We need to have a conversation about the Black man accused of killing a police officer last week. Instead of being labeled as merely a cop killer, he is garnering support across racial lines from both Black and white communities. It’s complicated.
Rodney Hinton, Jr. is currently behind bars and charged with aggravated murder because, according to court documents, he allegedly drove across incoming lanes of traffic, through an intersection, and intentionally hit Larry Henderson, a sheriff’s deputy in Hamilton County, Ohio. The deputy was wearing a florescent vest and working traffic patrol when he was killed. You’d think there would be nothing more than outrage at what happened, but this case is not as simple as it seems.
Hinton allegedly targeted the deputy less than three hours after he met with Cincinnati police to review body camera footage showing the shooting of his 18-year-old son Ryan Hinton. The police say that the younger Hinton was trying to steal a car while holding a gun, but instead of the police trying to deescalate the situation, he was shot just six seconds after the police arrived on the scene. His emotionally distraught father is accused of targeting Deputy Henderson in blind rage. And the response has been surprising, to say the least.
Both white and Black folk have voiced their support for the grieving father. Some call him a hero and demand that he be freed immediately.
While others take a more nuanced approach. They lament that he will never see justice.
This is as much a tragedy as it was inevitable. We all knew something like this was going to happen one day.
We may not see as many videos as we once did on social media, and there are no longer marches happening in the street to protest the killing of Black boys and girls, and men and women at the hands of the police. But the reality is that the people who are charged to serve and protect are killing us. And the shocking verdict in the case of the police officers who beat Tyre Nichols, who later died of his injuries, shows us that many of them will walk away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist... if that.
In the face of almost certain injustice, the actions of Rodney Hinton Jr. make sense to many folks. To lose a child is any parent’s greatest fear, Black or white. Who knows what the best of us would do if we were put in that situation? So it’s understandable why there is such an outpouring of support for the grieving father. What reportedly happened is a human response to an impossible, and unfathomable, situation.
We should not condone Hinton’s alleged actions, but it is challenging not to at least understand why he allegedly did what he did. He was angry, hurt, and lashed out. Henderson was just doing his job, but Hinton may have saw him as a representative of the system responsible for his son’s death.
What happened is a tragedy on every level. But it is not surprising because ultimately, there are only a few things stronger than a parent’s love for their child, and we can’t think of any.