ICE Violence in Jacksonville

So here we are again. Another day, another viral video of state-sanctioned brutality. This time it’s Jacksonville, Florida—because of course it is—where a white police officer decided that punching a 22-year-old Black man, William McNeal Jr., square in the face during a routine traffic stop was just standard operating procedure.

The cell phone footage is crystal clear: McNeal is in his car, and suddenly he’s being assaulted through the window before officers drag him out like he’s some kind of war criminal. For what? A traffic stop. You know, the kind of thing that gets white folks a friendly warning and a “drive safe now.”

But let’s call this what it really is: this isn’t “police work.” This is the kind of violence you’d expect from uniformed thugs operating under a regime that’s given up any pretense of serving and protecting. The casual brutality, the masks, the impunity—it all has a chillingly familiar aesthetic. We’ve seen this playbook before, in grainy black-and-white footage from 1930s Germany, when jackbooted enforcers terrorized citizens in the name of “law and order.”

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Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels are calling it what it is: brutality. Clear, documented, undeniable brutality. And this is happening while ICE agents roam the streets like masked paramilitaries and local cops act with the confidence of people who know there will be no consequences.

The 47th President has unleashed his forces, and they’re showing us exactly who they are. This is what “making America great again” looks like: fists to faces, bodies dragged from cars, and a police state that doesn’t even bother hiding behind euphemisms anymore.

Welcome to the new normal. Or should we say, the very old normal—just with smartphones to document the descent.

Keywords: ICE violence, Jacksonville police brutality, William McNeal Jr, police violence against Black Americans, state-sanctioned brutality, Ben Crump, Harry Daniels, civil rights violation, police state, Trump administration enforcement, racial profiling, excessive force, viral police video

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