The Dashcam Video of His Violent Arrest Has Gone Viral. Why He Decided to Record It.
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.
What does fear sound like when it's lawful? What does resistance look like when it's survival?
As a 22-year-old Black man in America, William McNeil Jr. did what generations before him were told might keep them alive when confronted by police. He stayed calm. He asked why he was being stopped. He requested a supervisor. He recorded. He didn't run. He didn't fight. He sat in his car and tried to stay alive. And still, the glass shattered. The blows followed.
McNeil's violent arrest by local police in Jacksonville, Florida, in February was caught on video and circulated nationwide recently. In an interview with Slate, McNeil recounted for nearly 40 minutes in chilling detail what he felt like to be pulled over without cause, to have officers descend upon him with weapons drawn, and to be brutalized as the camera rolled on. He described the pain that still radiates. McNeil's life changed that day, and his experience at death's doorstep has rearranged how he moves through the world.
The video McNeil filmed of the encounter—now viral—shows what it shows: a man seated, speaking, and then suddenly struck through instantly broken glass. There is no scramble for a weapon. There is no threat. But video alone cannot show the breath caught in his chest, the split-second fear that survival hinged on stillness, or the sound of glass breaking as a prelude to internal pain.
McNeil's story is not an aberration. It is the latest entry in a long American ledger of a history written in bruises, breathlessness, and blood. From the Edmund Pettus Bridge to a Cleveland park, to a Staten Island sidewalk, to the Minneapolis street outside a convenience store, to another traffic stop—this time in Florida. The names and dates may change. The cities, the justifications, the badge numbers may shift. But the dynamic remains: Black assertion of basic rights treated by law enforcement as aggression, a threat demanding potentially deadly force. Black presence treated as provocation. Black life—demeaned, abused, and often extinguished—forced to justify its right to exist in the face of state violence. Compliance becomes a moving target, one Black Americans can never quite seem to hit.
Legally, the stop should never have happened. Under Whren v. United States , police may use a traffic violation as a pretext for a stop. But only if a real violation occurred. McNeil committed none. There was no legal basis for the seizure, making it a violation of the Fourth Amendment from the outset. And the violations stacked. When McNeil, seated and calm, asked why he was being stopped, and later asked for a supervisor, officers ordered him to exit the vehicle. That command, under Pennsylvania v. Mimms , presumes that officers have lawfully stopped a motorist and are seeking to minimize danger. But here, the stop lacked any legal justification and far from reducing risk of danger, the officers created the danger to McNeil. At bottom, it was an encounter of compounded unconstitutionality: a seizure without cause, a retaliatory command, and then brute force deployed as a consequence for asserting a right.
This, too, is not new. The treatment of Black movement, speech, and autonomy as inherently dangerous is older than the badge. Slave patrols once roamed this country with the legal power to stop, question, and beat those who could not prove their right to travel. Under the fugitive slave laws , the burden of proof belonged not to the captor but to the captured. That same dynamic echoes through every doctrine that permits a stop without reason, a strike without threat, and a charge of “resisting” applied to survival itself. It is not merely unconstitutional. It is ancestral.
In a different country, McNeil's humanity would have been enough to stop the violence. His fear would have been enough to stop the blows. His calm, his questions, his visible hands—any one of them should have been enough to spare him the shattering of glass and the crush of fists. But in this country, Black suffering is made to meet a higher evidentiary burden, one that exists nowhere in law but is enforced all the same.
Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Robyn Sanders: Can you take me back to the day of the incident? What were you doing, and where were you headed before the police stopped you?
William McNeil Jr.: I was going home from work. I stopped to see a friend. And then as I was leaving, a cop pulled me over and said that my headlights weren't on. It was 4 p.m. during the daylight. I told him that that wasn't a lawful reason to pull me over, and then he said my seat belt was off, and it was clearly on. And then I asked for a supervisor. As I go step out of the car, I see him reach for his gun and start to walk towards me. So, I closed the door and locked it.
Do you remember when you got stopped how many police officers approached your vehicle initially?
When I first got stopped, there was only one police officer who approached my vehicle. That was the one who smashed the window.
OK, and then you said you asked him a question about why he was stopping you?
I asked him why he was stopping me. And his response was that my headlights were off. But it was 4 p.m. in the daylight.
I know that we have video footage of this incident, but can you describe what the weather conditions were like that day as you were driving?
As I was driving that day, it was partly cloudy and sunny in certain spots around Jacksonville. When I got pulled over, I could see parts of the blue sky.
At what point did other officers arrive on the scene? And how many were there?
After I asked for the supervisor multiple times, I remember he made a call on his radio, and not even 30 seconds later, four other officers pulled up. One pulled his SUV directly in front of my car and hit my car a little bit. He bumped it. And the same with another car in the back. And then the other two pulled up facing towards my car. And then they basically just surrounded my car. And then one Black officer had his gun pulled, pointed at me through my windshield since he pulled up. He was standing on the passenger side of the car that was directly in front of my car with the door open. So, on my driver's side.
Okay. And when you asked the officer the legal reason for the stop, why was it important to you to ask that question in that moment?
Because I knew I didn't do anything, and I had just pulled off, and it was not even five seconds later and I was getting pulled over.
There was a moment when you also asked the officer to show you the specific law that you were breaking concerning your headlights being turned off. What kind of response were you hoping for at that time?
