Two prominent civil rights attorneys are threatening further legal action against the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office after more violent arrests of Black men have come to light via viral video.Ben Crump and Harry M. Daniels held a press conference at Mount Cavalry Church in Jacksonville last month t o call attention to the injuries suffered by several Black men during recent arrests the attorneys claim have involved excessive use of force. Among them is 24-year-old Dasaun Williams, whose jaw was broken during his arrest in November as part of a gang-related sting operation by the JSO targeting suspected drug dealers. While the sheriff’s office has not yet publicly released bodycam footage, a viral video circulating online shared by his girlfriend appears to show officers stunning Williams with tasers and repeatedly striking, kneeing and kicking him while he is pinned to the ground during the arrest. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump (right) is representing Dasaun Williams (left), a Jacksonville resident who was beaten and kicked by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office deputies during an arrest for alleged drug-related offenses in November 2025. (Photos: Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, First Coast News video screenshot) That video does not show what led up to the beating. Crump and Daniels released more bodycam video that does not seem to indicate Williams resisted before immediately being jolted with a taser, reported the Florida-Times Union.“Watch the video for yourself, he doesn’t resist, he complies,” Crump said at the briefing. “…And yet they have him on the ground face down, and they kick him repeatedly, punch him at least six to seven times, kick him at least three times, break his jaw, cause him to vomit, and cause him to have a puddle of blood under his face. And this is a person who is compliant. The police cannot be the ones who break the law if they want to be the example of how to uphold the law.” A Defense Attorney Called a Black Prosecutor the N-Word in Court and Said Nobody Ever Told Him It Was Wrong — Now He’s Begging the Supreme Court for Mercy Daniels noted that two Tasers were used on Williams at the same time, which is against policy. “And you cannot tase a person for passive resistance,” he said. “This is not a rare occurrence,” Crump said in a statement before the news conference. “We saw last year how Jacksonville’s Office officers pulled William McNeil from his car during a traffic stop and used brutal force against him. The public deserves answers about why there appears to be a pattern of excessive force against Black people in Jacksonville, and Dasaun deserves accountability for the injuries he suffered.” The case involving McNeil gained widespread attention occurred in February 2025 after a video showed officers punching McNeil in the face and dragging him from the driver’s seat of his vehicle, after pulling him over for not having his lights on during inclement weather, reported News4Jax. Sheriff Thomas K. Waters said at the time that McNeil repeatedly refused commands, leading to the escalation. The State Attorney’s Office (SAO) later cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing.An internal affairs investigation of Officer D.J. Bowers exonerated him for using unnecessary force but reprimanded him for leaving “a strike to the face” out of his Response to Resistance report.During the SAO investigation, Bowers explained that he considered his use of the “distraction strike” to McNeil’s face as a tool and did not consider it as the deployment of force. Crump and Daniels are currently representing McNeil in a federal lawsuit filed against the sheriff, two JSO officers, and the Consolidated City of Jacksonville and Duval County, Florida in September (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star). The complaint says that, though he was not resisting and posed no threat, the two officers slammed McNeil’s head and face into the pavement, resulting in lacerations to the chin and lip, a broken tooth, and an ongoing traumatic brain injury. In that case, as well as in the recent arrests of Williams, Crump and Daniels say the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office enforces a policy that allows its officers to use unwarranted and excessive physical force against individuals who pose no threat, a practice referred to as “distractionary blows.” Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump (fourth from left) and Harry M. Daniel (second from right) spoke out against alleged use of excessive force by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office deputies at Mount Cavalry Church in Jacksonville on April 3, 2026. The violent arrests they discussed included those of William McNeil (left) and Charles Brinkley (right). (Photo: First Coast News video screenshot) “They also have policies where officers don’t have to report use of force against individuals so long as a person don’t claim they are injured or taken to the hospital,” said Daniels. “This is a pattern and practice that has gone on a long time in Jacksonville,” which he said has “the worst sheriff’s office when it comes to use of force against citizens” that he has seen in his civil rights work, “from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from the Mississippi Delta to the Great Lake of Michigan.”The McNeil lawsuit claims that when it investigates use of force by its officers, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office rarely finds that its officers have violated its use of force policy. Between the years of 2022 and 2024, the sheriff’s office initiated 424 investigations concerning allegations of excessive force. Out of these, only three allegations were upheld, the lawsuit said, citing a JSO data report.“To beat someone with a bodycam on, it tells us that you don’t care, and you know nothing will happen to you,” Daniels said.Both he and Crump emphasized that regardless of what they are alleged to have done, all suspects have constitutional rights and are innocent until proven guilty.Williams was one of four men arrested as part of a months-long operation by the JSO’s Gang Unit. He faces 27 drug-related charges, including multiple counts of the sale or delivery of fentanyl while armed, and multiple counts of trafficking other illegal drugs.The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office told reporters it could not comment on the Williams case because it remains under administrative review.In its answer to the McNeil lawsuit, attorneys for the city of Jacksonville and Duval County claimed that its officers acted reasonably under the circumstances and only used the amount of force that was reasonably necessary.The individual officers sued, Bowers and D. Miller, denied the allegations that they used excessive force against McNeil and further claimed qualified immunity against any liability for his injuries.Crump also called out the “equally disturbing” case of 44-year-old Travis Brinkley, who was arrested by deputies on Nov. 4, 2024, as part of a citywide drug bust operation.Newly surfaced body camera video of the incident shows that JSO deputies wearing face masks and tactical gear beat the unarmed Brinkley while he was restrained on the ground with his arms behind his back. “The officer just unloads on him, punch after punch after punch, while he is face down, knocks his tooth out of his mouth,” said Crump, who said Brinkley was compliant and posed no threat to the officers. JSO never transported Brinkley to the hospital for treatment of his injuries, the attorneys said. Brinkley, who, like McNeil, was on hand for the press conference, told the reporters and others gathered at the church, “I didn’t think I did anything to cause what happened. I was shocked. I didn’t resist, curse — I was compliant. And they called me the N-word.”“So we now have Exhibits A, B, and C,” said Crump of the three violent arrests captured on video. “We will not allow the JSO to engage in excessive force, violate the Constitution and have a pattern and practice of excessive brutality against Black citizens.” They faulted Sheriff Waters, who is Black, for encouraging his deputies to physically abuse those they arrest and for failing to document it when they do.“When you have an African-American sheriff and subordinates who are using racial epithets while beating citizens, if anyone is gonna stop it, you would think it would be him,” said Daniels. “The way that y’all stop blood in the streets in Jacksonville is to go to the polls,” added Crump. “It is time for a change in administration.” Crump said he and Daniels are investigating the conduct of the sheriff’s office in multiple cases, looking for further evidence of civil rights violations, and will likely file a lawsuit on behalf of Williams. “We can’t look away,” he said. “We have to document the atrocities. Thank God for technology.” ‘Thank God for Technology’: Videos Show Florida Cops Repeatedly Punching, Kicking and Tasing Compliant Black Men as Victim Reveals He Was Called the N-Word ...read more read less