William Anthony McNeil Jr. recently released a video of his February 19th arrest, which began when he was pulled over for not having his headlights on during “inclement weather” and for a seatbelt violation in Jacksonville, Florida. When McNeil questioned why he was being pulled over and refused to get out of the car, Officer Bowers smashed the driver’s side window and punched McNeil in the face. The video has since gone viral on social media.
“Right now, you’re under arrest for resisting,” Bowers said. “The longer you take … the worse it’s gonna be.”
When he asked for a supervisor after refusing to provide his license and registration, “things escalated quickly as you can see,” McNeil wrote on Instagram. McNeil captioned the cellphone camera footage: “This was very hard to do I’m not mentally healed from this but I had to get the word out eventually and if I pushed you away or changed more than likely this is why …”
As a result of the arrest, McNeil said his tooth was chipped and he required several stitches in his lips. He also said he suffered a concussion and short-term memory loss.
“The suspect continued to refuse to comply, at which time I broke the driver’s window and opened the driver’s door. I along with other officers on scene removed the suspect from the vehicle,” Bowers wrote in the arrest report. “The suspect was reaching for the floorboard of the vehicle where a large knife was sitting.”
There is no mention of him punching McNeill in the face. But once he was forcibly removed from his car, McNeil was struck multiple times.
McNeill was subsequently arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, as well as resisting an officer without violence. McNeil pleaded guilty to resisting a police officer without violence and driving on a suspended driver’s license, which is not to be confused with a headlight or seatbelt violation.
McNeil’s traffic stop is the latest example of why concerns remain about disproportionate traffic stops involving African Americans for minor infractions. The practice is often referred to as “driving while black.”
Reports and studies indicate there are significant racialized disparities in the U.S. police and criminal justice systems. African Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police than individuals racialized as white. There is a disproportionate use of force as police officers are over 2.5 times more likely to use or threaten force against persons racialized as black compared to individuals racialized as white.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office released a statement, which reads in part: “On Sunday, July 20, 2025, JSO was made aware that cell phone camera footage represented to be from this arrest was circulating on social media. The agency immediately began both a criminal and administrative review of the officers’ actions. These administrative reviews are ongoing, but the State Attorney’s Office has determined that none of the involved officers violated criminal law.”
McNeil has retained civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels to represent him. “This wasn’t law enforcement; it was brutality,” his legal team said in a joint statement.
“The narrative in this report isn’t just suspicious. It is completely divorced from reality. Not only is he clearly wearing his seatbelt in the video, he never reaches for anything,” Crump said in a statement. “In fact, the only time he moves at all is when the officer knocks him over by punching him in his face. Then this young man calmly sits back straight and holds his empty hands up.”
McNeil’s story reminds me of the “Master Narrative,” as named by Toni Morrison. This is defined as the dominant and historical narratives that erase and distort the experiences of marginalized people groups. Morrison explained, “The Master Narrative is whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority on everybody else: The Master Fiction…history.”
And the Master Narrative in cases of police brutality is: “I felt threatened.” “He’s got a gun.” “He was reaching for a/my gun.”
In the case of McNeil, it’s a knife on the floorboard. But he never reached for it, and none of the officers identified it as a threat. So, the Master Narrative is that he’s “resisting” arrest, which then justifies their physical assault on his body, aided by the revisionist history in Officer Bowers’ arrest report.
After the death of Michael Brown in 2014, this community’s response became “hands up; don’t shoot” as a means of regaining control of a narrative that cast African Americans as violent, dangerous and a threat to public safety. McNeil’s hands are up during the recorded traffic stop, within full view of the officers and not wielding a knife.
Still, he is punched in the face and slammed to the ground. Serial killers are treated with more dignity.
In fact, after he killed nine people at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, police bought Dylann Roof a hamburger from Burger King. Roof was later charged with nine counts of murder and weapons possession.
Bowers has since been “stripped of duty” amid an internal investigation, according to a statement from Sheriff T.K. Waters. So, the Master Narrative continues, which is why McNeil’s video camera recording is so important and actor Will Smith is still right: “Racism isn’t getting worse; it’s getting filmed.”
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.