The short but utterly fascinating police career of Christopher Dorner has captured the attention of millions. Dorner, a fired Los Angeles cop, vowed war against his former colleagues and almost made good his threats. Citing the police department’s institutional racism and an unfair disciplinary proceeding which resulted in his firing, the ex-cop pledged to exact revenge and unleashed a deadly rain of bullets on several of his fellow officers.
Trained as a sniper in the agency’s elite squads, Dorner sent shockwaves of terror through the highest ranks of the agency by targeting the families of officers. For ten days, he struck and moved, leaving the urban landscape for nearby mountainous territory. After a series of shootings, he escaped to an abandoned cabin, where over 100 cops converged to “retire” the former cop by fire.
Using pyrotechnics they launched a grenade into the cabin, covered the doors, and waited for the raging fire to do its work. The blaze raged for hours the last weapon used in Christopher Dorner’s war.
We’re left with pondering the forces which triggered Dorner’s war. Fired after a questionable internal hearing, this black cop turned on the very forces that trained and nurtured him. He was called a “monster” and worse by reporters, pundits, and police, but if so, he was a monster of the LAPD’s making. What did he see? What did he experience on the inside that turned his heart to ice? This we may never know. But we await the next Dorner – angry, embittered, soured on the job. And determined to deliver his own “burn notice.”
