I’m seeing a lot of shared posts about the 5 year old child that was murdered. His name was Cannon Hinnant. He was a white child that was riding his bike in front of his house and one of his families neighbors, a black man, walked up to him and shot him dead. His murderer was their neighbor for 8 years and knew him. His murderer has been charged.
Sooooo why am I making this post? Well, there are SEVERAL posts being made right now (I’ve seen 6 in the last 2 hours) wondering why there have not been any marches, any #JusticeForCannon protests and why the media is silent. I’ve had many say “Why are there no posts on CNN, MSNBC”. Fox News is carrying it but you have to search. People are angry. And I’m going to be brutally honest. White people are angry that they are not seeing this kid plastered all over the place.
There are a few things to note.
1. Doing a search for this poor child’s name, while the major outlets may not be speaking about it, it has certainly hit the news cycles:
https://www.google.com/search…
2. There is a reason that we have not had marches, protests, etc. They apprehended the murderer. He will have his day in court. People like Ahmaud Aubery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Elijah McCain had marches for multiple reasons. There were no news stories about Ahmaud Aubery for 74 days before we learned about that case. Breonna Taylor, the officers that murdered her? They are still out walking free. Some even went on vacation. George Floyd is still ongoing. Elijah McCain, the officers went back and took pictures. Trayvon Martin.. his murderer SOLD the handgun for over $100,000 and signs Rebel Flags. He became a celebrity. Justice is STILL needed in many of these cases.
I say all of that not to diminish what happened to Cannon. I look at this story and my heart is in shreds as I look at it through the lens of the mother. I have 4 children and I cannot even imagine. They will get their day in court and it will be interesting to see the plea and subsequent outcome. I hope, if he did do it, that he pleads guilty and that justice is served.
I feel that, a huge part of this is also due to the fact that we have a 24/7 news cycle. We are so swept up in BLM Protests, Trump vs Biden, USPS being dismantled, the Elections coming up, COVID, lockdowns, Pedophiles, Netflix, etc etc etc. The notion of the 15 minutes of fame have switched to 15 seconds of fame. Hashtags and trending. The news doesn’t want anything that won’t go Viral.
Matter of fact, with more and more shares coming out, this will probably then go viral. And it will probably create even more turmoil. “What about his life?” “This is why we say ALL Lives Matter and BLM is hypocritical”.
I had this conversation with my buddy Jeff (We have another chat coming up…stay tuned) in regards to this. The last thing I said was: “I truly hate the world we live in regarding 24/7 news cycles and what can be deemed “Viral” and what isn’t “worth” a story. It diminishes the human character and value. Oh Look what Trump said!? Oh did Biden Bumble his words again?
What were we talking about again? This is the world we live in. 15 minutes of “fame” have become 15 second mini video/sound bytes. I hate it.”
So with all of that. What happened to Cannon is absolutely Tragic. It does not mean his live did not matter. It did. And his family will get justice. Hopefully all that have had their lives unjustly taken from them will get the same.
RIP Little guy. #CannonHinnant