The duality of blame

 By now, presumably, everyone in America who cares has seen the bodycam footage of Miami Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill's arrest Sunday after he was pulled over for speeding before the Dolphins game with the Jacksonville Jaguars. And, predictably, everyone's formed an opinion.

On one side are the people who reflexively say "He should have just complied" when the police escalate a situation. They demand accountability -- unless of course it involves certain politicians, who are elevated to martyrdom when they break the law or fail to comply with court orders.

And on the other side?

On the other side are the people who reflexively (and let's face it, with more than a little justification) say, "Here we go, another black man getting abused by the po-po". They, too, demand accountability, but only from law enforcement and those aforementioned certain politicians.

In between, meanwhile, is Tyreek Hill. Who yesterday steered the middle course the whole deal required.

He admitted, first of all, that he could have handled the situation better. Rolled down his window quicker. Exited his vehicle quicker. Dialed down the attitude. 

"At the end of the day," he said, "I'm human. I've got to follow the rules. I got to do what everyone else would do."

Then he said this didn't mean the arresting officers -- one in particular -- didn't escalate the situation by yanking him out of the car, throwing him to the ground and "literally beat(ing) the dog out of me." 

In other words: He was wrong. But the officer in question was wrong, too. 

And that is absolutely right.

It's sometimes a hard concept to absorb in our polarized, knee-jerk society, but two things can be true at the same time. In fact, they frequently are. The duality of truth, and therefore blame, is about as close to straight gospel as there is in the secular world.

So we can talk all day about the increasing tendency for law enforcement to play the escalator instead of the de-escalator, and that's a talk worth having. The Blob's theory is it springs from the increasing scrutiny in our plugged-in, cellphone video world, and from the proliferation of concealed carry laws in America. Police literally don't know what they're rolling up on half the time now, so they tend to overreact at the slightest deviation from the routine.

Price we pay, I guess, for our cultish worship of the Second Amendment.

On the other hand ...

On the other hand, the aforementioned was not really in play in the Tyreek Hill detaining. The officers in question knew who he was because you can see him handing them his license on the bodycam. And, let's face it, they probably knew anyway.

So yanking him from the car, throwing him down and cuffing him for not immediately rolling down his window on a routine traffic stop was way over the top. Simply put, one officer just got pissed off. Police presumably are trained not to do this, but there you go.

Yes, Tyreek Hill should have complied faster.

And, yes, the officer who yanked him out of the car should have kept his cool.

Two things. Both true.