Jacksonville deputies had been mostly quiet amid mounting criticism they were overly physical Saturday in confrontations with rowdy fans attending an SEC football game affectionately known as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
Several cellphone videos of the fights had gone viral and appeared to show deputies responding with disproportionate force to unruly fans. Jeremy Williamson, who recorded one of the clashes, told the Florida Times-Union it was a clear case of police brutality.
“What we witnessed was 100% wrong,” Williamson said.
On Monday, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters defended his deputies, saying an initial review by the department’s Professional Standards Division found they committed no policy violations during the annual game between the universities of Georgia and Florida.
The videos posted online only told half the story, he said. One of the fans threatened to kill an officer while another attempted to take his gun.
“I don’t need context, ‘N-word,'” the sheriff quoted one fan who called in a threat. “You better hope I don’t learn who you are. I will hunt this ‘N-word’ and kill him. I am coming. Equalizer. I don’t give a ‘s-h-i-t’ who they are. I’m getting ready to start putting bullets in them.”
Another of the fans, sitting in a seat that wasn’t his, threatened to kill an officer and then attempted to take his gun. Bodycam footage shows him refusing to move after two Jacksonville deputies, one Black, the other white, informed him he was trespassing.
The verbal sparring continued until the Black officer, Taser in hand, touched the white fan’s arm, prompting him to shout, “Don’t touch me, [N-word]!”
The Black officer then tasers the man as the white officer tries to handcuff him. The fan doesn’t relent, calling the Black officer a [N-word] three more times before he’s finally handcuffed and led away.
“In this case, the cellphone camera footage that has been circulating since Saturday does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding these instances,” Waters said. “The cellphone cameras did not capture the events that led up to the arrests.”
There were eight arrests altogether and 35 ejections from EverBank Stadium.
Williamson said, despite the fan’s foul words, “there was absolutely no excuse for what (the cops) did.” In his video, you can see other fans objecting to the officers’ treatment of the man, who was bleeding from the head.
In another video, posted on X by Ohio’s Tate at Barstool Tate, two officers are seen tussling with two fans in the stands. One of the fans is pushed down the stairs by the cop, who punches him repeatedly, while the other officer is seen striking an older man multiple times.
What you didn’t see, said Jacob Vorpahl, commander of public accountability and professional standards at the Sheriff’s Office, was one of the men threatening to kill a stadium worker he said had tried to kidnap his kids.
The female worker involved the deputies, who approached the fan and told him he was being ejected. The man can be overheard telling another woman, “Remember what I told you, I’m either going to kill a cop or not leave.”
He also prods the officers to “Tase me.”
After some more back and forth, one of the officers deploys his Taser. The fan becomes more agitated and threatens the deputies, “Now you want some … Pull your gun out.” A fight breaks out before the man is eventually subdued and handcuffed.
Another incident involved a father and son who refused to leave after they were ejected for unruly behavior.
