Latest news with #Waters
TimesLIVE
5 days ago
- TimesLIVE
Video showing Florida deputy punching Black man goes viral
US media outlets reported the video on Monday and Tuesday after McNeil posted it on social media. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the public should not rush to judgment and that officers had asked McNeil several times to come out of his vehicle. McNeil's lawyers and civil rights group Black Lives Matter said the video showed police brutality. 'This should not have happened,' Black Lives Matter said on X. 'But the police have never treated Black people like human beings.' Waters told reporters that reviews of the incident were ongoing but the state attorney's office determined that none of the officers violated criminal law. Waters added that D. Bowers, the officer who broke the car window and punched McNeil, was stripped of his law enforcement authority pending the outcome of the reviews. McNeil was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, marijuana possession, driving with a suspended licence, not wearing a seat belt and not having headlights in bad weather, court records cited by ABC News showed. He was sentenced to and served two days in jail, the report added. In a police report, Bowers said McNeil was reaching towards an area where there was a knife. McNeil's attorneys — lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels — said their client was never combative.
West Australian
5 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Private healthcare giant Ramsay shuts psychology clinics
The country's biggest private hospital company will shut the majority of its psychology clinics in a matter of months. Ramsay Health Care notified staff of the closure of 17 of its 20 clinics earlier this month. The three remaining clinics are in the Newcastle suburb of Charlestown, in Perth's northern suburbs, and in Cairns. 'We understand this change might be unsettling and we are working closely with our psychologists to ensure every client is supported and has continuity of care, whether through our existing and expanded Telehealth service or with another trusted provider, depending on what is clinically appropriate,' a spokesperson said. 'This change is part of Ramsay's broader strategy to strengthen how we deliver high-quality, accessible and connected care across hospital, home and virtual settings.' Only Ramsay's community-based psychology clinics are closing, not its hospital mental health services or inpatient and day programs. Federal Greens leader Larissa Waters said half of Australians who needed mental health support already could not get it. 'The waiting lists are huge, and so it's devastating to see that a private healthcare operator is going to close down yet more facilities, and where are those people going to go?' she said. 'Health care shouldn't be for profit, and it shouldn't be how much money you've got on your credit card to enable you to get the health care that you need. 'So it's a real shame that profit seems to be driving this outcome that will have a real impact.' Ramsay Health is listed on the Australian sharemarket and valued at $8.9bn. The company's share price is down 16 per cent over the past 12 months. In August, Ramsay Health Care reported a nearly triple full-year profit of $888.7m, up from $298.1m the year before. The large return was mostly due to the sale of Ramsay's stake in Ramsay Sime Darby, which owns hospitals in Malaysia and Indonesia. The financial results gave shareholders an 80 cent dividend per share across the financial year. 'The government should be providing healthcare services as a universal right of all Australians, and it shouldn't be whether or not a private company's profit margin is going to work to determine the outcomes for Australians' access to mental health care,' Ms Waters said. The 17 clinics are being shut progressively until the final one closes the doors permanently by the end of August. Four Melbourne clinics are being shut, three in Sydney will close, two in Perth will shut, and single clinics on the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, the Gold Coast, NSW's Central Coast and Wollongong will close. 'After careful consideration, we are transitioning Ramsay Psychology to a more flexible and sustainable model, which includes the progressive closure of 17 clinics by the end of August,' the Ramsay spokesperson said. 'Three clinics, in Cairns (QLD), Charlestown (NSW) and Joondalup (WA), will remain open to support local needs, maintain key partnerships and pilot more integrated models of care. 'Ramsay Health Care is reshaping how it delivers community-based mental health support to better meet the evolving needs of clients and clinicians.' The National Mental Health Commission's National Report Card was also released on Thursday, the same day as news of the Ramsay closures broke. Health commission chief executive David McGrath said fewer and fewer people could afford mental health care. 'We have also seen a steady rise in financial stress and in the proportion of people in Australia delaying mental health care due to cost in the last four years,' Mr McGrath said in the report. 'Disappointingly, many social factors impacting mental health are not showing improvement (e.g. loneliness and experiences of discrimination) and positive experiences of mental health care have remained stable.' People were feeling less secluded than in the previous year, the commission found, and more people were getting help now than in 2007. 'However, there is no question there is a long way to go – our younger generations continue to report heightened psychological distress and financial stress and have a much higher prevalence of mental health challenges relative to the rest of the population,' Mr McGrath said.
