Signs That The Lunatics Are All Around Us
Blogging HT to Gawker.
Christopher Jordan Dorner, the 33-year-old ex-LAPD officer who allegedly killed a young Los Angeles couple on Sunday in revenge for his termination from the force, is only getting started, according to a rambling manifesto, alternately terrifying and bizarre, that he posted to Facebook earlier this week. “The Violence of action will be HIGH. I am the reason TAC alert was established […] Whatever pre-planned responses you have established for a scenario like me, shelve it,” he writes. “Whatever contingency plan you have, shelve it. Whatever tertiary plan you’ve created, shelve it. I am a walking exigent circumstance with no OFF or reset button.”
Not really here to write about Mr. Dorner. If you want to read his “manifesto”, such as it is, it’s in two parts here and here. Two people in the Los Angeles area have already been shot by Torrance police who mistook them for Dorner.
What amazes me is the commentary thread on the Gawker pages. There’s an awful lot of, “… well, he certainly shouldn’t be killing people, but a lot of the things he says make sense…”
Maybe, it should be considered a sign… that maybe, you should revisit those things… when you’re finding yourself in agreement with a crazy person.
I remember people saying the same stuff when the newspaper’s printed the Unibomber Manifesto.
“I don’t think he should be bombing people but he says some reasonable things…”
I think most people have a strong psychological aversion to killing other people. I remember seeing studies from army psychologists during WWII about how many draftees just did not want to shoot other people. However, we all have the ability to believe crazy things and many people do.
There was a guy who used to go to my coffeehouse. He seemed reasonable, referred to himself as a political moderate. Not once but twice he let it slip that he believes that the Rothschild (read: Jewish bankers) really do control the world economy. Not that this made him anti-Semitic. He would also tell me that he could never understand why Jews and non-Jews would get upset at him for his opinions on the Rothchild family.Report
He criticized technology in a way that’s pretty popular. It’s just that most people who say them don’t think through any of the logical consequences, i.e. aren’t top-flight mathematicians. Though, honestly, I think a lot of lives would have been saved if he’d just been able to get laid once in a while.Report
“a lot of lives would have been saved if he’d just been able to get laid once in a while.”
Agreed. Until it got altered in committee, I favored the original version of Obamacare, aka PPACUHA*, which I still maintain had the potential to avert such tragedies.
*Patient Protection, Affordable Care and Universal Handjobs ActReport
And you can keep your private plan if it provides better coverage.Report
You can always move to England, where universal health care and access to sex workers are both provided by the government.Report
The Ministry of Sex Acts?Report
The Ministry of Silly Sex Acts, I presume.Report
Two people in the Los Angeles area have already been shot by Torrance police who mistook them for Dorner.
The last thing the Torrance police want is Dorner on the stand.Report
I think I might be less worried about this guy, if I’m a crooked cop, than I was yesterday morning.
Because first of all, the odds that he survives arrest are somewhere within a reasonable delta of zero, and second of all… if your representative can’t get you off when this guy’s testimony is the turning bit of evidence against you, you’re already doomed.Report
Unless he’s got a cache of damning evidence sitting with a lawyer somewhere waiting for his body to show up on the news.Report
Well, then that was out there already, and you were already doomed.Report
I’ve kind of wondered how long before someone snapped & started hunting the police. I’m a little surprised it’s a former cop.
But only a little.Report
That doesn’t surprise me one bit. Not even an atom of me is surprised at that.Report
I was betting on some poor schmuck who had his home destroyed or family killed in a botched police raid where they were looking for pot on a dubious tip.
But a cop who tried to do the right thing & got ground up for it wasn’t too low on the list…Report
You can be confident that he a) believed he did, or b) he convinced himself that he did, or c) didn’t care that it was right or wrong but is well-trained in attaching pleasing labels to unpleasant facts. None of those not-quite-mutually-exclusive confidences provides strong support for the proposition that what he did was actually right.
Another thing you can be confident of: his screed is not a fair, unbiased, accurate, and complete recital of the facts and events that led to him getting run off the force.
I haven’t read his screed. I’m rather unlikely to read it. I’m quite confident that the official version of events is that he was doing the opposite of the right thing, and even if the official version of events is indeed bullshit (I’m not discounting that possibility at all) the fact that he was run off the force at all is a strong indicator that other cops didn’t want him on their side of the thin blue line for some reason.Report
I didn’t read his screed either, but the short of the trigger event is he reported a fellow officer for kicking a helpless suspect & got booted for it. But, you are right:
“But a cop who believed he tried to do the right thing…”
The fallout of this will be interesting. Especially if this guy racks up a substantial body count.
