Sunday, February 17, 2013

Thoughts From An Interesting Week In SoCal

Christopher Dorner has become a bit of a folk hero to some (maybe many) in the Los Angeles area. There are understandable reasons for that (some right, some wrong), but to me he's still a murderer.
The dude was whack, OK? Get that.

Personally, I suspect that there is something to Dorner's anger at his treatment by LAPD.
To refresh: as a rookie, Dorner had filed a report alleging brutality on the part of his partner. After much Internal Affairs happenings, he was deemed to be lying and was fired for filing a false report.
Personally, I suspect that he was really fired for ratting out a fellow officer.


Look, it took like five years of IA and hearings to fire him. That tells me it took LAPD five (plus) years to get his termination 'right'.
What's that tell you?
I know what it tells me...

Growing up in my parent's house a mere two blocks from LAPD's turf, I think that I know who they are, and trust me on this: there are honest reasons why their fan club is rather small.
I think that a Dorner tattoo is rather cool. Not for the image of who, but for what. (FTR: I DO NOT ENDORSE DORNER'S ACTIONS. OK? I've said that... get it)
Yeah, I pity the fool who gets arrested while wearing one, though. It is LAPD we're talking about, after all. (or any PD, for that matter.)
Whoever it is that this tat belongs too has a set of nads like no other.
He will pay for that.

None of that excuses his murderous rampage. Even more so when non-law enforcement family members are targeted.
For this alone, he deserved no mercy, from nobody. But he was entitled to due process.

But it wasn't just Dorner who was on a murderous rampage because LAPD seemingly launched one of their own.

First, in the city of Torrance (I know the street and n'hood where this took place) there were two woman delivering newspapers at 5:30am on the same block of a Dorner target where LAPD had set up a protection squad. The cops opened fire on their truck (which did NOT match the description of Dorner's vehicle) with full intent to kill, without so much as identifying their target. Dozens of bullet holes riddled the truck, and the two women (both wounded) just barely escaped with their lives from the Protect and Serve Militia. ('To Protect And Serve' is the motto of LAPD. Ironic, yeah?)
This was an act of kill on sight, frontier justice... Not modern day police work.
Attempted murder charges have yet to be filed on the officers, but lots of bullshit excuses were offered, instead.
Gee, wonder why???

About five minutes after the attempted murderous rampage against the paper delivery women, LAPD cops 'protecting' a short distance away were rushing to aid in the murderous rampage incident that just took place and...
targeted another truck (still not matching the description of Dorner's vehicle)...
ramming it and opening fire...
Again... without identifying their target, which turned out to a white guy driving through his own neighborhood.
Luckily, he escaped the actions of the Protect And Serve Militia unharmed.
This event went under-reported.

A second case of frontier justice... Still no attempted murder charges.
Gee, I wonder why?

Several days later, after being discovered near his mountain hideaway, after two more shootouts with The Law (killing another cop), the cabin Dorner was holed up in was set on fire, intentionally. We know it was intentional because there is scanner recording of it. "get the gas and torch the fucker"... words to that effect.
Now, they are trying to claim the fire was not intentionally set by the cops.
Yeah, right.

A few have complained about Dorner's rights to due process being denied while holed up in that cabin. Yeah, I get ya... he was never going to get those anyway if the actions of cops throughout the week were any indication...
Still, when he engaged in a shootout from that same cabin, thousands of rounds fired (seriously, the audio sounded like a scene from the Battle of Fallujah)... what kind of arrest did you expect the cops to attempt when we've seen their actions up to then?

"Yeah, but they should have tried to wait him out. They had him contained. Give him a chance to surrender and make his case to a jury, and then send him to Death Row."

Personally, I would have preferred that scenario.
LAPD, on the other hand, probably would prefer he never had that public audience. It would have exposed their corruption, again.

Maybe, Christopher Dorner was unjustly terminated from a police force he thought had reformed only to find that they had not.
Whatever the actual, true life facts are, the historical facts tend to support his overall accusations.
Dogs are Dogs.
Pigs are Pigs.
LAPD is LAPD.
(and I doubt that any PD is vastly different, anyway.)

Through the aftermath, as the fallen cops were mourned, I kept hearing the phrase: We are a close-knit family... (in regards to law enforcement peeps)....
Yeah...
Wasn't that part of Dorner's issue?
Just sayin...
And I'm not the only one sayin it.

Still, I say it again, in bold, ok?
None of that excuses his murderous rampage

Added : I do not trust the coroner's report that Dorner died of a self inflicted gunshot wound. I believe that he burned to death. And still waiting for the report of who's bullet actually killed that deputy in the cabin shootout. Seeing what I see, he was likely killed by his own guys. Cause they suck at shooting straight, anyway, and have issues discerning friend from foe in the first place.
In SoCal, our cops tend to be of the Keystone variety...

8 comments:

Brian said...

Yes, nothing excuses what Dorner (allegedly) did. But it isn't surprising at all that he would/will be a folk hero to some.

When the cops assume a war footing, they tend to define the enemy rather broadly. I.e., basically anyone who isn't police, potentially. That certainly isn't limited to the LAPD, but they are probably the biggest and highest profile example.

Mr. D said...

Good post, Gino. Really, really good.

When the cops assume a war footing, they tend to define the enemy rather broadly. I.e., basically anyone who isn't police, potentially.

Yep.

Bike Bubba said...

I would have figured that, knowing that Dorner wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, a smart PD would deny that to him. Wait him out until he gets real hungry, use some sleeping gas to take him, whatever.

I can excuse letting the cabin burn--who knows what would have happened if you called firemen to help, after all--but it's really odd to me that all those PD rounds never apparently hit him. Puts the kibosh on the fiction of the "high powered assault rifles" they were carrying, doesn't it?

(not to mention the idea that the LAPD can shoot straight)

Gino said...

the decision to "burn the fucker" was made very, very early on...

he was NOT going to be allowed the opportunity to surrender...
nope.
not him.

cops are like that... a 'close-knit family'...

Bike Bubba said...

You may be right. I just think that someone needs to say to them "if this is as it appears, you guys are asking for more incidents like this. Start thinking with the upper head, stop thinking with the lower."

3john2 said...

The State reserves the right to burn heretics.

RobertDWood said...

Gino, well said all around.

Crankbait, that made me laugh pretty hard.

VLW said...

I am reading this post and my head just hurts. And, I though small town cops were crazy.