Gulf Today
5 days ago
- Gulf Today
Florida officers smash window, punch man during traffic stop
Civil rights advocates condemned the sheriff's department in Jacksonville, Florida, after a video of officers punching a Black man and throwing him to the ground during a February traffic stop went viral online. William McNeil Jr, 22, recorded the video as he sat in the driver's seat of his car after deputies pulled him over. In the video, he asks to speak to supervisors and questions why he was stopped. An officer then smashes the driver's side window, orders McNeil to exit the car and hits him in his face. Another officer pulls him from the vehicle and throws him to the ground as other deputies surround him. U.S. media outlets reported the video on Monday and Tuesday after McNeil posted it on social media. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the public should not rush to judgment and that officers had asked McNeil several times to come out of his vehicle. McNeil's lawyers and civil rights group Black Lives Matter said the video showed police brutality. "This should not have happened," Black Lives Matter said on X. "But the police have never treated Black people like human beings." Waters told reporters that reviews of the incident were ongoing but the State Attorney's Office determined that none of the officers violated criminal law. Waters added that D. Bowers, the officer who broke the car window and punched McNeil, was stripped of his law enforcement authority pending the outcome of the reviews. McNeil was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, marijuana possession, driving with a suspended license, not wearing a seatbelt and not having headlights in bad weather, court records cited by ABC News showed. He was sentenced to and served two days in jail, the report added. In a police report, Bowers said McNeil was reaching toward an area where there was a knife. McNeil's attorneys - lawyers Ben Crump and Harry Daniels - said their client was never combative. Reuters
USA Today
6 days ago
- USA Today
Jacksonville sheriff airs video of traffic stop arrest after stressing need for 'context'
Jacksonville police are reviewing a traffic stop and arrest that inflamed an online audience, but prosecutors have decided the arresting officer didn't commit any crimes, Sheriff T.K. Waters said July 21. 'One video devoid of context can be very misleading,' Waters told reporters after screening bodycam footage from three officers connected to the Feb. 19 arrest of William Anthony McNeil Jr. Video shot inside McNeil's car, apparently recorded by the driver, prompted almost 2,000 comments and thousands of 'likes' after being posted on Instagram and drawing attention to the encounter which ended with a window being broken on the locked car door and McNeil ending up on the ground under officers' control. Sheriff T.K. Waters is holding a news conference regarding the investigation into a traffic stop from February 19, 2025. We will be releasing body-worn camera footage and additional details. McNeil, 22, retained civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels, the lawyers' publicist reported in a email where the pair called for public release of video of the arrest. 'This wasn't law enforcement, it was brutality. All video from JSO should be released to ensure there is transparency for McNeil and the community,' said a statement attributed to 'the legal team.' It added that 'We demand full accountability from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and justice for William McNeil Jr.' Two days after his arrest, McNeil pleaded guilty to resisting police without violence and driving with a suspended license, court records show. He was sentenced to two days already served in jail and a misdemeanor marijuana charge was dropped. During an evening news conference, the sheriff said he knew nothing of McNeil's arrest until July 20 when he was notified about a social media post describing the arrest but showing only a portion of the encounter. A post shared by Ben Crump (@attorneycrump) He said McNeil had done enough within the first 21 seconds of his contact with police to justify a resisting charge but the Sheriff's Office was still looking at whether there had been problems with the police response that should be addressed administratively. The sheriff said McNeil hadn't filed a complaint about his handling during the arrest. If he had, Waters said, 'we would have been all over' that. Waters said he could neither condone nor condemn officer actions during the stop and arrest because it was still under review by his agency. The video Waters released followed Officer D.J. Bowers' engagement with McNeil, whom Bowers told he had stopped around Commonwealth Avenue for not having headlights on during 'inclement weather.' After McNeil said headlights weren't needed and Bowers told him to step out of the vehicle, McNeil answered 'no, no' and told the officer to call his supervisor. 