Cannon Hinnant’s murder could have showed us at our best. It did the opposite | Opinion – The News Journal

Thousands of people have donated to a GoFundMe set up by Gwen Hinnant. It's raised nearly half-a-million dollars as of Friday night. Wochit

The same day 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant was viciously murdered while he rode his bike near his Wilson, North Carolina, home, a little girl in St. Joseph, Missouri was among three people shot in an afternoon drive-by shooting outside a grocery store.

Raelynn Elise Craig later died at the hospital. She was 2.

Her family remembered her as an angel and a fighter, a local media outlet reported. She was born premature and she beat the odds and she was here, a family member said.

Like the 209 children aged 11 or younger gone to gun violence in 2019 alone, now shes not. And 12days later, her killer remains free.

Cannon Hinnant, pictured here at age 4.(Photo: Photo courtesy Gwen Hinnant)

Every single one of those 209 deaths and the 36,000 yearly gun violence deaths in this country are an unspeakable tragedy.

Nearly 1,300 people under 18 die every year from gun violence, says a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics. Last year, while 209 died, Gun Violence Archive reported nearly 500 gun injuries to children 11 or younger.

Thankfully, not many of them have been used as a political prop the way Hinnant was. A tragedy that shouldve brought out the best of us did the opposite. It showed us at our worst.

'I HAVE NO IDEA WHY':5-year-old boy fatally shot in North Carolina 'loved everybody,' family says

If youve spent any time on social media in the last few days, you probably saw a few posts about the incident. People were asking where the media coverage was, claiming bias. Some were asking why there werent mass protests like after George Floyds death. The hashtag #SayHisName was trending. It wouldve been a sweet hashtag if all of its participants were well-intentioned. I guess white lives dont matter, I saw someone write on Facebook.

Weve become so good at talking over each other. Weve become so good at hijacking other peoples plight and misplacing it as our own.

It reminded me in a way about a protest I covered recently in Dover, Delaware. A few hundred people peacefully protested along a well-traveled highway to speak out against Delaware Gov. John Carney and the ongoing coronavirus restrictions in the state. It wasnt long before a Black Lives Matter group arrived and the two sides briefly exchanged words.

One group, which included a few Black protesters, used their First Amendment right to speak out against what they said was tyranny. The other groups goal is to bring awareness to police brutality and systemic racism against Black people.

A man in the Reopen Delaware group looked at me while the two sides shouted at each other from one side of the road to the other. These are two separate things, he said.

Thats why I was so startled last week to see Hinnants brutal murder used the way it was.

What happened to Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and what happened to Cannon Hinnant arent related incidents. I suspect most rational people know this.

Its been more than five months since Louisville Police used a battering ram to execute a no-knock search warrant to enter the Taylor's apartment. They were investigating two men believed to be selling drugs from a house separate from the 26-year-old emergency room technicians apartment. Her apartment was believed to be a place the men used to accept packages.

Police banged on the door, but Taylor and her boyfriend were in bed. So police blew the door open, startling Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired his weapon. Police say he shot first, and their return fire ended Taylors life. The dispatch logs indicate Taylor received no medical attention for more than 20 minutes after she was struck, The Louisville Courier Journal reported.

In the months since people began protesting and using #SayHerName to bring awareness, change has happened. Louisville Police are no longer allowed to execute no-knock warrants. Officer Brett Hankison was terminated. He blindly fired multiple rounds into a covered patio door and a window, according to the termination letter.

But Hankison and the other officers were never arrested and never charged, and the other two remain employed. So #SayHerName will liveon.

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The Hinnant family doesnt have to sleep at night the way Raelynn Elise Craigs family does: Wondering every second who her killer was and if he or she will ever pay for what they did.

Hinnants life did matter. Within 24 hours, Darrius Sessoms, a Black man, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He may never see life outside prison again, barely a consolation for losing a child.

What happened to Taylor didnt get national media attention until late May, around the time Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis Police officer.

But just days after Hinnants killing, many people, mostly the conservatives in my timeline, wanted to know where the media attention was. It was a bit confusing. If not for media coverage, how would they have known about what happened to a little boy in a small eastern North Carolina city? Pretend that you can hear me shouting when I say this: Facebook is not a media outlet.

The virality of Hinnants story followed a similar path ofmany other viral stories in the social media age. A local media organization reported on an incident, and people on social media started talking about it. Next, national media swooped in and now almost $1 millionhasbeen raised for his family.

I dont pretend to know why exactly some people reacted with vitriol in the way they did, and I dont believe pointing at an issue and shouting racism does anyone any good. But Raelynn Elise Craig was black. And so was Zamar Jones, the 7-year-old Philadelphia boy who was caught in the crossfire of gun violence and shot in the head earlier this month. He died two days later.

And while Philadelphia media covered the incident, I doubt many people in California know who Zamar Jones is.

You can draw your own conclusions.

Cannon Hinnants death could have brought out the best in us. We could have continued the conversation about gun violence. We could have wondered how Sessoms got a gun. We could have talked about the need for better mental health resources.

Instead, we didnt. Some of us decided a 5-year-old was worthy of perpetuating a twisted narrative.

So, yes, Say His Name. Say all of the names of the hundreds of little kids taken from us every year.

When you remember Cannon Hinnant, dont remember him for what his death brought to your social media timeline. Remember the boy with the light brown hair and beautiful smile who loved Spider-Man and Crocs. Remember how senseless his killing was.

And remember, too, that he never asked for this, to be used as a political prop,the latest victim flung into a culture war stoked by a loud social media culture that is bringing this country to its knees.

Jeff Neiburg, breaking news reporter, The News Journal.(Photo: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal)

Jeff Neiburg covers breaking news for Delaware Online/The News Journal. Contact him at jneiburg@delawareonline.com.Follow him on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.

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Cannon Hinnant's murder could have showed us at our best. It did the opposite | Opinion - The News Journal