Rodney Hinton, a Black father, killed a Cincinnati police officer after watching the body camera footage of his son’s brutal death. After witnessing his son get killed as he ran from police officers, Rodney got into his truck and intentionally ran over a cop who was directing traffic.
Police officers packed Rodney’s bail hearing to intimidate him and forced his family to wait outside. Rodney held his head high and stared into the eyes of the dozens of police as he was escorted back to jail after being denied bond. Pictures of this moment went viral since many Black working people, especially parents, sympathize with Rodney’s actions and are disgusted by police intimidation of Rodney and his family, not to mention, of course, the violent murder of his son.
Five years on since the murder of George Floyd, police violence has continued to perpetuate death and destruction in Black communities across the country. The courts, emboldened by the defeat of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and encouraged by Trump’s pro-cop propaganda, no longer feel pressure to hold even a fraction of cops accountable for this violence. Recently, three cops were acquitted in the brutal 2023 killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee. This has led to posters appearing across the city showing the three cops’ faces, with the title “Wanted: Dead or Un-alive for the Crime of Beating Tyre Nichols to Death and Escaping Justice.”
Rodney Hinton felt righteous anger over losing his son to a cruel police killing and being told by cops and politicians that his son’s death was “justified.” Beyond police violence, capitalism has degraded Black working-class communities with hyper-exploitation, low-wage non-union jobs, a prison-industrial complex that destroys Black families, and a lack of good quality public housing. There is a deep anger against the inhumane conditions that plague Black working people.
However, we must be clear. Killing individual cops will not enact the change Black people desperately want and deserve. Trump and the right wing are able to use acts like Hinton killing a police officer to justify their pro-cop, anti-BLM rhetoric and expand repression of, especially Black, working-class communities. Additionally, it’s the whole system of capitalism that is the root of the crisis plaguing Black people. As Malcolm X said, “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” Only an organized mass movement of the working class with a socialist program can uproot this deeply racist system.
BLM’s defeat has pushed many Black people into thinking that mass movements can’t deliver. But the mistakes of the past lie at the feet of the misleadership of prominent “BLM NGOs,” who directed the movement toward “safer channels” like electing Democrats and away from mass, organized working-class action. There was a lack of democratic organization created during and after BLM to engage ordinary Black people and activists to discuss concrete demands and the most effective methods of struggle. Trump 2.0 is far more dangerous than his first term, and we have to build a multi-racial working-class movement that can defeat Trump’s far-right, racist, authoritarian agenda.
Rodney Hinton’s anger, along with that of all those impacted by racist police brutality, is justified. But individual acts of violence don’t point a way forward toward liberation. We need to learn the lessons of BLM and redouble our efforts to build a mass, revolutionary struggle against Trump, racism, and capitalism.