Arrested Development
A little late, but reasons
Note: This is a little delayed after submitting to a few outlets for publication, which they summarily rejected or ignored.
Here we go again, well sort of. Earlier this year the Louisville Metro Police Department made national headlines when they arrested the world’s number one golfer after he allegedly failed to follow police directives. When this happened, people around the world were quick to blame the officer, blame the police, question the department. The mockery was widespread with people calling the police bumbling and stating the PGA would never return to Louisville.
Fast forward four months and the police are at it again, this time much worse. A few hours before gametime, the Miami Dade Police were caught on video slamming Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill to the ground, handcuffed and face down on the street. This all happened on his way to the game, right outside of the stadium.
In this incident, which was much clearer on video than the golfer, surely the world would again take the side of the person detained and question the police and outrage would ensue? Surely there were claims Miami would never have another NFL game?
Nope...not a peep. Instead, I saw immediate backlash online defending the actions and pointing to Tyreek’s past. People even came at me online for posting my hopes that Tyreek come out and say something or kneel, since the whole start of the kneeling campaign was a response to…checks notes…police brutality.
But nah, the benefit of the doubt was not given to Tyreek and it was more of a whisper campaign of …ohhhh what did he do?
His past, or alleged past, is irrelevant in this matter. A friend told me that while they agree with my sentiment on the larger issue of double standards in the response to the arrests, they don’t think Tyreek should have the benefit of the doubt. Why? My response was he was stopped for an alleged traffic incident, not what may or may not have happened in the past and should be treated as such.
To add insult to injury, Tyreek’s teammate Calais Campbell was also handcuffed and detained for stopping to check on his friend and ensure a bad situation didn’t get worse. Calais explained how he walked up, with his hands up because WE know the score, and calmly inquired about the situation and one officer was immediately aggressive. Campbell offered to back away as far as needed but stated he would remain to watch (which he is legally allowed to do) over his friend. One haunting part about this, is Tyreek asked him and another teammate to not leave him. Because, we KNOW what can happen.
The bad man argument doesn’t work with Calais Campbell. He is universally known as a good guy. Not that we should have to extol our safeness when others don’t, but alas, Campbell was the winner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, given annually to honor a player's commitment to philanthropy and community impact. A good dude. So again, where is the outrage?
We know what’s up. And the lack of outrage when some of us are treated inhumanely corroborates the belief held by some that we shouldn’t be treated as humans because we are lesser than, or inherently criminals.
A short story into my own past that covers this issue somewhat—My junior year of high school I was riding in the passenger seat as a friend was driving us to the mall on the interstate. My friend, a white woman, was driving 120 and pulled over by police. Upon stopping the car, one officer approached me, the passenger, first and pulled his gun, asking me why I was making her drive at such speeds and demanded my license. After what felt like forever, the check came back that I was in fact not a criminal, they then went to her side of the car to tell her they could take her to jail for going 120 in a 55 but they didn’t want to burden her parents who were probably hard-working people to come pick her up. She got a ticket, and we were on our way. That wasn’t the first time police pulled a gun on me, it has happened two other times while driving.
In that instance, I didn’t have bystanders watching. I didn’t have cameras and video. I didn’t have teammates to verify my safety. It is a reality so many of us deal with, and so few people care to listen to address. Hopefully this incident proves to spark more conversation about double standards and how some police do behave with us and the perceptions of when it does.
Because like Tyreek said in the interview after the game (where he had an 80 yd touchdown btw) “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?”