This certainly doesn't paint the Miami-Dade police in a very good light. NFL fans woke up to some shocking news yesterday before the first full football Sunday when a video was released of the Dolphins star wide receiver getting handcuffed by police. He was pulled over as he was on his way to Miami’s season opener at Hard Rock Stadium, and he was quickly put into handcuffs after
officers threatened to break his car window if he didn’t get out. Both the NFL’s Player Association and the Miami Dade Police Department have opened investigations into what went down, and the video below will certainly help to sort things out. Hill was allegedly pulled over for a traffic violation initially, and was later hit with citations for a seatbelt violation and careless driving. He wasn’t technically ever arrested, and still managed to play in the game later in the day (he caught 7 passed for
130 yards and a touchdown ). It seemed as though it would only be a matter of time before the Miami-Dade Police came out and apologized for the incident and dropped the citations, much like the run-in with the law that PGA golfer Scottie Scheffler had in Louisville before this year’s PGA Championship. However, the Miami-Dade Police Union
issued a statement about Tyreek Hill being handcuffed, and the wording that they used made it sound as though they are placing much of the blame on the Dolphins player for how everything went down:
“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. 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. Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave.” And just a bit ago, the body camera footage from the detainment was released, and it definitely doesn't appear as though Hill was the one escalating the situation. Sure, the officers asked him to roll down his window and keep it down - which he did not - but otherwise, Tyreek Hill was trying his best to be as calm and collected as possible. He was also attempting to call his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, but it doesn't appear he was able to do so as authorities were pulling him out of the car and over towards the sidewalk. You can hear Hill yelling out, "Call Drew" to his teammates that pulled over and walked up to the incident as it was unfolding. The body camera footage even goes on to show Tyreek's Dolphins teammate, defensive lineman Calais Campbell, being asked for his identification at the very end of the clip. The video itself is only three and a half minutes long, but the whole storyline that Hill initiated most of the incident can be thrown out the window after watching this one. The wide receiver can be heard telling officers to be careful with his knee, because he just had surgery on it in the offseason (to which one of the officers responded with, "How convenient.") You can also hear the responding officers tell Tyreek to, "Stop Crying" as they forced him to the ground and put him in handcuffs. It's cringey to take in, and makes you wonder how it all got to this point. Take a look: https://twitter.com/AndySlater/status/1833273674033463799
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