Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill told reporters in his post-game press conference on Sunday that he had “no idea” why he was pulled from his vehicle and handcuffed by officers during a traffic stop before Miami’s home opener against the Jaguars.
Now, after the release of police bodycam footage, we know why he was pulled from his vehicle, and it’s not because he’s black.
Footage of the traffic stop went viral Monday night, as the world got to see the circumstances leading up to the NFL’s fastest man being forcefully removed from his McLaren 720S sports car.
That video clearly shows that Hill was pulled from and cuffed because he didn’t follow the officers’ instructions to lower his tinted window.
There is no police jurisdiction on planet Earth in which a motorist is allowed to ignore the direction of an officer and roll up a tinted window so that the police can’t see what he is doing on the inside of the vehicle. How in the world is the officer supposed to preserve his safety, the safety of his fellow officers, and the public if he cannot physically see what the person he pulled over is doing?
Short answer: He can’t.
While expressing his bewilderment at why he was treated so roughly, Hill told reporters, “I have no idea, for real. No idea. No idea, man. It’s crazy. No idea. I wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way. Didn’t cuss. Didn’t do none of that. So, like I said, I’m still trying to figure it out, man.”
Really? Is it not disrespectful to ignore a police officer while you talk to your agent on the phone?
Hill also appeared on CNN Monday night, saying that the situation could have ended much worse if he hadn’t been a superstar NFL player.
Is that the question to ask? Wouldn’t a better question be, “What if Tyreek Hill had just done what the officers told him to do?”
The only way we can conclude that the officers were wrong in their treatment of Hill is if we accept the premise that anyone detained by police has the right to refuse anything the police tell them to do, and that’s completely absurd.
It’s not like the officers made some bizarre request of Hill, such as doing a strip search in the middle of the road or something. All they did was tell him to roll his window down. Sorry, they’re completely within their rights to order someone to do that, whether they be NFL stars, average Joe’s, white, or black.
There’s a lot we still don’t know in this case. For example, we still don’t know exactly how fast Hill was going. If he was going only a few miles over the limit, the officers’ behavior can fairly be described as overzealous. Their behavior would be more understandable if he were going 40+ miles over the limit. However, one thing is clear: The chances of Tyreek Hill being yanked out of his vehicle and cuffed would have been extremely small if he had followed the officers’ instructions.
But no. Instead, he acted rudely to the cop, ignored his explicit instruction, and called his agent.
If Tyreek Hill were white, there would not only be zero sympathy for this behavior, but he would face widespread scorn and mockery from blacks and whites alike and be ridiculed as a “Karen” with an out-of-control sense of personal privilege.
And that’s exactly the treatment he should receive.
