In Philadelphia, a junior college basketball player --
(and for the purposes of this story his race is relevant) -- a black junior college basketball player --
found himself detained by two Philadelphia police officers for the crime -- of nothing, heh,
unless you consider humiliating them on the basketball court and having the videos of that go viral, a crime.
I don't know what [crime] that would be.
That's uh, uh, that's a new one.
So, uh, this is a kid named Sameer Hill
He's a 5'7" point guard at Allegheny College -- that's in Maryland --
[uh] but I guess he was black--(er) back home in Philadelphia
and he was playing ... ("That's a Freudian slip " -- yeah) (laughter)
Uh and he's playing with some uh neighbourhood kids --
-- they are having a pickup game -- and a couple of cops come by and they start trash-talking and then they start -- playing
Uh and then the
Sameer Hill, apparently -- by his own account --
totally humiliates the cops! Well... (laughter)
.. well!. Do we have video of this? We do.
So let's take a look. This video is from "shallo_tattoo_kiing"
You should watch the whole thing on his channel as well, so let's take a look:
Whoa-- whoa -- where are you going?
Whoa! Cop: "Sh**!" ...
dribbler: Hoho yea!
Whoa-- whoa --
where are you going?
Whoa!
Cop: "Sh**!" ...
dribbler: Hoho yea!
(chuckling)
Okay, so that's fun!
Come on .. what I knew was such a nice moment for the cops, right?
Like, I know you got .... he's smoked you
but... he's faster than you! He's younger than you!
He's faster; he's younger; you're in your full uniform with your jacket on!
...... That's no shame here!
Yeah, so we'll tell you what the cops did in a minute, but let's..there's ah..er...
Cop two steps up to the plate. Let's watch...as they try to switch up, like all I got.. I'll go..
My man, my man. I got. Let's switch, right?
oh no! he got ball
laughter
more laughter
Foul ball! Foul ball!
laughter
oh that's crazy
So that was the problem. He stopped - the cop stopped him the first time!
Yeah!
There's no way I could have stopped that kid! He's incredibly fast!
He's a junior college boy card! He's good -- a good player!
He's got game!
Yeah! He's a good player!
There's no shame in that, I think, and the guy...
...and it's not like ...
... I thought the cop was gonna slip when he was doing the crossover, right?
That would have been a slightly more embarrassing ...
Just as he's going by, I mean he kind of slipped a little bit
but this was a.. such a fun great story! Until the video went viral and apparently uh, Chad Johnson shared it and ...
... and so the cops get embarrassed
and then they go arrest the kid! ohh....
The next day, right?! The next day! The cops come by and they ...
They take the kid in, uh, "They handcuffed me to a bench for an hour and a half." Samir Hill says.
They were doing a search of his car.
"They searched the car for like an hour, they didn't find anything, they let me go."
"The whole time they were telling me how they weren't going to lock me up --"
"They were targeting my friend".
And then -- after an hour and a half or so --
they just let him go. No charges.
I guess it's conceivable...
that, in a wild coincidence, they happen to um uh .. right afterwards .. euh..
be looking for his friend ...
And they knew him and they brought him in and searched his car even though they were looking for his friend
And they didn't ask him any information about his friend...
... they had him locked up...
but that would be a wild coincidence, right?
Or they wanted to say, like,
oh, yeah...you're going to embarrass us by putting that stuff up online...
my guess is the cops didn't mind on the day of
although I am .. maybe I am being too fair to the cops, right?
But they were probably like.. yeah they got razzed a lot once it went viral online
They're like "Oh, you're gonna put it up online? Remember, we're cops! So let's bring you in!"
Now there was no tasing, thank God,
there was no shooting, it didn't get tragic, uh, but like "let you know who's boss!"
Don't do that! (But I mean...) Don't do that! (But by the way...)
Right, it didn't get tragic and ... and .. but I mean ... don't ... don't use .... don't abuse your power!
Like, God forbid, Sameer Hill didn't have a warrant that he was afraid of and run away
and then it accidentally gets tragic
Or, or got justifiably angry, (right!) right? At that moment?
And then blood boiling, and Heraldo would say "well then he had a right to to shoot him!"