Related: Balko has been doing a Raid of the Day on his blog at Huffington, where he highlights botched raids (his books of the militarization of the police is out in June). This one with the LAPD was highlighted a few days ago.Report
If you’ve ever seen the terrible 80s horror film Maniac Cop, none of this is surprising.Report
Don’t forget http://axecop.com/Report
T-Rex with Mini-Guns for Arms – AWESOME!Report
(fm the manifesto in question)
Well, considering that SoCal cops have already shot up not one, but two completely unrelated pickup trucks … maybe *I* need to revisit things?
I’m a going on 40 cleanshaven white guy with a military regulation haircut. I don’t have to worry about the cops.Report
Look, I’m not saying Jeffery Dahmer didn’t choose some unacceptable methods to underscore his point…Report
And he had some good points about him, too. After all, he loved kids.Report
And he was a locavore.Report
You want to use the masculine: locovore.Report
Both of you – so wrong!
🙂Report
I haven’t read Dorner’s manifesto and I don’t care to, but in general, just because a guy is crazy doesn’t mean that everything he says is ridiculous — he might make perfectly valid observations but just come to a crazy conclusion. I know people like that, though fortunately their crazy conclusions don’t involve killing people.Report
+1
Just because people do bad things does not mean everything they do is bad. Some people murder, but they may also do good things. Some people molest children, it does not mean they don’t do many good things to make sure they have access to children. I’ve had to struggle with that one mightily. Same goes for institutions. The Catholic Church and BSA and Penn State aided and abetted pedophiles. But they also helped many, many people.
Both the good and the bad can be true at the same time.Report
Each one of us draws from a polluted well.Report
I don’t have a problem with, “sometimes people who appear crazy have a point about some things”.
That’s certainly true.
I just find it deuced odd that the default response isn’t, “Holy crap, I thought this thing and this other guy thought this thing and he’s crazy, maybe I should take a hard look at these things“.
Instead it’s, “Well, he might have been crazy about some things, but he’s right about… (this thing that I happen to believe)”
Because that second one says to me, “Hey, I might share some common thoughts with a crazy mofo… but it’s much more acceptable a thought – to me – that the crazy mofo might be right about a couple of things than the thought that I might be wwwwwaaaaay off base.”
Any time your actions include multiple homicide of people not directly related to your problem, you’re not being “pushed too far”. You’re not being “vilified by the police and the media” because you are “misunderstood” or your “cause is righteous”.
While reports are early and of course more details will come to light, it seems apparent at this stage that Dorner killed two random police officers on patrol, not because they were or weren’t crooked, but because they were cops and he’s out to kill cops.
He shot another that was providing security to someone else he threatened to kill.
His first two victims… the woman that he killed was the daughter of the man for whom he held a grudge, and her fiancee doesn’t appear to have had anything to do with whatever his grievance is.
That’s not trying to get justice, that’s murdering two innocent people to hurt somebody else.Report
In general:
I think you’re tripping up over the idea of the homogeneity of “crazy.”
In particular:
I think you called this guy right. But it’s really not that uncommon of a behavioral trait.
Do you think that maybe someone in your neighborhood might be mean or snotty toward some kid for no other reason than they don’t like the parents?
Is what he’s doing constructive?
Not to you or me, mind you. Our opinions don’t factor in on that one.
It matters if it furthers his ideals.
But he’s obviously going through some major event.
His coping skills could use a bit of work.Report
Why wouldn’t this causality work in reverse–so that if you find yourself sharing some ideas with a crazy person, you would start to think that maybe they were crazy…like a fox.
For example, Newton was totally right about gravity. Maybe we ought to give alchemy a second look.Report
I do get where you’re coming from, and frankly I think people generally should do a lot more serious questioning of their beliefs for any reason good or bad; but when you drill down into the logic of it, it seems equivalent to saying that if I hear that Hitler was a vegetarian, then I should really re-examine my own vegetarianism.Report
And when I found out that there’s a lot of money in writing a book about how liberalism comes from Hitler, I had to reevaluate my career choices.Report
I’m confused about the lesson I should be learning from crazy people. Here is a direct quote from Dorner’s manifesto: “Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” is the greatest piece of music ever, period.” I read that and I think, wow, a homicidal maniac can appear sane in a lot of familiar ways, the banality of evil, etc. etc. But what should I be learning? And please don’t make me toss my Time Out vinyl.Report
I would recommend reading his manifesto. It’s an interesting document. He rants about the availability of AR-15’s in a long passage, and calls for a ban on them, then mentions his awesome stockpile. He rails against Wayne La Pierre for not caring 30 seconds about the kids of Sandyhook and trying to blame the media, then expresses his adamant belief that the Hangover franchise shouldn’t extend beyond Hangover III because it would destroy the integrity of the original. He devotes a couple of paragraphs to his favorite news anchors, giving some of them production advice. I think that clearly establishes at least one shooter with an obsession with the news media. He also goes on about his favorite comedians, actresses, singers, etc.
