Love him or not, former Chief Tyreek Hill is still human. Miami police were wrong | Opinion
No matter how you feel about Tyreek Hill — the former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver has a complicated history tied to domestic violence and suspicions of child abuse — he didn’t deserve to be manhandled like a human rag doll by police officers in Miami Gardens, Florida.
The Miami-Dade Police Department owes this man a very public apology. And any officer involved found to have used excessive force against Hill should be fired.
Hill currently plays for the Miami Dolphins. Prior to Sunday’s game against Jacksonville, officers stopped Hill for speeding near the entryway to the Hard Rock Stadium.
After watching footage pulled from Miami-Dade Police officers’ body-worn cameras, I have an issue with the amount of force officers used on Hill. Police reportedly cited him for careless driving and failure to wear a seat belt. A routine traffic stop should never end with someone being dragged out of their vehicle, placed face down on the pavement and handcuffed with a knee on their back.
But such is life sometimes for a certain ethnic community in America.
“I’m just being Black in America,” Hill said on video to officers, according to the Miami Herald’s review of the footage. “I’m a Black man in America with a nice car.”
Did traffic stop warrant violence?
From what I saw, Hill posed no threat to officers. He never swung on an officer, spat at them nor did he try to elude them, all actions that would excuse the force shown on video. Was he a bit mouthy? Perhaps. Being a smart aleck is not against the law. Hill rightfully gave his identification to an officer that approached his car and asked for whatever ticket the lawman planned to give him before rolling up the window of his McLaren sports car.
“Give me my ticket, bro, so I can go,” Hill said, according to body cam footage. “I’m going to be late. Do what you gotta do.”
After Hill rolled up his car window, all hell broke loose. My guess is Hill didn’t lower down his window again on command or move fast enough for officers when told to exit his vehicle. Within seconds, Hill was forcefully removed from the vehicle by his neck or the back of his head and placed on the pavement face-first.
The footage showed the officer ordering Hill to get out of the McLaren: “Get out of the car right now,” he said. “We’re not playing this game.”
A second officer then yanked Hill from the car. Later, as Hill sat on the pavement in handcuffs, an officer was heard saying, “When we tell you to do something, you do it.”
On Monday during an interview with CNN, Hill explained why he rolled up his window.
“If I let my window down, people walking by, driving by, they’re going to notice that it’s me,” Hill said. “They’re going to start taking pictures. I didn’t want to create a scene at all. I just wanted to get the ticket and go about my way.”
Makes sense to me.
Some of us have been there. Late for work or an appointment, nabbed for speeding and trying to get on with our day. But what followed was anything but normal.
Now standing but still in cuffs, Hill was told to sit on the sidewalk. He didn’t.
“I just had surgery on my knee,” Hill said.
An officer then grabbed Hill from behind by the chest area and took him down.
Officers ‘overly aggressive, violent’
The lack of professionalism shown by officers on the scene needed to be called out. Bravo to the Dolphins organization for doing so. In a statement released Monday, the club described police actions toward Hill and two teammates who arrived on the scene and witnessed parts of the incident as “overly aggressive and violent.”
“We are saddened by the overly aggressive and violent conduct directed towards Tyreek Hill, Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith by police officers before yesterday’s game,” the statement read. “It is both maddening and heartbreaking to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use such unnecessary force and hostility towards these players, yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did. ‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ is a question that will carry with resounding impact.”
The Miami-Dade Police Department’s internal affairs unit is investigating the incident, according to a statement from Police Director Stephanie Daniels. One of the officers involved was placed on administrative duties pending the outcome of the internal inquiry, Daniels wrote.
Good.
Officers failed to show Hill compassion, care or patience. A police officer’s job is to deescalate a situation, not make it worse.
I get it: Hill’s past includes a domestic violence-related conviction for brutally assaulting his then-girlfriend while in college at Oklahoma State University. While playing for the Chiefs, allegations of child abuse were never proven, but cast a dark cloud over Hill and the team. But none of that had anything to do with what occurred Sunday in Miami.
While I applaud Miami-Dade police’s decision to release body cam footage, my hope is that after a thorough investigation, the officers involved are appropriately disciplined — termination should be on the table for some of these officers.
“While we commend MDPD for taking the right and necessary action to quickly release this footage, we also urge them to take equally swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior,” the Dolphins organization wrote in its statement.
I agree 1,000%.
The sheer level of force used in this incident was uncalled for. Hill deserved better. And he is owed an apology.
This story was originally published September 10, 2024 at 3:52 PM.
