No charges for Jacksonville officers who punched Black man during arrest

[In It to Win It]

WaPo - Gift Link

Prosecutors will not bring criminal charges against sheriff’s officers who wrestled a Black man out of a car during a traffic stop and punched him multiple times, the local sheriff said Monday.

Jacksonville, Florida, sheriff’s officers stopped William Anthony McNeil Jr. on Feb. 19, telling him he didn’t have his headlights on and wasn’t wearing a seat belt, body-camera footage released by the sheriff’s office shows. After McNeil, 22, questioned the reasons for the stop and refused to get out of the car, an officer smashed his window and punched him in the face.

Police wrote in a report that before he was pulled out of the car, McNeil reached for the floorboard, where an unsheathed knife was later found. Publicly available video footage does not show him leaning down toward it.

Sheriff T.K. Waters said Monday that local prosecutors “have determined that none of the involved officers violated criminal law.” The state attorney’s office for the 4th Judicial Circuit declined to comment Wednesday.

[stollen]

1. What was the probable cause for him to leave the car?

Or does probable cause no longer exist in the US?

IF he'd put his seat belt on and turned on the lights, end of story?

I haven't been to FL for several years. I wonder how that state's tourism is dusty is doing. With its Constitution concentration camps and Stasi running around arresting people, one would think tourists would prefer to go overseas.

Europe is packed at the moment.