I was hoping for the officer to show me or tell me the law that I was breaking if I was breaking any laws. I was expecting him to show me all of that and that would have de-escalated the whole situation and I would have complied.
At what point do you recall the officers first asking you to step out of your car?
I was first asked to step out of the car when I asked for a supervisor.
Can you talk about what was going through your mind when you decided to remain in your car even after they asked you to exit?
Because I was scared. I was afraid that I was going to lose my life if I stepped out of the car, since I saw the officer with the gun and the other one moved for him.
At the time when you were seated in your car, there was some conversation, the officers were standing around, and they were not answering your questions. Did you think that they were going to let you go or did you anticipate what would happen next which was the glass shattering on you?
I expected for them to all have a conversation and that they would call the supervisor and do their job.
The next thing I remember was glass shattering everywhere. I got hit in the face. And then when I looked back up from getting hit in the face, I was looking at the barrel of a gun. That's what I kept staring at was the windshield when I was looking straight. I just let them do whatever they wanted to do. I didn't want to fight back. Because I knew, one, that's wrong, and two, I could lose my life.
When you were thrown around and pulled out of the vehicle, it appears from the video that you were being beaten. I saw at least one officer strike you in the face again. And then the video shows you being thrown to the ground while you are being repeatedly struck. Do you remember saying anything at that time? Did you tell them to stop? Did you tell them that you were in pain? What, if anything, did you say?
I was trying to tell them that I am putting my hands behind my back, that my hands are behind my back, and that I am trying to let them put the cuffs on me. But I couldn't get my words out while I was being hit. There was a lot going on.
Can you talk a little bit about what happened after the video cuts off and they raised you up? Did anything else happen?
There was no more physical abuse, but there was a lot of verbal abuse even as I was still sitting on the ground. And I was being put in the car. I could overhear officers talking mess. I could see them chuckling and looking at their fists and stuff and talking with each other. They had smiles on their faces.
William, there has been reporting about a knife being found in and seized from your car. Is it true that there was a knife in your car? And I saw that part of the initial police report that was released included a statement by the officer who wrote it saying that you gestured toward the knife that was on the floorboard, which is why he acted the way we observed on the video. Do you have anything you want to say about the knife?
To answer your first question, yes. There was a knife in my vehicle because all I do is fish, work, and go home. And second, as far as reaching for the knife, I never reached for the knife, because again, I was in fear for my life, and I was looking down the barrel of a gun. Also, the video justified that within itself. I had my hands up.
When you were finally taken to jail, did you have a cell by yourself?
No. I was with two other men.
Did you talk to them?
No. I didn't talk. I didn't eat. One guy saw me struggling. I remember his face really well.
What happened after you arrived at the jailhouse?
At first the EMS took me to the hospital. Paramedics on the scene said that I was just fine and that I just needed to be wiped up.
Let's talk about the aftermath. When did you decide to record the encounter? When did you decide to release the video and why?
Since the stop, my first intentions were to record the encounter. Because I already know about the [Jacksonville Sheriff's Office] and how they treat young Black men here in Jacksonville. It's not the first case where this has happened. It has happened millions of times. I decided to record around the time when the officer by my window put his hands around his gun. I closed my door to one, be safe, and two, have time to be able to have evidence just in case I did lose my life, my family would have something where they could go fight for me if I had been killed and was gone.
When did you decide to release the video?
One night I just really couldn't sleep at all, like every night since this happened, and I was up crying because I was angry, and I had just been dealing with it by myself. And those moments from that day always kept replaying in my mind, especially at night. It was like I could just feel each and every hit over and over again. I would constantly hear glass shattering. I just got tired of it. I decided to just post it and to see who would be out there and who would care enough to help.
How has your life changed since the encounter? Can you talk about the physical, emotional, and even legal toll that this has taken on you?
Since the encounter, I have had to stop running my business that I had. I am an entrepreneur. I am behind on bills. I can't eat as much as I used to. I have lost a lot of pounds. I can't sleep almost at all. I probably get about two to three hours of sleep per night if I am lucky. I have pulled away from my friends and my family. I mostly like to be alone. The only time I really find peace is if I am fishing on the water.
Can you talk about the injuries you sustained that are visible?
My tooth is very damaged. I can't eat anything with it and I can't bite into things. As far as my lip goes, my tooth went through my lip and hit when I was being hit on the concrete. That's when it chipped. The nerves in my lip are severely damaged. I still to this day can't feel that part of my lip. It's still numb. And that has affected the way I play my horn. My other injuries are just really bad. I also suffer from short-term memory loss.
What do you say to people who say that what happened to you was justified? What do you want people to understand?
What I want people to understand is that what was done to me was not justified. For one, no citizen should ever be treated like that. It's not called for anyone to put your hands on or beat anyone, even as a regular citizen. Anything can be talked out. Violence is never the answer. As far as everyone who keeps saying he was in the wrong because he had a suspended license and weed on him, you never knew that until after I was arrested and you ranted my name. I pulled over for headlights.
What does justice look like to you for yourself and for others who may never have a video?
What justice looks like for me is for people who have been in my position, I want everyone to just come together to fight against cops who are like this. Not all cops are bad, but there are a lot that are. We need to get them out of the system.
What do you hope your story does?
I hope my story changes the world. I want it to change how everyone looks at each other and sees one another. I really, really want the cops in America to be changed some kind of way. I always wanted to be like Jesus, and I really want the world to love more and not hate.
Sign up for Slate's evening newsletter.