No cuz he didn't have it He's not... A cop...cop calls you in for no reason you're not allowed to get your blood boiling!
That's right!
Right, but if you protest in any way, the cop you've questioned his authority he's allowed to ...
I think you guys got it all wrong. He carried! [Did] you see that cross-over?
(Laughter)
Like that's what he really got pulled in for...
He did -- that's right!
Right? Palming that thing...
In the first half when you're watching the video,
this is actually the antidote to the shooting in the back!
This is what we want our police officers to do!
The best police officers I know -- -
--and I know like, a lot of police officers from my time the military and the crossover between military and law enforcement --
-- they're great guys!
This is how we want them to engage in the community for the first 50%, right?
We want them talking to people,having a good time, playing hoops
falling on their ass, getting embarrassed, right?
And then, they go and disparage and like
shank all of that goodwill
by arresting him
It's the... it's the literal opposite of what we want!
That's right.
And... And remember, handcuffing somebody and bringing them down to... to... headquarters
It's humiliating!
That's.. it could have incredibly significant consequences -- what.. he could get fired!
I mean, I... I once had a boss that... that didn't wanna listen to anything, right?
So if I got handcuffed in front of that guy and led away, when I came back to explain:
"No, I played basketball with the cops... "
He woudn't have listened to any of that, he'd have just fired me. Right?
So that easily could have happened. He happens to be a student.
I mean, this is so many horrible things come.... come out.... it's a false arrest! Don't do that!
It's... when you... and by the way you don't have to book someone for it to be a false arrest.
You have detained them..uh.. and you should not have detained them. That is a false arrest, right? And you've handcuffed him etc.
I think that.. uh that he needs to pursue some sort of, you know, action against the officers.
I know, but its..
Uh, no, I think he's already won! I mean, uh.. I think you've indicated in in in the Media
In a sense, he's won... and of course the cops...
I think he's vindicated in the media.
We see how these [guy]
if...if cops are able to get away as often as they are in this, you know
whatever the last, whatever it is, 280 fatal shootings of ... of citizens in South Carolina have resulted in
no prosecutions for... for... police officers
... 280 shootings by police officers...
... I'm pretty sure that these cops are gonna come up with a legal reason to have done that, you know?
and it's not asking for much to say "no we had an anonymous tip that there was heroin in that car,
so we searched it" you know?
God, they could have organized the basketball tournament, we could have done so many great things with it
and they ruined it..(.And you know this kid's... ) .... they turned it into a terrible story!
Sameer Hill is in college.
he's ... he says "My friends are in college". like this is not
This is not ... these aren't guys who have drugs in their car. Or they're in college
maybe they are guys who have drugs in their car
but
but like
So I don't want to suggest in this that Sameer Hill is some street tough who these cops could have used later as a source
But to your original point about how you want cops doing this
The idea is you're ... the community policing idea in its broadest form is that you're involved in the community
[and] you do this and so then later when you have to go to the community to ask questions to solve a crime
theoretically to make the community safer
You're not treated as a pariah
You're treated as the guys who play basketball or friends of the guys who play basketball, and they're like
"yeah I heard this guy Don did it and he lives up on fourth street"
And then you've just saved yourself endless work and made things safer for everybody.
Totally and I ...you know, I wanna
commend the initial instincts of these two officers to actually do that, like to engage,
to have a good time, to smile, to treat people as people and not always as this sort of cop-criminal dynamic
That's...that's the right m.o. Uh, and then just to destroy all that good will, it's ... it's
...it's kind of tragic, it's kind of sad...
Yeah, I mean look I'll end on one last downer which is that
you know they wouldn't have done it to a.. to a .. to a rich person.
They just wouldn't have, right? Like if you were in Beverly hills and that happened?
No
You're gonna go arrest somebody in Beverly hills and handcuff them?
Do you know what kind of trouble you are gonna get for that false arrest, right?
The world could come down on you, right?
But... so this is part of ...unfortunately the same dynamic of the powerful
being able to do things to the powerless and get away with it.
Now in this case, there's a funny video online, ....
it's been exposed so they didn't quite get away with it,
but the reason they did it in the first place, of handcuffing the kid, was because they thought "well I can do anything to you".