The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Saturday, February 16, 2013

Why was he considered more dangerous?


There was a former LAPD cop (Christopher Dorner) who went rogue a couple of weeks ago. The media made it sound like southern California was all in a panic. I am here to tell you that they shouldn't have been. After all, the only people he was angry about were police and their families (and I am fairly sure it was close family members... if your cousin is a cop, you were pretty safe).

But there was also a Twitter following for the killer. He was being seen as a one man vigilante mob fighting back against the corrupt LAPD. Never mind that his grievance was, apparently, without substance. I don't know, it may have been well founded, but there is no excuse for committing premeditated murder. Yet there were a number of people who apparently thought of this guy was some kind of hero.

I lived in the Los Angeles area for several years in the late 60's. In Long Beach. Their police force, at the time, was pretty close to out of control. I watched a couple of them harass and abuse a guy by smacking his face into the rear passenger window of a cop car. I watched them do an illegal search of a guy's wallet. I was subjected to a traffic stop and detained for 30 minutes because the license plate light on my van (purchased that day) was not working. In the process, both I and my passenger were frisked.Faye reminds me from time to time of when they threw her out of a club because they didn't believe her ID (a valid California driver's license).

I didn't have any run-ins with the LAPD but the few interactions I had with them were peaceful enough.

The truth about Dorner is simple: he was targeting cops and that made him priority #1.

I do not begrudge the cops for wanting him off the streets. I do not begrudge them for wanting to save the state the cost of a trial in his case. I respect cops. I appreciate what they do. What bothers me about cops is that they place themselves in a class above the rest of us. At first, he killed two people; a couple. The male was the son of the LAPD cop who represented Dorner in the case which got him fired. Then he killed a Riverside police officer. But they were already after him... with a vengeance.

There have been others who killed three people in the Los Angeles area in years past but other than the Manson killings, I do not recall a media and police frenzy surrounding the hunt for them. The difference? The victims were not police or related to the police.



Dorner was a walking dead man from the time he killed that couple.
How about cops treat all homicides as if the victim was one of them?




I'd feel a lot safer.


2 comments:

Tom said...

All I know about LAPD is what I get from Harry Bosch, the hero in Michael Connelly's detective stories. In other words, I don't know much. But it does sound like a tough job. P.S. Did you see an asteroid hit somewhere in Russia, injuring around 1000 people!?!

Douglas said...

They do have a tough job, no doubt about it. They also have a strong responsibility: To do that tough job without a bias for or against anyone.

Yes, that meteor over the Urals literally came out of the blue, didn't it? And at just about the same time as the one that just flew by real close.