ESPN star Stephen A. Smith suggested that Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill wasn’t excused from blame during the situation with police officers in Florida that led to his detention.
The Miami-Dade Police Department released bodycam footage of Hill’s detention. It showed the intense moments that went from officers initiating a traffic stop to pulling Hill out of the car and handcuffing him while he was on the ground near Hard Rock Stadium.
Smith gave his opinion on the situation, saying neither the police officers involved nor Hill are immune from blame.
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Tyreek Hill in handcuffs. (Miami-Dade Police Department)
“When it comes to Tyreek Hill, we also can’t let him completely off the hook based on the statement that was made by the police department in Florida,” Smith said Tuesday on ESPN’s “First Take.” “They said he was ‘uncooperative.’ We have a responsibility on this show and any kind of platform we can do make sure we’re doing anything we can to save lives, to make sure we’re doing what we can to ensure that somehow, some way, you get to live another day and fight that battle. We know how wrong they were. The police were excessive. No excuses. They should be ashamed of themselves, the way they acted. They just went overboard. Totally true.
“Here’s the problem – we all came on the air seeing the initial footage in complete unadulterated support for Tyreek Hill. You pull over, they tell you to roll down your window. What’s the first thing Shannon (Sharpe) just talked about? The first thing they do when they pull us over. They pull me over, all my windows are down. My hands are on the steering wheel. That is not what Tyreek Hill did.
“Tyreek Hill had his window up. The officer knocks on his window. He didn’t bang on his window, he knocked on his window. You hesitate to pull it down. The first thing you say is, ‘Don’t bang on my window like that.’ He asked you for your driver’s license. You hesitated to give him your driver’s license. You said in the postgame conference, ‘Hey, y’all, what if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ What if you aren’t Tyreek Hill? What would have happened to you if somebody wasn’t Tyreek Hill kept the windows rolled up, hesitated to roll it down, didn’t give the license immediately when asked for it, and then hesitated to get out of the car when they told you to get out of the car?
Stephen A. Smith during the NBA Draft – Round One on June 26, 2024, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. (Kostas Lymperopoulos/NBAE via Getty Images)
DOLPHINS DEMAND PUNISHMENT FOR OFFICERS INVOLVED IN TYREEK HILL DETENTION
“See, we gotta be responsible. The point I’m trying to make is this – in no way should the officers be excused for what they did… But I also am saying, ‘Yo, Tyreek, yo, bro, you didn’t deserve that. I’m not implying that you did. But the police officers do have the power. When they pull up on you, and they tell you to roll down that window, and they tell you to give them your driver’s license, and they tell you to get out of that car, that’s what you gotta do.'”
Hill told CNN on Monday night that he feared for his life in the incident but hoped to be a part of the change.
Tyreek Hill of the Dolphins on the sideline during the national anthem prior to the Buffalo Bills game at Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 7, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Drew Rosenhaus, the NFL wide receiver’s agent, appeared on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” and said his client was looking to have a discussion with Miami-Dade Police Director Stephanie V. Daniels.
“Tyreek has said to me as traumatic as an event as this was, he wants to take this negative and turn it into a positive,” Rosenhaus said.
Daniels placed one officer involved in the incident on “administrative duties.”
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The lawyers for the officers called for their client to be reinstated.
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