'I was just scared': Black student punched, dragged by Florida deputies draws civil rights outcry
At a news conference in Jacksonville, 22-year-old William McNeil Jr. spoke softly as he made a few brief comments with his family and civil rights attorneys by his side.
'That day I just really wanted to know why I was getting pulled over and why I needed to step out of the car," he said. "I knew I didn't do nothing wrong. I was really just scared.'
McNeil is a biology major who played in the marching band at Livingstone College, a historically Black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina, Livingstone President Anthony Davis said.
An arrest video captures the motorist being punched
Footage of the violent arrest has sparked nationwide outrage, with civil rights lawyers accusing authorities of fabricating their arrest report.
The video shows McNeil was sitting in the driver's seat, asking to speak to the Jacksonville officers' supervisor, when they broke his window, punched him in the face, pulled him from the vehicle, punched him again, and threw him to the ground. He was then knocked to the ground by an officer who delivered six closed-fist punches to the hamstring of his right thigh, police reports show.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday defended law enforcement officers and implied the video was posted to advance a 'narrative' and generate attention on social media.
'That's what happens in so many of these things," DeSantis said. "There's a rush to judgment. There's a, there's a desire to try to get views and clicks by creating division.'
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Business Standard
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News18
2 hours ago
- News18
New law in Benin grants citizenship to slave descendants, Ciara among first
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Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
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A new law in Benin grants citizenship to slave descendants. Ciara is among the first
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