Tyreek Hill's traffic stop shows interactions with police can be about survival for Black men

After his traffic stop in Miami on Sunday, Tyreek Hill said that as a youngster he received ‘the talk’ about what to do when pulled over by police

After his traffic stop in Miami on Sunday, Tyreek Hill said he has received “the talk” about what to do when pulled over by police. He knows to heed the instructions passed down in Black families for generations.

Keep your hands in sight, preferably on the steering wheel. Avoid any sudden movements. Don’t talk back to the officer. And above all, follow instructions without error or delay.

On Sunday, body camera video released Monday shows, the star wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins was ordered out of his vehicle by Miami-Dade Police officers, handcuffed and placed face down on a street outside the team’s stadium. Hill said he was stopped for speeding and reckless driving before the Dolphins’ first game of the season, and his interaction with police captured in a now-viral cellphone video and the body camera footage escalated to the type of incident that often prompts protests and claims of discriminatory policing, with the prone and handcuffed football star detained by three police officers, one on top of Hill with his knee holding the player's wrists against his lower back.

The video released Monday shows an officer dragging Hill out of his McClaren sports car by his arm and head and then forcing him face first onto the ground after Hill put up the window of his sports car.

The officers handcuffed Hill and one put a knee in the middle of his back.

The words “if we tell you to do something, do it,” can be heard. The officer who pulled Hill from the car jumped behind him and put a bar hold around Hill’s upper chest or neck.

‘It happened so fast’

“It happened so fast that it caught me off guard,” Hill said in a postgame interview on Sunday.

Hill’s traffic stop reflects a national law enforcement survey that shows that “driving while Black” is likelier to include the threat or use of force than it is for other Americans. For many, Hill’s encounter with police drives home a reality that Black men in particular disproportionately experience what he did and, even if the encounter doesn’t end in tragedy, it confirms an ongoing need for the talk.

On Sunday, other Black Dolphins players said they were used to seeing the kind of police conduct that Hill experienced.

Fact of life for Black Americans

“I won’t say it was scary. It’s something I’m used to seeing,” linebacker David Long Jr. said.

Dolphins safety Jevon Holland said it was “not unnatural” to see police conduct the traffic stop that way – including what the footage appeared to show: One officer striking his handcuffed teammate. One of at least three officers involved in detaining Hill was placed on leave pending an internal investigation.

The Miami-Dade Police Department's top officer, Director Stephanie Daniels, told the Miami Herald on Monday that the decision to place the officer on leave came after a review of the body camera footage, which she later said would not normally be released during an ongoing investigation but was, in this case, to maintain “public trust.”

“Excessive force on a Black man, that’s not uncommon. It’s a very common thing in America,” Holland said. “So I think that needs to be addressed at a country-wide level.”

Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith, who was at the scene to support Hill, echoed Holland’s sentiments.

“Obviously we all see the police brutality that goes on in this country, and when you see your teammate possibly being part of that, you’re doing everything in your power to help him,” he said.

Doing exactly as you’re told is no guarantee against discrimination or excessive use of force, said Andrew Grant-Thomas, co-founder of EmbraceRace, a nonprofit that provides resources for parents and educators.

Furthermore, he said, perfectly, subserviently obeying law-enforcement commands “shouldn’t be the standard for any of us in dealing with police," said Grant-Thomas, who is Black. "There are things like rights.”

Treading carefully around police

Still, it often feels like white parents can talk to their children about how to maintain their rights with the police, he said, but for Black kids, it’s not about rights but “about survival.”

Just like Hill, Grant-Thomas was taught at a young age to tread carefully when it comes to police.

“I’m not going to talk back, I’m going to put my hands at 10 and two o’clock and all those things because the reality is that this person can kill me. It doesn’t matter then whether my rights were observed,” he said.

Less than a quarter of Americans age 16 and older reported having any contact with police, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ most recent police-public contact survey. In its special report released in 2022, Black people and Hispanic people were more likely than white people to experience the threat or use of force in 2020. Black people were also more likely to be shouted at by police than white people.

As for drivers, Black people were more likely than white people to experience no enforcement action during their most recent traffic stop, according to the survey results. But among those who did experience an enforcement action, white drivers were more likely to be let off with a warning than drivers of any other race or Hispanic origin.

Hill’s end-zone victory dance on Sunday that included mimicking being cuffed made many people feel validated in their opinion that the wide receiver had been wronged.

Grant-Thomas noticed how quickly people used Hill’s past allegations of violence to justify any excessive use of force.

“What’s astonishing to me — although it shouldn’t be — is how many people immediately began to speculate in ways that were really in terms that were unfavorable to him,” Grant-Thomas said. “Because of who he was or who they supposed him to be, that for many people seems to justify the police treatment in a way that actually doesn’t make any sense.”

Police and NFL players

Police brutality in the spotlight, as it concerns NFL players, is far from new. Many Black players have used their platforms, on and off the field, to draw attention to racial disparities in law enforcement.

In 2014, five St. Louis Rams players stood with their arms raised in an apparent show of solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, before trotting onto the field for pregame introductions. The “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture referred to a debunked claim that Michael Brown, a Black teenager, had his hands raised in surrender when he was shot by a white officer.

And perhaps the most famous on-field anti-brutality gesture was sparked by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the national anthem, in the wake of fatal police shootings in 2016.

“Unless there’s a conversation actually about this, if it’s simply floating out there and people are talking in their echo chambers," Grant-Thomas said. “I think the point really will have been lost.”

____

AP Race & Ethnicity Editor Aaron Morrison reported from New York City. AP writers Terry Tang, Alanis Thames and Terry Spencer contributed from Phoenix, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.