by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.
Justifying Murder – LAPD And The Christopher Dorner Case
At the time I’m writing this, ex-LAPD officer Christopher Jordan Dorner is still at large. Officer Dorner is the primary suspect in several murders. At least one of them being a fellow LAPD officer.
If he has done as accused, there is no excuse for his behavior. His actions are reprehensible and would meet almost anyone’s definition of a serious mental pathology. It is not the purpose of this piece to either defend or justify his actions.
What concerns me is the reactions and the actions of the LAPD which presumably is not claiming “diminished capacity” as an explanation or justification for their behavior. If anything, their reaction is going a long way to prove the allegations levelled against the LAPD in Officer Dorner’s so called “manifesto.” The main accusations Officer Dorner levelled were those of racism and police brutality.
Shoot first… Ask questions later.
In the aftermath of events, we’ve seen LAPD open fire – shoot first, ask questions later – on two women delivering newspapers. Their crime? They happened to be driving a truck that some “hair trigger” officers thought looked like the truck Officer Dorner was suspected of driving. Could you imagine the fallout that would ensue if you shot someone by mistake? “Emma Hernandez, 71, was delivering the Los Angeles Times with her daughter, 47-year-old Margie Carranza, when officers apparently mistook their pickup for that of Dorner.” One woman was shot in the back, the other in her hand.
A little while later, another vehicle was shot up. Fortunately the man inside was not hit. No commands were given. No opportunity to surrender. No attempts to effectuate an arrest. I was under the impression that the job of Law Enforcement Officers was not to act as judge, jury and executioner, but if possible deliver a suspect to a court of law. What we’re dealing with here is “street justice.”
Warrant-less Searches???
What is the difference between the actions of LAPD and your common street gang? They have been ordering citizens out of their vehicles, searching their homes at gun point without obtaining search warrants as demanded by due process. Does the law not apply to the police? Are they above the law?
I have personally tended to scoff at the likes of Alex Jones when they beat the drums of societal collapse and martial law. However, they suddenly don’t seem so crazy. We are either a nation of laws or we are not! If the LAPD can throw “due process” and the United States Constitution out the window, then anybody can. All they need do is claim to be concerned for their own safety.
A Campaign Of Demonization
The Black Rambo?
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that the Public Relations department of the LAPD has shifted their tactics. The shift has been subtle, but evident nonetheless. At the beginning the focus of the LAPD was to paint Officer Dorner as mentally unstable, irrational, possibly suffering from PTSD, perhaps because of his service to this country in the Navy. In short, “Crazy Black Man” on the loose! Be afraid, be very afraid! Now, they’re portraying him as some sort of “Black Rambo.”
In an unprecedented move, the LAPD has released video tapes of Officer Dorner going through the common training course all LAPD Officers go through. They showed him on the shooting range – alongside other Officer candidates – remarking on how well he controlled the recoil of the pistol he was shooting. Evidently, according to the anonymous Public Relations representative, being able to control the relatively light recoil of a pistol, makes one an extremely deadly and accurate pistol shot. In point of fact, controlling recoil is not necessarily indicative of accuracy.
Practising disarming techniques with his fellow LAPD officers
They released a clip of him practicing disarming techniques with fellow Officers. Evidently you’re supposed to either forget or ignore the fact that the training he was receiving was the exact same training that all LAPD Officers receive. Thus, how does this make Officer Dorner any more or less dangerous than your average LAPD Officer? It does not.
Clearly what LAPD is doing is laying the ground work to justify murdering Christopher Dorner rather than bring him to justice. The question I have is why? This is a question that you and everyone else ought to be asking as loudly and as often as possible. What does he know? What might he say in open court that the LAPD would prefer him never to reveal in open Court? Are they justifying murder ahead of time? It seems to me that they are.
Thank you for posting this. Thank you for putting a voice to a situation that is a loose cannon. I am speaking of the LAPD. Like you, I am not condoning Christopher Dorner’s actions. However, it is very clear to me that the LAPD are trying to clear their name above anything else.
They will play a tune and lull the public to sleep by making us feel as if they are taking their actions on this man so that we are safe. There is some truth to that, but more than anything… this IS “street justice” being played out on the stage of multimedia. If you don’t start nothing, there won’t be nothing. Chickens are coming home to roost.
What all does Christopher Dorner know that warrants him being shut down without being brought to justice? He must know of some damaging accusations that could put a few of them in compromising positions. It is sad that it has taken all of this circustry just for them to want to even open up his case of why he was actually fired. More like… “let’s open up his case so we can prove just how deranged his is.”
It is the LAPD who has created this monster, and they do NOT want to admit it. The LAPD has been murdering people in cold blood for years (whether they are innocent or not). If they get tired of you, they just send out the “doomsquad”, battering rams and all. I hope the victims (at the hands of LAPD) that were shot have very good legal representation. Their lives have been unnecessarily altered. Maybe they’ll wake up tomorrow with PTSD and go on a rampage… who knows?
