Video of Tyreek Hill traffic stop sparks new conversations about policing in America

The detention of Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill has sparked conversations on policing in America and the treatment of Black Americans. Body camera footage shows officers stopping Hill as he drove to his team stadium, pulling him from his car, forcing him to the ground and handcuffing him. Hill was cited for careless driving before being released. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Martenzie Johnson.

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Amna Nawaz: The detention of Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill has once again sparked conversations on policing in America, specifically the treatment of Black Americans.

Last night, Miami-Dade County police released body camera footage of the incident this past Sunday, showing Officers stopping Hill as he drove to his team stadium for a game, pulling him from his car, forcing him to the pavement and handcuffing him.

Officer: Hey, keep your window down.

Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins: Don’t tell me what…

Officer: Keep your window down. I’m going to get you out of the car. As a matter of fact, get out of the car. Get out of the car.

(Crosstalk)

Officer: Get out of the car. Get out of the car right now. We’re not playing this game. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out.

Tyreek Hill: Damn.

Officer: What part of now don’t you understand?

Amna Nawaz: Hill was cited for careless driving and failure to wear a seat belt before being released.

Joining me now is Martenzie Johnson, senior writer for Andscape.

Martenzie, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Martenzie Johnson, Senior Writer, Andscape: Thanks for having me, Amna.

Amna Nawaz: So, you write about this for your latest Andscape commentary.

I just want to ask, what was your first reaction when you saw the video and just saw how this unfolded?

Martenzie Johnson: It was a semblance of, here we go again.

I have seen countless versions of this video play out over at least the last decade, at least when I have been an adult and being able to kind of comprehend what’s going on. And, again, it’s the same thing, where a Black man gets pulled over. It gets escalated because the police seem to want to escalate it.

And then it turns into really violence against that Black person. At least in this case, Tyreek Hill walked away with no injuries, he wasn’t shot, he wasn’t Tased or anything like that. But, again, it’s just been kind of part of the course for what I have seen over the last decade.

Amna Nawaz: So Tyreek Hill went to the game, played in the game, spoke about this incident after the game, and he basically said, he was wondering, what if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?

In other words, do you think that him being a famous NFL star played a role in how this unfolded?

Martenzie Johnson: Oh, for sure.

In that bodycam footage that we just saw, if you kept playing that, you would hear at some point one of their Officers say: “Do you know who that is?”

The other Officer being: “No.”

And then he says: “That’s a Miami Dolphins football player.” And he used it, accidentally, like, oh, I think I messed up.

So that probably led to Tyreek Hill actually being able to go to that game and have a successful game for the Dolphins that day. But, yes, if Tyreek Hill wasn’t who he was, if he wasn’t a professional football player, if he wasn’t a celebrity, that could have been another hashtag that we have seen again over his last decade, plus stemming back to Trayvon Martin.

Amna Nawaz: We also see in here in the video, right before the clip we saw, there’s sort of a verbal back-and-forth between the Officer and Hill. The Officer keeps telling him to put the window down. Hill keeps rolling it up. The Officer then very suddenly, as we saw, orders him out of the car.

And we should point out that the head of the South Florida police union said in an interview: “If Mr. Hill would have just complied, it would have sped the process up.” He also went on to say that: “People who were detained should obey lawful police commanders first and complain later.”

What’s your reaction to that?

Martenzie Johnson: I mean, one, the police union official is doing his job, right? That’s what all police officials are going to do in this case. They’re going to stand up for their own.

But this idea that, if you don’t comply, if you don’t follow their orders, they can exact violence on you, that’s not part of the job, right? They have a lot of leeway as police Officers. They have qualified immunity. They can get them out of lawsuits. They have powers from the state to shoot and kill people without really any recourse.

They get paid a salary that is much higher than most public service, not to mention the overtime that Officers like that would get from working those games. So the least that they could do is not — the least that they could do is de-escalate situations. That’s all we’re asking them to do.

And they’re saying that, if you don’t comply with this, if you don’t — if you try to escalate the situation, we will go even further to a point of violently snatching you out of your car, putting you face first into the pavement, driving your — my kneecap into your back and arresting you, just for, again, like you said, a traffic violation.

Amna Nawaz: Martenzie, wrapped up in all these conversations about police duty to de-escalate and disproportionate police violence against Black Americans is the conversation about Tyreek Hill’s own checkered past, right, his own allegations of violence and assault against women and a child in one case.

How are you looking at that conversation?

Martenzie Johnson: Honestly, I don’t think it really matters, right? I have my own opinions. I think a lot of people have their own opinions about Tyreek Hill’s history, but something tells me those Officers did not know that when they pulled him over.

And not to mention, if they were pulling him over for that reason, we’re not saying that these cops are just wild feminists and believe that they’re taking up for women by arresting Tyreek Hill. That had nothing to do with it. This was just the case of, again, pulling over a Black man in a car, escalating the situation and now turning it into this whole thing.

Amna Nawaz: So, the Dolphins organization says that they want to see swift and strong action against these Officers.

In the 30 seconds I have left, what kind of action do you think sends a message that discourages this from happening again?

Martenzie Johnson: Honestly, I’m not exactly sure, right?

We — every time when these situations happen — and Tyreek Hill kind of said this himself — it leads to conversations about, how do we repair these relationships? That’s on the police to do that. That’s not on us citizens. They have all the power here. They have all the leeway. It has to start at the top and then maybe the relationship will be repaired.

Amna Nawaz: That is Martenzie Johnson, senior writer for Andscape, joining us tonight.

Martenzie, thank you. Good to speak with you.

Martenzie Johnson: Thank you. You too.