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Football player Tyreek Hill was arrested the other day during a traffic stop. Because he refused to keep his tinted windows rolled down for the officers, they commanded him to get out of the vehicle. Because he refused to get out of the vehicle, the officers forced him to the ground for a detainment. In Florida, officers have the right to command you to keep the window low enough for (1) communication and (2) officer safety. This appears to be a universally agreed upon fact before this event, as for instance in a video by a criminal defense attorney specifically about a Floridian just two weeks ago, and in legal advice proffered online just a month ago.
Let us assume that the officers knew who Tyrell Hill was, which isn’t a given because of the arresting officer’s thick Latino accent. They would have every reason to treat him with precaution because of his domestic violence and assault record, meaning that a concern for officer safety is legitimate despite the subject’s fame. And really, even thinking about a subject’s level of fame before enacting a law or police procedure should make us recoil. We don’t want to do that, right? We should treat everyone the same. The typical talking heads, of course, are calling this police brutality.
I am interested in how this scene would be treated if the subject were of a different appearance and nature. Tyreek, a 1%er super-wealthy person of privilege, is extremely rude to a working class minority police officer. Let’s imagine some white CEO stammering to the minority police officer, “don’t knock on my window… I’m going to be late… don’t tell me what to do!”, while ignoring the officer’s requests. We would all agree that this behavior is unacceptable. We would rightfully delight in his retribution, being placed on the ground in subservience to the Law. The comments would read like, “white man realizes the law applies to him”. But Tyreek, a (former) criminal, has a social privilege that would never be afforded to a white CEO: he is a star athlete and the public implicitly expects less of him because of his genetic nature. I can understand the public behaving like the public, but it’s annoying to see media figures excusing the behavior, too.
The police in this case have that "when I say jump you say how high" mentality. Which isn't totally unreasonable but also you don't need to shove a guy onto the ground because he's moderately uncooperative/bitchy. Like at one point they ask him to sit down, he says hold on, and a cop shoves him down, and this is after he's been handcuffed. It's not some super shocking police brutality but just kinda unnecessary.
Why not? Why is it the responsibility of the officers to be calm and gentle, and not the responsibility of the man who has just committed a serious criminal infraction (speeding is obviously a major cause of auto accidents in this country) and then refused to comply?
As someone who watches probably about a dozen police bodycam videos per day, it’s extremely easy to notice patterns in the kinds of things that immediately cause traffic stops (and police interactions more broadly) to go south. The percentage of videos where police are unnecessarily rough and aggressive with individuals who are respectful and compliant is close to zero; it’s abnormal and concerning when someone is this immediately resistant to police’s simple commands, and it causes the officers to be wary about what such a person is capable of.
I don’t feel remotely sorry for some rich entitled man-baby who thinks the law doesn’t apply to him and that police are beneath him because he can run fast. I don’t even care about Hill’s laundry list of prior criminal acts, since there’s no evidence they played any part in the way this traffic stop went down; his own actions and attitude in that moment were quite sufficient on their own.
Replace this Tyreek with the most shrill and annoying Karen you can imagine. She's also immediately resistant to police's simple commands, but would she get the same treatment as a 192lb very muscular (very) black dude? I doubt that.
That's already covered by the "shrill Karens are less capable than 192lb men" clause, no matter what absurd statements came out of the bird-watcher or Citibike situations.
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