Excessive Force?

By: Robert Craft

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Dade Police and their conduct was “overly aggressive and violent” during a traffic stop with wide receiver Tyreek Hill on Sunday.

The Miami Dolphins’ statement Monday followed the release of body-camera footage of Hill being forced out of his vehicle and on the ground by police officers. Police stopped Hill minutes away from Hard Rock Stadium.

Hill was en route to the Dolphins’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars when police pulled him over and ticketed Hill for a traffic violation.

Following the stop, police approached Hill’s car and after a brief interaction, Hill rolled his window up. The police told Hill to keep his window down, and after he did not fully roll it back down, one of the four Miami-Dade police officers opened his car door and pulled him out of the vehicle by the back of his neck. One officer put Hill face-down on the street to handcuff him.

During the detainment, Dolphins defensive tackle Calais Campbell and tight end Jonny Smith drove by and pulled over to the side of the road. Campbell was detained and cited for disobeying a direct order. He saw Hill in handcuffs and said it was “excessive force.”

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said in a news conference Monday afternoon that he was “very happy a guy in a situation like that didn’t feel alone.”

“It’s what you hope your team is comprised of,” McDaniel said about Campbell and Smith’s attempt to help Hill. “I’m very proud that they see each other as teammates and hold that in regard the way they do.”

The Dolphins expressed support for their players in their statement Monday while also calling on the MDPD to take action.

Following Hill’s detainment, Miami-Dade Police Department director Stephanie Daniels said in separate statements Sunday that she had requested a review of the incident and that one of the officers involved had been placed on administrative duties amid an investigation.

Following the release of the bodycam footage Monday, Daniels said the police department “is committed to conducting a thorough, objective investigation into this matter, and we will continue to update the public on the outcome of that process.”

Monday, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, a union for police officers, said it “(stands) with the actions of our officers” involved in the incident:

“We have worked hard across all communities to bridge the gap between what people believe law enforcement should and can do,” the association said in a statement. “While we wait for the investigation to run its course, based on what we know, we stand with the actions of our officers but look forward to further open communication moving forward.”

McDaniel, who spoke Monday before the public release of the bodycam footage, said of Hill’s detainment: “It’s been hard for me not to find myself more upset the more I think about it.Trying to put myself in that emotion or that situation that they described emotionally and then knowing more than that. The thing that f— me up, honestly, to be quite frank, is knowing that I don’t know what that feels like.”

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