Cincinnati Police Department: Child Executioners
On May 1, Rodney Hinton Jr.'s son, Ryan Hinton, was shot and killed by police in East Price Hill after allegedly stealing a car. Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said the officer who shot Ryan believed that Ryan had pointed a gun at him, but there is absolutely no evidence to support this. From the time the cops got out of the car to the time they shot Hinton, only six seconds had passed, which is not enough time for any person, let alone a "trained professional" to process and make a clear-cut distinction on if a gun was pointed at him or not. Initial media reports simply regurgitated Cincinnati Police Department's (CPD) details of the events, and body-cam footage refutes the idea that any officers were threatened, that a firearm was pointed at them, or that Ryan ran towards them. The media continually refers to the footage as "blurry," therefore whatever it confirms – or, in this case, doesn't confirm – doesn't matter. And regardless if a gun was pointed at the officer or not, Ryan, a Black child, did not deserve to die.
On Friday Morning, the Hinton family reviewed the police footage of Ryan's death. That afternoon, Rodney allegedly struck and killed a sheriff's deputy directing traffic outside the University of Cincinnati during graduation. Vehicle processions followed in support of the officer, and government officials such as Governor Mike Dewine and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval spoke about how loved the deceased officer was and and how well of a job the police have done at protecting their residents. Every organ of the state, from politicians to the cops, are encouraging us to forget the reality: police aggressively pursued children and opened fire on one, murdering a child. We stand with Rodney, Ryan, the Hinton family, and all those who are affected by state violence. The media will tell you this was premeditated, but there is no evidence to suggest this other than that he was a father who was grieving his child.
We are propagandized to believe the stories told by police who have every incentive to lie and cover their own asses. We're demanded by both the cops and the media to condemn Rodney, and we're led to believe that Ryan, a teenager, made enough bad decisions to validate his execution. The bourgeois media plays an active role as an organ of the capitalist class whose job it is to portray both state and federal level police as "neutral actors" enforcing public safety, but this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, they do the exact opposite of this by consistently relaying the side of the cops and taking them at their word. The police's role, as analyzed throughout history, is and has always been an anti-Black institution subservient to capitalism that protects property, not life. White supremacy, as the prevailing culture of the US and capitalism itself, allows the state and its organs to have a "monopoly on morality" that it uses to justify both its overt and covert violence. This propaganda allows the cycle of violence of the capitalist state to continue because people believe it (or convince themselves to so they don't have to fight back against it and put their own lives and comfort on the line). But without an organized resistance to the state and everything it embodies, nothing changes and the cycle of violence repeats.
If we look a little deeper, we see a pattern of aggressive behavior with CPD in the pursuit of vehicles. In response to a high-speed chase that led to the death of an elderly couple in 2020, the department changed its policy to only pursue in the case of violent felonies in 2022; this did not include stolen cars. In Nov. 2024, CPD union leader Ken Kober stated, “It’s time to take the cuffs off the cops so they can pursue the bad guys," arguing that the new policy was too restrictive. Again, the bourgeois media served as the platform for police discourse and went on to publish more quotes from Kobler. He stated, "That's a real-life scenario, and it's only a matter of time it's going to happen where they're not going to be able to pursue them where they have the suspects right there in front of them." As the article notes, this quote follows the national uptick in vehicle theft. This is just one example of how law enforcement is constantly seeking to expand its power of apprehension by highlighting a trending issue and stoking fear around it with little regard to the culture of violence it cultivates within its own department.
At the end of the day, condemning Rodney Hinton Jr. and at the same time justifying the murder of his son is a betrayal of the people. Anyone who carries water for the oppressors by recognizing their violence as legitimate while declaring resistance or retaliation unacceptable objectively works against the interests of the people. Rodney Hinton Jr. staked his life to avenge his son and stood in a courtroom without fear and with all of his convictions knowing he could be put to death for his actions; that in itself is commendable.