Story about the killing: https://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-deputy-fatally-struck-man-son-shot-police/story?id=121438975
Breakdown of bodycam video: https://eu.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/05/04/body-cam-review-ryan-hinton-fatal-cincinnati-police-shooting-2025/83443906007/
I don’t think the chief’s identification of the “gun” in the freeze frame is really beyond a reasonable doubt. I’d be fine with it if we could see the bodycam after the shooting, showing the cop going up to the kid and the gun next to him. Since if he was holding it while running, where else would it be other than roughly in the same place as that random patch of pixels?
I agree it is not good case for self defense, but what if we look at it as a case of protest? In this case violet protest against an injustice that otherwise would not have been acted on.
What does justice mean in this context and how is that worth more than a human life?
I am unconvinced by the case for killing as an act of protest generally, but I haven’t thought as deeply about this as I maybe should. So I’d like to hear the case for it.
First a clarification about justice: in this case I meant justice in the eyes of the father. What I mean by this is that most likely the officer responsible would not have been charger with any crime, would most likely not even be fired from work.
I do not think it is, but I think you are equating the current state of violence with no violence done, and as we can read a officer killed a child. So let me ask you how is a badge worth more than a human life? We see the father on the stand waiting for his sentence? Where is the sentence for killing a literal child?
I understand all of this. If by justice you mean punishment then as I mentioned I reject that moral framework. Harming people is bad, even the guilty. So there needs to be enough good to offset this.
This is where I’m hoping you can elaborate. I’m aware of the atrocities of the US police system. But how does that connect to this action in a moral sense? Are you saying killing this cop will make that situation better somehow? I’m not sure I see how.
The good is that you are stopping these people from hurting other innocents. This is not exactly the case here, because the killed cop was not at all connected to the earlier murder, I agree. But from a system point of view, protesting police brutality and police violence even with violet means is justifiable if that will prevent greater suffering caused by the police, no?
If you could prove that, then yes. I don’t really see how this event will lead to less police brutality though. Only an organized political movement could achieve that. With this action, another cop will be hired to replace the one killed and the system will go on unchanged.
Violent protest sounds fine, in some circumstances.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/police-precinct-minneapolis/
I more or less agree with that; I think that especially given the history of widespread peaceful protest against police brutality which clearly didn’t do a damn thing to keep George Floyd alive, and given the clear mandate of millions of people in the streets, burning down the 3rd precinct sent a message which had quite a bit to do with changing the culture of policing and the conversation in the years that followed. “A little revolution every now and then is a healthy thing.”
This wasn’t that. This is just one guy deciding to kill some random person who wasn’t from the same department, after some other cop from a different department had a perfectly reasonable reaction to being put in a life-threatening violent situation. It sucks for all concerned, I understand his reaction as a human thing, but a cop who breaks a suspect’s nose because he wouldn’t stop mouthing off and trying to kick him or something, that’s a human reaction too. We all need to keep our reactions in check sometimes.
Overall agree, but
I do not think this is a sufficiently damming for the situation. A father will spend a lot of years in prison if not the rest of his life, a son will never graduate, never have a girlfriend or boyfriend, never have kids, a mother will be left without half her family in just 2 days! Mere hours and your whole life changes. The cop as well it is a shame, his grandkids would never again see their grandpa, it is heartbreaking all of it…
Second thing: We can see this is a systemic issues and require systemic changes
Random violence is never the answer! But violence(preferably not against people) IMO is a perfectly good form of protest.
Yeah. It is heartbreaking. End of the world.