You can bet that a bunch of Hollywood writers are already pounding out the script for the TV or movie version, and someone has probably called Denzel’s agent to offer him the role.
The question is whether this rogue cop will start fighting police corruption and street crime from outside the law, all while being demonized and pursued by the LAPD, and whether the LA papers will just go ahead and start calling him “The Dark Knight.”Report
Batman doesn’t start off his crusade against injustice by murdering the daughter of someone who pissed him off and her fiance… for no apparent reason other than to get at the guy who pissed him off.
That’s sorta anti-Batman, right there.Report
Exactly! He’s even Darker!
It’s anticipating where the Batman franchise will eventually go as each new relaunch makes the caped crusader darker and more twisted than the previous version. Eventually he’ll be Heath Ledger’s Joker. Besides, for all of Gotham City to plausibly think Batman is an evil psycho killer requires some evil psycho killings somewhere in the storyline. ^_^
I’m guessing that the longer this manhunt goes on, the more people’s mental portraits of Dorner will accumulate fictional embellishments, perhaps similar to the way Mexican drug lords become folk heroes among a Hispanic subculture of traffickers, angry teens, and wanna-be thugs.
I am somewhat curious whether anyone with a grudge against the LAPD (drug lords, ex-cons, etc) will try to take advantage of this situation and take some shots at the police, thinking Dorner will get the blame and derail the pursuit. On the flip side, anyone trying that will have the entire LAPD descend around them looking for Dorner.Report
He also gave a shout-out to Tebow. WOO!!! TEBOW!!!!Report
George, I’ve read the manifesto (best comment from the bloggers, “Now THIS is a manifesto, I’m going to have to trash mine and start all over now”). There are those (and I’m kind of with them) who say the 2nd page with all the homages to the celebrities is a fraud. Looking at the grammar and spelling changes I’m kind of inclined to agree. For instance in the first rant he consistently uses the word “new” when he means “knew” but by the second set he never makes that mistake again. He also dispenses with the acronym soup he started with.Report
You know, I would normally be inclined to dismiss any conspiracyish speculation that the second part was added by someone else to make him look even crazier than he is, but this IS the LAPD we are talking about. Has anyone compared a handwriting sample against one from Vic Mackey?
Also, I was reading some article with armchair psychoanalysis of the guy and as evidence that he was crazy/narcissistic, it was mentioned that at one point while he was still a duty officer he had wept openly in his patrol car, which I found interesting in light of the recent convos on Kazzy’s piece on social gender norms (don’t ever cry, boys, or it’ll be used against you as supporting evidence for mental illness).Report
he had wept openly in his patrol car
That makes him Dutch, not Vic.Report
Check the neighborhood for strangled cats.Report
There is nothing going on a murder spree with a strident manifesto to give yourself credibility and to get people to listen to you. Nobody ever said institutional change was easy.Report
urr..There is nothing like going on a murder spree with a strident manifesto to give yourself credibility and to get people to listen to you. Nobody ever said institutional change was easy.Report
I’m getting an echo in here.
I might need to adjust my set.Report
That’s exactly what Skull and Bones and the Rosicrucians would like you to believe.Report
Given all of these shootings, maybe we could look at whether we want law enforcement to carry assault handguns.Report
“assault handguns” What kind of new liberal definition of a gun is that????!!!!Report
It’s a handgun intended to kill people.