…and yes, I agree. LAPD are demonizing this man, instead of getting to the root of his problem. Their “wickedness in high places” has been the straw that has broken this man’s “back”. …and now, Dorner is calling them out on the carpet, to which I believe at the other end of the rainbow- there will be some very damaging truths against LAPD. LAPD is working hard to make Dorner look mentally unstable, so that the public at large will be sure to believe the LAPD hook, line and sinker.
I’m sitting watching the news at this time. LAPD wants the killings to stop just as bad as I do. However, it seems they want the killing to stop more so due to the fact that it is LAPD that has a bullseye on their forehead.
I was wondering whether or not the LAPD has a policy of monitoring the social media accounts of it’s employees. Do they require login and password access?
Right now, we’re making a lot of assumptions that are based on some “givens” that may not be as given as we assume. For instance, we assume that Christopher Dorner actually owned the Facebook account upon which is so called “manifesto” was posted.
As of yet, I have heard no actual *evidence* connecting him to any of the shootings. No witnesses, finger prints etc. I have heard of no ballistics tests that connect recovered bullets to a firearm known to be owned by him.
Little known fact, all firearms assigned to police officers are tested are fired, bullet recovered and the ballistics are on file. That doesn’t mean he could not have used a personal weapon.
However, everything hinges upon this manifesto that we all *assume* he wrote and posted. Why would his first target be the daughter of the attorney – retired LAPD officer – who represented him at his trial?
If you’re going to go on a revenge killing spree, wouldn’t you want to make your first strike – the one for which there would be no warning – someone whom you felt was the most responsible for wronging you? After that first strike, everyone would be on alert.
I am also puzzled why he would telegraph whom his targets were. Thus far, Christopher Dorner hasn’t shown signs of being and idiot. However, putting people on notice that you’re coming for them, doesn’t seem to be very bright. If you tell me you’re coming to do me harm, I’m going to be on alert. If you really want to get me, you’d probably do better by not telling me.
I suppose my point is, they’ve painted him as crazy and mentally unstable, yet they’re not able to catch him. A person who gives out a list of his targets is not employing what I would consider effective tactics. The element of surprise is always advantageous.
I believe we’re seeing the tip of a very large iceberg. The LAPD’s response simply doesn’t make sense. Not to mention, theoretically, every LAPD Officer is a potential target. So, you send them out to set up road blocks and do invasive searches? That’s like putting this fellow in a target rich environment.
Good piece. I also feel that this man has serious issues. Unlike, many others his problems did not start with his service as a police officer. His mental issued started well before that time. Despite his grievances which should not surprise any of us, he killed an innocent couple because the daughter was related to a guy he feels was abusive to him. He killed the daughter and her boyfriend (fiance).
The LAPD was proven to be pure “dog meat’ as we witnessed the OJ Simspon Trial. Not only did the dept. contribute to his acquittal, we saw Mark (whatever his racist last name is) (Fuhrman) use racial slurs as if common practice among he and some of his cohorts. And, yes the world witnessed the now ancient but relevant Rodney King attempted murder.
No, I do not find Dorner to be a modern day Nat Turner (Slave insurrection). I do find yet another case of guns (and I am a multiple gun owner) in the hands of someone whose mind has long past normal. I am just not a sympathetic to Dorner’s acts and I wonder about the veracity of his (so called) manifesto in its entirety.
Correction from above…..
“Like many others, his problems did not start with his service as a police officer. His mental issues started well before that time.”
There are probably other needs for correction just above, but time does not permit and this sentence needed work from the start….(Unlike is not “Like”).
The more I think about this case… the more convinced I become that we simply don’t know… damn near anything! Law Enforcement in general and the LAPD in particular have exhibited a pattern and practice of demonizing any and everybody who can show them in a bad light.
Remember what they tried to do with Trayvon Martin? They published a picture from his Facebook page showing him giving the “one fingered salute.” They leaked that they had found traces of marijuana in his backpack. None of these things had anything to do with the fact that he was an unarmed youth who was murdered by a racist white man.
I’ve seen this done over and over again. Trayvon Martin had nothing to do with the police. He was not shot by a policeman. I shudder to think what all they would have “leaked” had a police officer been involved.
What we do know is that whatever psychological problems Officer Dorner may have been struggling with, he passed his psych evaluation. No officer he worked with complained about any psychological instabilities. All these leaks and admissions are *after the fact.*
He may in fact be as crazy as a loon. However, for the time being, I’m going to put that in my “gray box.” It may be fruit from the poisonous tree. I say this because, Officer Dorner was also in the United States Naval reserves. He saw combat. He rose through the ranks. Combat is about as stressful an environment as you’re likely to be in. If he was going to crack, you might expect him to have cracked then. Thus far, no reports of this.
It seems unlikely that the LAPD would be a more stressful environment than a war zone.