SHOCKING: Daytona Beach cop 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐬 a compliant man over an 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫 of Patrón—and it’s all on video. | HO

A routine open container stop on a Daytona Beach street corner has spiraled into a full-blown police brutality scandal, with body camera footage showing an officer repeatedly striking a compliant man, grinding his face into the pavement, and escalating a minor violation into a violent melee.

The incident, which occurred late last week, has already resulted in the officer being placed on administrative duty. But critics say the department’s response is woefully inadequate—and that the video tells a story the chief’s press conference couldn’t spin away.

It started simply enough. Several men were standing on a street corner outside a commercial building. One of them, later identified as Mr. Anderson, was holding a bottle of Patrón tequila. A Daytona Beach police officer rolled up and immediately took an aggressive stance.

“Nope. You’re gonna go to jail for open container,” the officer said, his body camera recording everything. “Pour it out. Those are your options, dude. You can pour it out.”

Anderson, who appeared calm and compliant throughout the initial exchange, responded: “No, you can pour it out.”

The officer repeated his demand. Anderson handed over the bottle. The officer poured the tequila onto the street. Then Anderson flicked the cork forward—a small, dismissive gesture that would change everything.

What happened next, captured on both body camera and bystander video, has sparked outrage across social media.

The officer immediately grabbed Anderson, shouting, “Stop! Stop! Get on the ground!” He tackled the man from behind, slamming him onto the pavement. Anderson, caught completely off guard, could be heard asking, “What are you doing? What are you doing?”

Within seconds, the officer had Anderson in handcuffs—but the violence was only beginning.

As the officer restrained him, Anderson could be heard on the video, his voice steady despite being pinned down. “What did you tie me for?” he asked. Then, more pointedly: “When I threw the cork at you? I almost took you out, didn’t I?”

He was mocking the officer. But he wasn’t resisting.

“I almost took you out, didn’t I?” Anderson repeated, looking back over his shoulder.

The officer’s response was immediate. He struck Anderson in the face, then shoved his head down. Witnesses nearby began shouting. “Why are you hitting him? Why are you hitting him?”

The officer ignored them. He continued to apply pressure, grinding Anderson’s face against the asphalt. At one point, Anderson—still handcuffed—tried to move the officer’s arm away to relieve the pressure on his head. The officer responded with more strikes to the face.

“Get off my head,” Anderson yelled. “Get off my head. I’m complying. I’m complying.”

But the officer kept going. Even after Anderson was on his feet, being led toward a patrol car, the violence didn’t stop. As he was being placed inside, the officer shoved him back down onto the ground, restarting the entire struggle.

Throughout the ordeal, Anderson’s friends stood nearby, shouting at the officer to stop. At one point, one of them rushed forward, shouting, “That’s my twin! Get back!”

The officer, his adrenaline clearly spiking, warned the crowd to stay back. But the damage had already been done—and it had all been recorded.

The next day, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young held a press conference. Standing behind a podium, he acknowledged the video was “concerning.”

“After a review of the body camera footage, as well as the video currently being shared online, I will acknowledge what many people have already said,” Young said. “The clip circulating online is concerning.”

He announced that the officer had been placed in an “administrative assignment” pending a review by the Office of Professional Standards. He spoke of de-escalation tactics, professionalism, and due process.

But critics were not buying it.

“This is not a situation where ‘I’ve forwarded my concerns to the professional standards division’ is going to cut it,” said James White, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor who analyzed the footage on his popular legal commentary channel. “You need to get the state’s attorney’s office in Florida and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to independently investigate this.”

White pointed out multiple legal problems with the arrest—starting with the open container violation itself.

Under Daytona Beach municipal code, the crime is not possession of an open container, but consumption of alcohol in public. By pouring out the bottle, the officer destroyed the only evidence that could prove the violation. “Ordering a suspect that you’re getting ready to charge with a crime to destroy the evidence in your presence makes absolutely no sense,” White said.

But the bigger issue, he argued, was the use of force. Even if the cork toss technically constituted battery under Florida law—a misdemeanor—there was no justification for the level of violence the officer deployed.

“When have you ever been trained to walk up to somebody that you intend to arrest, not tell them at all that they’re under arrest, and simply jump on their back and begin attacking them?” White asked. “You’re lucky that you didn’t get your guts stomped out or get assassinated by these guys in the middle of the street. All because of what? An open container.”

White also noted that once Anderson was handcuffed and compliant, the continued strikes, the face-grinding, and the shoving were clear violations of the Graham v. Connor standard for use of force.

“There was no aggression. He’s just saying things that the cop doesn’t like,” White said. “So what’s he do? He takes a handcuffed detainee, strikes him in the face, and shoves his head down into the cruiser. That’s how we handle people that talk back to the police in Daytona Beach.”

The incident is the latest in a string of controversies for the Daytona Beach Police Department. In 2020, the department faced a lawsuit after a man named Carrie Jarvis was dragged by a patrol car during a traffic stop. In 2021, Officer Jason Raynor was killed in the line of duty while allegedly violating the rights of a suspect named Othal Wallace—a case that ended in a manslaughter conviction for Wallace but also raised questions about the department’s policing culture.

More recently, the mayor’s wife was stopped by officers in an incident that drew accusations of over-policing in minority communities. Mayor Derrick Henry publicly stated he believed there was an “over-policing problem” in the city.

Chief Young, who has been at odds with the mayor over policing strategies, has defended his officers in the past. But this time, White argued, the video leaves no room for defense.

“You came straight out with this essentially defense,” White said, addressing Young directly. “And your defense was, ‘This is not how we police. We train our officers to do this and do that.’ You might be able to fool the public with that, but there’s an enormous disconnect between you at the top and the people on the street.”

The attorney predicted that civil rights attorney Ben Crump—who has represented families in high-profile police brutality cases across the country—would be in Daytona Beach within days.

“I guarantee you the second Ben Crump sees this incident, oh, they’re going to be there,” White said. “They’re coming. I promise you they are coming.”

As of Monday, the officer involved remained on administrative assignment. The Office of Professional Standards review is ongoing. No criminal charges have been filed against the officer, and Anderson has not publicly commented on the incident.

But the video continues to spread. And for many who have watched it, the question is no longer what happened, but what happens next.

“This is a case that needs criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice for deprivation of rights under color of law with the bodily injury enhancement,” White said. “This person needs to be in federal prison and never be in a law enforcement capacity again for as long as they are alive. This cannot happen ever again. Ever again.”

The Daytona Beach Police Department did not respond to requests for additional comment beyond Chief Young’s initial press conference. But the mayor’s office released a statement saying the city was “closely monitoring” the investigation and expected “full transparency and accountability.”

For now, the footage speaks for itself. And in the age of body cameras and cell phones, the truth is harder to bury than ever.

As White put it: “The internet and video doesn’t lie. It’s right there for the whole world to see. Can’t run from it anymore.”