What other kinds of handgun do you think law enforcement would be packing?Report
I wouldn’t have expected them to use the guns that have a flag that stick out saying BANG.Report
If it saves even one life…Report
The 2nd amendment lists no limits on the firepower the cops can carry.Report
What part of “shooting up a blue Toyota pickup truck because they’re after a blue Nissan” screams “well-regulated” to you?Report
A para-military org with training, established hierarchy and sanctioned by the government seems to fit the definition of “well regulated.”Report
I’d argue that Immunity & a penchant for cover-up, etc. kinda takes the steam out of Well-Regulated.Report
I’m going xc skiing now so before i leave the thread until later, let me just note i was mostly just stretching my snarking muscles. However none of those things take away from Well regulated.Report
OK, we really need a SNARK tag…Report
On paper. If the behavior is to engage in attempted murder when they feel like it, I’d say that their actions are pretty ill-regulated and demonstrate how they not only cannot be trusted with weapons in a system without a 2nd Amendment, but that their regulatory status isn’t covered by it in one that does.Report
True that.Report
OTOH:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/miami-cops-fired-ignoring-emergency-calls-article-1.1255907Report
You know what they say, “When seconds count, the police are only a leisurely cafe con leche away.”Report
That’s a policy call for the department. The SCOTUS basically said police have no duty to endanger themselves to help people, & responding to an emergency call certainly puts on in danger of spilling hot coffee in their lap.Report
Where are my hard-earned tax dollars going, if not to purchase Kevlar tactical underpants?Report
“Where are my hard-earned tax dollars going, if not to purchase Kevlar tactical underpants?”
those pot smokers aren’t going to shoot themselves.
unless they’re already handcuffed in the back of the cruiser, i mean.Report
Hey! Mistakes were made, it’s true. But let’s not bicker and argue about who killed who.Report
Now we see the violence inherent in the system.Report
I know! Right? He was handcuffed damn near naked in the back of a squad car after a careful strip search, it’s so obvious he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. [SNARK]
(In all seriousness, when I read about that, I knew that the whole, “complete & thorough investigation” bit had jumped the shark)Report
They were after a gray Nissan Titan being driven by a huge thirtysomething black guy. They shot up a blue Toyota Tacoma being driven by a diminutive 71-year-old Latina with her 47-year-old daughter.
That’s some mighty fine police work there, Lou.Report
When you start proving a gun-toting murderous psychopath right about your competence, it’s probably a bad sign.Report
I certainly hope the union has a full hearing.Report
As soon as their kaffeeklatsch ends, they’ll get right on that.Report
The First Rule of Policing: Make it home for dinner.
Well, the cop has to make it home for dinner. Citizens, meh…Report
Wait, isn’t the Constitution supposed to limit what the government can do? Where does it say the police can have guns at all while functioning as agents of the state?Report
Of course the gov is limited but where does it say the fuzz can’t have guns?Report
It doesn’t, I’m just being contrary (maybe we need a tag…).
Cops don’t give up their rights when they put on the uniform.Report
They certainly don’t pick up new ones.Report
Yes the do, the right to the benefit of the doubt, & immunity.
Granted, both are constructs of the courts, but still…Report
The fuzz have always had guns, going back to the Texas Rangers and beyond. It’s every bit as much a part of the American Tradition™ as hunting. Daniel Boone had a gun for both hunting and enforcing the law, so he was extra special. The Lone Ranger had a gun. Wyatt Earp had a gun.
They always had guns.Report
I like the TM, nice touch, that.Report
There’s another kind?Report
Hunting handguns, starter pistols…Report
Anti-Handgun handguns (you see these in the movies all the time, very useful for shooting the gun out of the bad guys hand, while shooting from the hip – got some kind of RoboCop targeting system built in)Report
There are bad cops everywhere. In Washington state a bunch of sheriffs have signed a petition to try and fire bad cops. It’s not like Orange County has a dearth of punch happy police who would be felons if they were wearing civilian clothes instead of uniforms. Police murder civilians all the time and get away with it all the time. The interesting thing in this case is that they managed to fire this guy at all. Apparently being a whistle blower is the crime. The whistle blowers with the ATF didn’t fare so well either.Report
Not to change the subject, but Los Straighjackets are awesome!Report
News is reporting that Dorner has been found in Big Bear in a cabin and is surrounded.
Two cops have been injured.
If it turns out that it *IS* him and not just the police shooting up a cabin that looks like his, I suspect that we’ll hear that he will have been shot dead before we get to the State of the Union speech. (Or, I suppose, we’ll hear that he committed suicide in the back of a police car despite being handcuffed.)Report
You’re probably right. I suppose the “kill him and drop the body in the ocean” option isn’t live on this one.Report
I don’t have much faith in the LA cops, but i think Dorner pretty much wasn’t planning to get captured. He set himself on a one way mission. He and the cops will have a tacit agreement that he will never be handcuffed. Hell the bomb squad will be searching around for hours/days after its all over.Report