 2025

A video that captured the brutal arrest of a Black college student pulled from his car and beaten by officers in Florida has led to an investigation and calls for motorists to consider protecting themselves by placing a camera inside their vehicles.

William McNeil Jr. captured his February traffic stop on his cellphone camera, which was mounted above his dashboard. It offered a unique view, providing the only clear footage of the violence by officers, including punches to his head that can’t clearly be seen in officer body camera footage released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Since McNeil had the foresight to record the encounter from inside the vehicle, “we got to see firsthand and hear firsthand and put it all in context what driving while Black is in America,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, one of several lawyers advising McNeil.

“All the young people should be recording these interactions with law enforcement,” Crump said. Because what it tells us, just like with George Floyd, if we don’t record the video, we can see what they put in the police report with George Floyd before they realized the video existed.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/william-mcneil-police-beating-video-jacksonville-driver-4243a4a87a89ae2ef99259144067c2e5