Charles Barkley slams media for race-baiting Tyreek Hill’s police detainment

On Sunday, Tyreek Hill was briefly detained by police on his way to the Miami Dolphins-Jacksonville Jaguars game. Charles Barkley is questioning the media’s coverage of the incident.

Sunday morning, Hill was pulled over by Miami-Dade Police during a traffic stop outside the Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium. Hill handed over his driver’s license while telling the officer, “Don’t knock on my window,” before he promptly rolled it back up. The officer then repeatedly knocked on the window, telling Hill to roll it back down. Less than 30 seconds later, Hill was being dragged from his car and placed in handcuffs, while several officers held him face down on the ground. Hill was later released without being arrested and even scored a touchdown during the Dolphins’ Week 1 victory over Jacksonville.

In the wake of the incident, many in the media have questioned the apparent excessive force used by the police, while others called Hill out for not complying. This week, Barkley joined Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B. on Fox Sports 910 radio in Phoenix where he strongly criticized the media coverage of Hill’s police altercation.

“I hate that we’re gonna throw it in the media because you know the guys are gonna quickly go to race and it bothers me,” Barkley ranted. “We got so many fools in the media who love to play the race card. I said, ‘Wait a minute, they just did the same thing to Scottie Scheffler.’

“The one thing you can’t do as a celebrity, you can’t say, ‘Do you know who I am?’ You say, ‘Yes, sir,’ cooperate one hundred percent. Like I said, I don’t know what happened, but when we let these fools on TV and radio start talking about it, they go straight to, ‘Was it racism?’ I’m like wait a minute now, we don’t know that. I saw the police report say he was uncooperative. But the one thing I hate when we put stuff in the media and we let guys who race-bait start throwing things out there, like I said, wait a minute, the same thing just happened to Scottie Scheffler, who actually went on got booked! He went down to the big house!”

The police union said Hill was “uncooperative” and detained for “officer safety,” which should be noted because it is the role of the union to take the side of the officer they represent. And after the police body-cam footage of the incident was released, it shouldn’t be considered race-baiting to question the excessive force that was used.

Scheffler found himself in a very similar incident earlier this year when he was falsely arrested on his way to the PGA Championship. The world No. 1 golfer was booked and spent a brief stint in a jail cell, whereas Hill was released. Scheffler, however, was not dragged out of his car and placed on the ground with an officer’s knee on his back.

Both incidents were bad, but Hill’s appeared to be an example of excessive force being used. And while it’s easy to tell citizens they should just say, “Yes, sir,” and cooperate one hundred percent, the police officers should similarly have the experience and training to make sure they’re de-escalating traffic stops, not escalating them.

It can’t only be on the citizen, with no training, to know exactly how to act to avoid the risk of getting dragged from their car and pinned face down on the street by an officer.

[Fox Sports 910]