Charles Barkley has slammed the media for playing the ‘race card’ over Tyreek Hill’s detainment on Sunday, and suggested that the Dolphins star should have acted differently in the scenario.
While on the way to Hard Rock Stadium before the Dolphins’ matchup with the Jaguars, Hill was pulled from his McLaren and forced onto the ground after being pulled over by the cops for driving at 60mph.
And while the Dolphins have hit out at the police for their ‘overly aggressive’ handling of Hill – with CNN also welcoming him on air to tell his side of the story – Barkley believes the incident has not been covered correctly.
‘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 said on Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B. on Fox Sports 910 radio, per Awful Announcing.
‘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.’
Tyreek Hill was cited for reckless driving and operating without a license on Sunday before a game
But Charles Barkley disagrees with the media playing the ‘race card’ over the incident
Star golfer Scottie Scheffler was also arrested on May 17 and booked into jail after not pulling over while on his way to the PGA Championship
Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world, was detained and arrested prior to this year’s PGA Championship as he drove into Valhalla Golf Club, with a ‘misunderstanding’ (his words) with police leading him to continue driving after he was allegedly told to stop.
Scheffler was charged with third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic and even second-degree assault of a police officer – after an officer attached himself to his vehicle, according to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington (All of the charges were later dropped).
To Barkley, Scheffler’s arrest is evidence that Hill was not targeted because of his race, as the NBA legend instead offered advice on how one should act during detainment.
‘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,’ Barkley said. ‘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?’
Hill was dragged out of his car and onto the ground hours before playing for the Dolphins
‘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!’
Others have echoed a similar sentiment, with ex-cop turned conservative social media influencer Brandon Tatum criticizing Hill for rolling his windows up during the interaction with police.
Tatum also pointed out the fact that Hill was speeding.
Hill later told CNN that the reason he rolled his window back up is so that bystanders did not recognize him as the affair was going down.
Nonetheless, public sentiment has overwhelmingly been on the side of Hill.
Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III re-posted the footage of the incident, saying, ‘This level of aggression and demeaning behavior was not necessary. This is an excessive overuse of power.’
FOX Sports analyst and former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho also shared the footage, calling it ‘about as disgusting as you would expect.’
And Miami Herald writer and recurring ‘Dan Le Batard Show’ guest Greg Cote said, ‘Tyreek Hill was caught driving while black. That was his crime. It was a gross overreaction by the police. I thought it was a plain abuse of power.’
During the detainment, a cop put his knee on Hill’s back and grabbed his hands as a fellow officer put on handcuffs.
Miami Police have since told CBS that Officer Danny Torres has been placed on administrative leave.