'Uncooperative adult driver,' Bower said into his radio, apparently advising someone of the situation. Again being told to step out, the driver answered no and closed the door. Bowers put his hand on the door and radioed that it was locked. About 45 seconds later, Bowers said 'right now, you're under arrest for resisting. … The longer you take … the worse it's gonna be.' 'Open the door and exit or we are going to break the window,' Bowers said about 35 seconds later, then repeatedly ordered the driver to open the door and said the driver was under arrest for resisting. More than two minutes later, after more officers arrived and another officer talked to McNeil and told him he had to get out, Bowers told a colleague he was about to break the window and was told 'all right, go for it' and smashed the window, unlocking the door and pulling the driver out. Video from McNeil's appeared to show his head was hit by a hand or fist before he got out of the car, then again during a scuffle, and he ended up on the ground with several officers around him, one of whom radioed for a rescue unit to look at a cut on his lip.
6 days ago
'I was really just scared': Man punched in viral Jacksonville traffic stop speaks publicly for 1st time
William McNeil, Jr., the 22-year-old Florida man whose violent arrest by Jacksonville sheriff's deputies was caught in a viral video, addressed the incident publicly for the first time during a press conference on Wednesday morning. McNeil began his brief remarks by thanking those who supported him, then turned to the Feb. 19 incident. "I was getting pulled over, and I needed to step out the car, and I know I didn't do nothing wrong. I was really just scared," he said. He was also asked by a reporter what he was taught about dealing with law enforcement. "Basically, what I was taught is to, instead of fighting them on the street where we don't have power, fight them in the courts," McNeil said in response. McNeil's mother, Latoya Solomon, said during the press conference that watching the video was emotionally difficult for her and it took her months to watch it in its entirety. "I'm thankful to God for protecting him, because I know what the outcome could have been," Solomon said His stepfather, Alton Solomon, was visibly emotional while reflecting on the incident. "To see that video made me go back to the moment when I was 22. It hurt," he said. McNeil is a student at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he is majoring in Biology. He is also the leader of the marching band. Speaking during the press conference, one of McNeil's attorneys, Ben Crump, called for the firing of the deputy who punched McNeil during the incident. "If you don't terminate this officer and you condone this type of police excessive force, then it sends a message to all of the other police officers on the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office team. It tells them, it is OK for you to treat citizens like this, it is okay to treat Black motorists like this," Crump said. "In America, it is not OK." On Monday, attorney Harry Daniels told ABC News that his client plans to take legal action. "We are planning to do everything we can do to secure justice," Daniels said when asked if the legal team plans to file a lawsuit. "We are seeking all options to ensure accountability." The sheriff's office said on Sunday that the agency launched an investigation into the incident after the 2-minute cell phone video captured by McNeil went viral. On Monday, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters also released body camera footage from two deputies who were present on the scene of the arrest. In the video, sheriff's deputies are seen beating and punching McNeil during the traffic stop after he repeatedly questioned why he was being pulled over and refused to exit his vehicle. The deputy who broke McNeil's window and punched him was identified by Waters as D. Bowers. "Pending the outcome of this administrative review, Officer Bowers has been stripped of his law enforcement authority," Waters said. It is unclear if other deputies involved in the arrest have been placed on administrative leave. Waters also announced on Monday that "the State Attorney's Office has determined that none of the involved officers violated criminal law," but highlighted that the deputies' actions are now being examined in an "administrative review," which will determine if the deputies "violated [Jacksonville Sheriff's Office] policy." ABC News has reached out to the Office of the State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit serving Clay, Duval, & Nassau Counties for further comment. It is unclear if Bowers has retained an attorney. ABC News has reached out to Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for further comment, but have not heard back.
