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The released bodycam footage from the detainment of Tyreek Hill captured the escalation as the NFL player was removed from his car and told to “Stop crying.”

(Video Credit: WFAA)

Prior to Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Miami Dolphins wide receiver made headlines as passersby captured snippets of his interaction with law enforcement. While the player was seen in handcuffs on the ground and reportedly cited for a moving violation, a full explanation of how the traffic stop escalated was made apparent with the release of the Miami-Dade Police footage.

After getting pulled over, Hill had closed his window and then, when the officer approached and knocked on it to speak with the player, the athlete began the interaction by asserting, “Don’t knock on my window like that,” while handing over what appeared to be his identification.

Repeating the phrase several more times, he then told the officer, “Give me my ticket so I can go. I’m gonna be late…do what you gotta do,” before closing the window again.

As he was instructed to keep his window down, Hill could be seen ignoring the officers before cracking the window slightly to yell, “Don’t tell me what to do!”

“Keep your window down or I’m gonna get you out of the car. As a matter of fact,” the cop determined, “get out of the car.”

Within a moment, the officers opted to forcibly remove Hill from the car, bringing him to a prone position, facedown on the street to be handcuffed. “When we tell you to do something, you do it. You understand? Not what you want, what we tell you. You’re a little f*cking confused.”

After telling the cops to take him to jail, “We are. We will. It is good…Stop crying.”

The player could then be heard shouting, “I just had surgery on my knee,” as officers who had led him to the curb forced him to sit after he appeared not to comply. Hill’s remark inspired one of the cops to reply, “You could have surgery on your ears when we told you to put your window down.”

As had been detailed, teammates Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith stopped to see what was going on. They found themselves in trouble for approaching the scene and then refusing to leave when instructed to do so by the police.

Campbell’s repeated interaction with the cops saw him placed in handcuffs as well.

While Hill appeared to make light of the detainment later Sunday by doing a “handcuff celebration” after a touchdown, he had been quoted by ESPN as saying, “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 that guy or guys would have done.”

His words were carried on by the team that issued its own statement Monday after the bodycam footage was released, “We are saddened by the overly aggressive and violent conduct directed towards Tyreek Hill, Calais Campbell, and Jonnu Smith by police officers before yesterday’s game. It is both maddening and heartbreaking to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use such unnecessary force and hostility toward these players, yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did. ‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ is a question that will carry with resounding impact.”

Touting their relationship with and respect for the Miami-Dade Police Department, the statement continued, “However, as is on full display in the videos released tonight, there are some officers who mistake their responsibility and commitment to serve with misguided power.”

“While we commend MDPD for taking the right and necessary action to quickly release this footage, we also urge them to take equally swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior,” added the team.

Hill himself posted Monday night on X, “Let’s make a change,” before he joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to tell his version of the story as the footage was played.

He claimed he had closed the window to stop people driving by from noticing it was him and possibly taking pictures and that he had been complying, if not fast enough for the officers. The anchor mentioned a statement from the South Florida Police Benevolent Association that contended that “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.”

Collins went on to ask the wide receiver about the post on X and he said, “I’m not a big believer in dividing people. I don’t believe in all that. I believe in bringing people together because that’s my purpose in life. I do football camps all across the world trying to bring different people together…because we in this together, baby. We’re on this earth together. We gotta live together.”

“So, when I say, ‘Let’s make a change,’ let’s do it together. So, Miami PD, really all officers across the world, one officer doesn’t…make the whole group look bad. Everybody has bad apples. Every team has bad apples. It’s my job to use my platform and my resources so that way I’m able to align with these different stations.”

“We done tried it all…We done protest. We even took a knee. We done did walks. So what’s next? Me and my wife are brainstorming on how can we be a part of this change. It’s important to us. We want to be able to change lives all across the world — not just Miami.”

Kevin Haggerty
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