Cops Claim Tyreek Hill Was ‘Uncooperative’ as Pro Athletes Slam Police

The head of the South Florida police union claims Miami Dolphins running back Tyreek Hill was “uncooperative” Sunday during a traffic stop Sunday ahead of the first game of the season.

The 30-year-old wide receiver was pulled over, allegedly for speeding, on his way to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Sunday when he was then handcuffed and put to the ground with several officers surrounding him. He was detained but released and able to play in the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, even mocking the incident in a touchdown celebration.

The South Florida Police Benevolent Association, the union representing Miami-Dade police officers, said on Monday that Hill was deemed “uncooperative” and that he was merely “redirected” to the ground while in handcuffs during his detention as he did not follow orders to sit.

“Before the Dolphins game yesterday, an incident occurred where Tyreek Hill was placed in handcuffs before being released. First, to be clear, at no time was he ever under arrest. He was briefly detained for officer safety, after driving in a manner in which he was putting himself and others in great danger,” Steadman Stahl, the president of the association said in a news release.

“Upon being stopped, Mr. Hill was not immediately cooperative with the officers on scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, placed Mr. Hill in handcuffs. Mr. Hill, still uncooperative, refused to sit on the ground and was therefore redirected to the ground,” Stahl added.

“Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave.”

The Miami-Dade Police Department told Newsweek on Monday that they currently have an open investigation regarding the Hill incident, therefore, they cannot comment on it nor release the bodycam footage.

Newsweek also contacted the Mayor’s office for comment.

Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III posted one of the viral videos of the Hill incident to his social media on Sunday, writing “Tyreek Hill should not have been forcibly driven to the ground, handcuffed and handled so aggressively for a minor traffic violation heading into the stadium before the game. Period.”

James Blake, the former pro tennis player who was handcuffed and slammed to the ground by multiple police officers in a 2015 mistaken identity incident, retweeted a response to Griffin’s post from Samuel Sinyangwe, who describes himself as a “Black activist, data scientist, and policy analyst.”

“Police use physical violence against more than 300,000 people each year, injuring 100,000+. Almost none of these incidents are reported by the media or any federal database. And local police typically delete all records of these cases after 3-7 years,” Sinyangwe wrote in the Blake-approved message.

Blake also retweeted another post from a user claiming it appears a police officer “struck a handcuffed (and compliant) Tyreek Hill multiple times on a busy street in Miami in the middle of the day.”

Newsweek reached out to Blake for comment.

Miami-Dade Police Department Director Stephanie V. Daniels issued a statement to the media on Sunday, revealing one officer involved in the incident has been placed on administrative leave

“I’m committed to transparency and accountability to the community with any situation involving my officers,” Daniels added.

‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’

In a press conference following the Dolphins’ win on Sunday, Hill claimed he was still trying to process what happened earlier in the day.

“But I do want to use this platform to say, ‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ Worst-case scenario, you know? … Everybody has bad apples in every situation, but I want to be able to use this platform to figure out a way to flip this and make it a positive on my end and Miami-Dade and do something positive for the community,” said Hill, who ran for 130 yards and scored a touchdown during Sunday’s game.

“It’s hard. I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do. What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done. I just wanted to make sure I was doing what my uncle always told me to do whenever you’re in a situation like that — put your hands on the steering wheel and just listen.”

Use-of-Force Expert Weighs In

Former Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew J. Scott has a doctorate in criminal justice. He has been in law enforcement for over 30 years in South Florida and testifies across the country on police practices and procedures, including the use of force.

Scott spoke with Newsweek on Monday about Hill being detained over the weekend. While he stressed multiple times that the facts of this case have yet to be released, Hill said he “doesn’t understand” how the NFLer was put to the ground for an alleged traffic violation.

“If this was a normal traffic stop and you or me got stopped for reckless driving, I would imagine that I would be asked to get out of the car, put my hands behind my back if I was going to get arrested, and I’d be patted down. I’d be in handcuffs,” Scott told a Newsweek reporter.

“For me, to get from the driver’s seat, onto the ground, I don’t understand how that happens unless the officers felt that they were there was going to be some type of anticipated or potential violence.”

Hill appeared to be compliant with officers in fan-captured video of the incident posted to social media. Police body camera footage, if worn during the event, could provide more context as to why Hill was put on the ground by officers.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, Hill got into a verbal altercation with police during the stop. In response, police told him to exit his car and had him lay on the street to handcuff him.

However, Hill claims he “wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way,” Hill said. “I didn’t cuss. Didn’t do none of that.”

Scott added, “Let me make it clear here that if Mr. Hill is mouthing off, so to speak, that’s not a crime. It may be impolite but it’s not a crime.”

“I’ll give you an example,” Scott continued. “If Mr. Hill rolls down the window and says, you know, what the hell you stopping me for?’ That’s not a crime. If Mr. Hill rolls down the window and says, ‘What the hell are you stopping me for? I’ll kick your ass,’ that’s a different story.

“Keep in mind, in Florida, reckless driving is an arrestable offense, so, I don’t know if the officers wanted to arrest him immediately for that reckless driving charge,” Scott said. “Or, if they articulate that they were fearful that the individual they stopped was potentially violent, they could contain them with handcuffs.”

Scott also added that he’s really “perplexed” by Hill’s teammate Calais Campbell being handcuffed at the scene. Campbell said Sunday that he saw Hill in handcuffs on the way to the stadium and pulled over to try and de-escalate the situation.

“He [a police officer] said I was too close to the scene, and then I think he said something about me not moving my car in time. I don’t know,” Campbell told reporters. “He told me later I could stand 25 feet away, that’s fine. I was definitely further than 25 feet away when that [being handcuffed] happened.”

“Let me just tell you that it does get concerning to police officers when you stop one individual and then get a number of people stopping traffic because officers feel very concerned about their safety,” Scott told Newsweek.

“We got to figure out what Mr. Campbell was saying. Was he saying, you, know, ‘Hey man, this is Tyreek Hill. We’re going to the game, we got a game today’ or if Campbell gets out of the car and starts jawing at the cops interfering with their ability to do the job – we’ll see from the body cams.”

With so much media coverage and speculation about the incident on social media, Scott says the MDPD should release the body cam footage “so this doesn’t manifest itself into a media optic nightmare” for the department.

“Miami Dade has an obligation to get those facts to the public sooner than later, and part of that is going to be body-worn camera footage. The more they push back, saying they’re not releasing anything until the investigation is over – that makes sense in a homicide, a police officer shooting, or something like that, but this is not that complex of a situation.”

“The bigger authority law enforcement has is to take away somebody’s liberty. And so in this instance, you know, Mr. Hill’s Liberty was temporarily taken away from by being placed in handcuffs, and that’s a traumatic event.”

Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact [email protected]

This post was originally published on this site