April 10, 2015
Courtesy of Samir Hill/Twitter
Overbrook grad Samir Hill went viral after crossing over a pair of Philly cops.
Samir Hill wasn't looking for trouble when he stepped outside one warm April afternoon. He was looking for a basketball game.
Nearby, a pair of young men were walking the same West Philadelphia streets as Hill, and unlike the 21-year-old Overbrook grad, trouble is exactly what these two were looking for. That's because it's their job. They're police officers. Trouble is what they do.
Soon, their paths would cross in a way that teach a powerful lesson about the police, the people they serve, and how the two should interact.
Hill, a point guard at Allegany College in Maryland, made his way over to Baker playground on 55th and Lansdowne Streets, where he began playing with some of the younger kids from his neighborhood, hoping to teach them a thing or two.
"I usually go around to the courts and play with the little kids a lot when I'm home," Hill told PhillyVoice on Thursday. "I saw [the cops] at the corner of 55th and Allison when I was walking over."
"I read all these stories and all these comments about how can police and the community work together, but it seems like out of everything, there's a controversy that's driven and that's created."
Hill says he was playing for about 30 minutes before the two officers made their way over to the court and began talking trash, the kind you hear daily on courts all over the city.
"They started 'Ya'll ain't good. Ya'll ain't good. Especially not you' and stuff like that," Hill said. "So they were talking about me, 'cause I'm taking advantage of the little kids out there. Just to try to make them better, you know? They're like 15 or 16, and I'm 21, so I'm not going to take it easy on them. That's how everyone else is going to play them."
Hill did what any good ball player would; he challenged the officers -- in full uniform, guns and all -- to a game of two-on-two, a game that would make these two officers the worst kind of famous, "Internet famous."
They had just done something that should make their commanding officers -- not their high school hoops coaches -- proud. They interacted. They found a common ground with those they protect. And by showing weakness, even in something as random as poor on-ball defense during a pickup basketball game, they revealed their human side.
"I actually thought it was a good thing, a good image to see," said police spokesperson Lt. John Stanford. "One of our young guys out here crossing over one of our officers, who, ironically enough, seems like he's just out of the academy. We have our officers, they come out of the academy on foot beat. So they're walking through the neighborhood for the purpose of interacting with members of the community."
This kind of interaction is more important now than ever. From the events in Ferguson to the current situation in South Carolina and even in our own backyard, hardly a week goes by without a new story involving police and their actions, especially towards African Americans.
Because of this, people are more skeptical than ever of law enforcement. It takes very little to spark a controversy. And the gale-force wind that is the Internet wastes little time fanning that spark into a raging fire. It's like playing whisper-down-the-lane, but in 140 character increments. And by the time it comes out on the other side, the story is hardly recognizable.
"I read all these stories and all these comments about how police and the community can work together, but it seems like out of everything, there's a controversy that's driven and that's created," Stanford said. "Even the slightest thing like a basketball game, one that wasn't planned, that was just them being out there walking their beat, it becomes ... a controversial issue."
That's because two days later, on the afternoon of Friday, April 3, Hill was in the passenger seat of his friend's car at 56th and Lansdowne Streets when two police officers approached and ordered them to exit the vehicle. Hill and his friend soon found themselves in handcuffs and on their way to the 19th District.
Hill recognized the officers. He'd seen them around the neighborhood. He'd also embarrassed them two days prior. Not just in front of the kids at Hunter playground, but thanks to the Internet, in front of their friends and coworkers.
"I can't say how they feel about the video," Hill said of the two officers. "All I know is the whole time they kept telling me I was cool and that they thought my friend had something, which he didn't. They just kept saying, 'You cool. You cool.' Which is why I don't know why they had to take me down there in the first place; why they just didn't let me go in the beginning."
So when Hill posted a video* of himself in handcuffs, and subsequently told Complex.com that he was thought "it was because of the video," the story stopped being about a pair of cops having some fun and morphed into an example of police abusing their power. Even if that wasn't the case.
"Now, because those officers are back out there in the community the next day, and they stop one of those kids, then it's 'Oh my goodness, the officers are stopping the kid they played basketball with because he crossed them over,'" Stanford said. "If anybody really believes that our officers are that shallow, then they shouldn't be police officers. And it kind of puts something in my mind, and kind of makes you look at a person that believes that's why an officer would stop you."
"They weren't bad cops at all. ... They cool. They like basketball. We shook hands after the video and everything."
Maybe it's just what we -- and I mean us in the media as much as you the reader -- wanted it to be that way. We've become conditioned to believe the worst about people, police officers or otherwise. Even if they're just trying to do their jobs.
"[The cops] tried to say I was in a 'drug area,'" Hill explained. "So they wanted to search the car. And they took me down to the station. I don't know what that was for, because they didn't see me with nothing and I didn't have nothing.
"No one was charged with anything. I was just standing down there in cuffs for like two hours before they let me go."
It's not unusual for suspects to be held for that length of time while officers conclude their investigation or search, according to Stanford.
"The simple fact is, if they brought [Hill] in and while they were investigating whatever it is they were investigating they realized he had nothing to do with it, they released him," Stanford said. "That happens as part of us doing an investigation. Sometimes people say, 'Oh, you guys take people in and then you release them.' Well, better for us to take them in and release them as opposed to taking them in and just charging them with B.S. What, because we take them in we have to charge them? People wouldn't want that either.
"So, it's one of those things, we'll take somebody in, we'll do a little more investigating, and then once we determine this person is good to go, that's it."
Whether or not you agree with the laws that police enforce is irrelevant. If that's the case, go complain to you local congressman or city council representative. That's not the issue here. We -- you, me, all of us -- are the problem. Even as you're reading this story, I'm willing to bet that you've at least once tried to figure out what side I'm on. Don't lie.
The truth is, I'm not on any side, because there are no sides to be taken. Only lessons to be learned. Choosing means I believe someone was in the wrong, but it appears the legal system -- for better or worse -- worked perfectly.
"If you really think, in a small-minded way, that a police officer would come back and arrest you because you crossed him over, then it makes it a bad situation from the very beginning."
It was only after the legend of Hill's crossover had been whispered down the lane a few times that we began to overlook every other potential explanation, no matter how simple. Instead, we crouched into attack mode like a cat ready to pounce, even if the so-called victim in this case harbors no ill will towards the two officers.
"They weren't bad cops at all," Hill said of the two officers in the video. "I don't know what happened with the whole situation, why they had to take me down there. They cool cops though. They cool. They like basketball. We shook hands after the video and everything."
Hill's story should serve as a lesson to all of us, about how we must take the time to step back and find the clarity needed to view such events objectively. By demonizing police and viewing them as the enemy rather than our protectors, we only hurt ourselves.
"It almost makes you feel like, as a police officer, everything you do is going to be scrutinized," said Stanford. "It almost puts you in a position where you become very hesitant to interact. Because if you go out there and your intent is just to interact and have some fun, you know that. But what happens if I have to stop that person the next day? Then it's going to look like I only stopped him because I didn't like what happened the day before, which couldn't be further from the truth."
Unfortunately, the best way to remedy our rapidly degrading relationship with the law is to connect with those that uphold it in a meaningful and personal way ... like an impromptu basketball game. And because of situations like this, we're ruining any hope of that continuing.
"If you really think, in a small-minded way, that a police officer would come back and arrest you because you crossed him over, then it makes it a bad situation from the very beginning," said Stanford. "It leaves, sometimes, our officers a little hesitant to engage. Because now the next time I go out there and play a kid in one-on-one and he bumps into me and falls and scrapes his knee, are you going to say the officer assaulted him because he crossed him over in another game?"
