8/16/2020 On Cannon Hinnant and Race

There's a GoFundMe page raising money for the family of Cannon Hinnant, and as of this typing, it's raised $709.065. That's a lot of dough. Who is Cannon Hinnant and what is going on to generate so much interest in his family?

On a personal level, I NEVER ONCE thought that Cannon was murdered because of his race. Sure, I know it's a possibility, but just because his murderer is black and Cannon was white, I didn't jump to the conclusion that it was a race crime or hate crime. It was an atrocity. It was a crime. It is terrible. His murderer should be punished to the full extent of the law. No if's, and's, or but's. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go directly to jail, you animal and thug. Bastard.

George Floyd, a man previously convicted of multiple felonies, a man who was being apprehended in the commission of a crime, and a man who was high as a kite was killed when a police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8-1/2 minutes. The officer is white and Mr. Floyd was a black man. Similar to the Cannon Hinnant case, I did NOT jump to the conclusion that Mr. Floyd's murder was a race crime or a hate crime. Yes, I did believe that to have been a possibility, but lacking ANY single piece of evidence to support that theory, I didn't jump to conclusions. Many, many people did, and months of unrest and violence followed. A week or two ago, the police body camera footage of Floyd's arrest and murder were released. It was difficult to watch, I'd describe it as "gut wrenching". The body camera video showed a sky-high suspect who resisted arrest and did everything else except to cooperate. There were 100+ opportunities for Mr. Floyd to cooperate and the tragedy would have been avoided. Not one single racial slur or derogatory comment was uttered by the cops on scene.

I still haven't seen a single shred of evidence that either Cannon Hinnant or George Floyd were killed because of their skin color. And as businesses, cities, and people's lives have been destroyed in protests over Floyd's killing on the presumption that it was a race crime, people like me read about the murder of Cannon Hinnant and we asked ourselves, "Why is the media inflating the resisting arrest, drugged up felon, George Floyd's murder into a racial atrocity, and completely ignoring an obviously innocent 5 year old's murder, killed allegedly for the crime of riding his bicycle on his neighbor's lawn?" Well, I believe it's because there is an agenda, an effort to divide us and to turn us against one another, pitting black against white, left against right, city against rural, rich against poor. We're being played like a violin in the Boston Pops or NY Philharmonic. Played.

Don't fall for it. Racism is real, and it should NOT be tolerated. But neither should it be conjured up to incite the less insightful. Next time one of these tragedies like George or Cannon's murder happens, please, before condemning it as a race or hate crime, ask, "How do we know it was racially motivated? What evidence is there that it was racially motivated?" Let it not be that until there is evidence that that's what it is.

Cannon Hinnant Go Fund Me