Body Camera Footage Of Tyreek Hill’s Arrest Exposes The Fragile Egos Of Miami-Dade Cops
Wide Receiver Tyreek Hill #10 of the Miami Dolphins addresses the media during the post-game press conference after playing the Jacksonville Jaguars at Hard Rock Stadium on September 8, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Florida. | Source: Don Juan Moore / Getty
On Sunday, just a few hours before the kickoff of a game between the Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars, officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department reminded us how fragile a cop’s ego can be especially when dealing with Black citizens who don’t immediately comply with their every demand. This time, an officer got his blue underwear all in a bunch over the momentary non-compliance of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who was forcibly removed from his car, handcuffed and aggressively forced to the ground during what started as a regular traffic stop. On Monday, the police department released body camera footage of the stop.
The unmet expectation of perfect obedience is not a permission slip for brutality. The comply or else culture of policing is not a simple matter of “deescalation” when drivers are expected to comply with the unquestioning obedience of slaves.#TyreekHill . pic.twitter.com/tyhaGjnVod
— Rev. & Prof. Cornell William Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) September 10, 2024
From CNN:
The footage shows a police officer approaching Hill’s car and knocking on the window after he signaled for Hill to pull over. Hill rolls down the window when the officer knocks and replies, “Hey, don’t knock on my window like that.” The officer asks Hill why he doesn’t have a seatbelt on. Hill doesn’t answer and repeatedly says, “Don’t knock on my window like that.”
The officer asks why Hill had his window up and says he had to knock to let Hill know he was there.
“Give me my ticket bro so I can go, I’m going to be late. Do what you got to do,” Hill said before rolling up the window.
The officer tells him to keep his window down and knocks again, but Hill doesn’t appear to respond. The officer knocks again and tells Hill to keep his window down. Hill rolls down his window slightly and responds, “Don’t tell me what to do.”
The officer threatens to make Hill get out of the car if he doesn’t keep the window down, and then immediately after orders him out. Another officer opens Hill’s car door and starts to pull him out of the car, saying, “Get out!” while Hill responds, “I’m getting out.”
Hill is heard saying, “I’m getting out, I’m getting out,” and the same officer says, “Too late.”
Two officers are seen pushing Hill to the ground while another officer stands over. Hill is heard saying, “I’m getting arrested” multiple times, and the one officer physically restraining him says, “When we tell you to do something, you do it. You understand? You understand? Not what you want, but what we tell you. You’re a little f**cking confused.”
“Alright bro, take me to jail, bro do what you gotta do,” Hill says. “We will,” the officer responds.
Well, actually, they didn’t. According to NPR, the officers eventually let Hill go after more officers and the Miami Dolphins head of security arrived at the scene and he was able to play in Sunday night’s game. He was never arrested or charged with a crime.
As for why he wouldn’t keep his window down as the officer demanded, Hill explained in an interview on CNN Monday: “If I let my window down, people walking by, driving by, they’re going to notice that it’s me. They’re going to start taking pictures. I didn’t want to create a scene at all. I just wanted really wanted to get the ticket and go about my way.”
At the end of the day, a cop got mad because he felt his authority was being challenged. He was upset that this Black man in an expensive car wasn’t doing what he was told despite the fact that he could have escalated the situation by doing exactly what Hill demanded and giving him his ticket and letting him be on his way. After all, this was apparently about a seatbelt. But, again, cops tend to prioritize their egos over common sense.
After the game, Hill said he had “no idea” why he was handcuffed and he didn’t seem to want to say explicitly that his being a Black man was a factor — but being Black in America means having to wonder if things would have been different otherwise, because, well…America.
“I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do,” he said. “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what that guy or guys would have done.”
That is certainly the question.
Imagine if:
1. There were no body-cams.
2. That wasn't Tyreek Hill.
3. They weren't right by the stadium.Remember when @Kaepernick7 protested this and lost his career over THIS VERY THING? Remember?
FIRE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE PIGS. NO-REHIRES ANYWHERE. BLACKLIST. https://t.co/01f7vUWf9U
— Ricky J. Marc, J.D., M.S. (@RickyJMarc) September 9, 2024
It’s worth noting that after his initial objection, Hill did try to comply only to be told by the hot and bothered officer that it was “too late.”
Honestly, that pretty much says it all.
SEE ALSO:
Paraplegic Who Cops Dragged By His Hair From Car Files Complaint With NAACP
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