Recently the Los Angeles Police Department has been caught up in a manhunt for a former cop and Navy reservist, Christopher Jordan Dorner, who has been targeting other police and their close relations. Dorner was an LAPD officer from 2005 to 2009.
Dorner is believed to have killed a police officer while injuring another near him in Riverside. A further two officers were fired upon before, and he is also implicated in the murders of a police chief's daughter and her fiance in Irvine.
The police are on edge about this apparently, going on in force to capture him and even accidentally firing on a car they thought Dorner was in.
Dorner's reasons for his actions was laid out in an online document he posted. Among other things, he claims that he was witness to police brutality in the department that he was punished for when he tried to report, as well as repeated racism by officers in the force. And for some more gold that's bound to end up in the gun debate, he paradoxically says that the ATF needs more gun control enforcement and powers and supports the assault weapons ban. He even praises Obama, Senator Feinstein, etc. so this'll be some right-wing gold later. But at the same time he praises people like George HW Bush, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, and wants the US to deport Fareed Zakeria for being unamerican. He credits Collin Powell and David Petreaus as his military idols. He ends with thanking Bill Cosby for talking tough to the black community.
Sounds like the plot of an action movie, location fits as well.
As for the gun control part- I don't think the assault rifle ban is a move in the right direction, but I doubt that it will have much of an effect (except for really annoying the gun nuts). The more interesting part is the one about smaller magazine sizes.
even accidentally firing on a car they thought Dorner was in.
Police don't "accidentally" fire on anything. The vehicle they fired upon did not even match the description of the suspects vehicle aside from being a truck. The LAPD does not have a good track record and this event only supports some of the claims in his manifesto. Reading through the comment sections of several news sites, the public is either neutral towards him or in favor of his actions given the shooting of 2 innocent people.
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The more interesting part is the one about smaller magazine sizes.
If you practice reloads you can get close to the same number of shots with a 10 rounds magazine as an untrained person with a 30 round magazine.
Some of his claims may be true but he's still a nutjob. It really makes me worry about people when their standard seems to be 'I agree with this guy's claims thus I'm sympathetic to him.'
Some of his claims may be true but he's still a nutjob. It really makes me worry about people when their standard seems to be 'I agree with this guy's claims thus I'm sympathetic to him.'
It shows how much the police are trusted in the US when a killer targeting cops gets a noticeable level of sympathy and support from the public. The police in the UK have a good idea going. No guns outside of special units, patrols on foot, and less of a power-tripping demeanor keep the public engaged with the police.
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I read about this earlier. He's going all Jason Bourne on the LAPD.
I prefer the term 4chan came up with: Chocolate Rambo
He has just picked the most popular contemporary trends: anti-authority, anti-racist agenda and gun control. Only radical feminism is off the list.
There seems to be some sort of a deep-rooted psychological dislike for law enforcement among populations, just like the publicans were hated in ancient Rome. All cops are bastards, yeah right. I once saw quite a nice way to troll those people: very enthusiastically agree on the principle of no cops and say you're finally going to be able for example to rape girls without any consequences. The ACAB proponents seemed quite dumbfounded and angry, perhaps later finding a hint of hypocrisy in themselves.
The negative general attitude however is a reason why I respect the profession of police officers even more.
There seems to be some sort of a deep-rooted psychological dislike for law enforcement among populations, just like the publicans were hated in ancient Rome. All cops are bastards, yeah right. I once saw quite a nice way to troll those people: very enthusiastically agree on the principle of no cops and say you're finally going to be able for example to rape girls without any consequences. The ACAB proponents seemed quite dumbfounded and angry, perhaps later finding a hint of hypocrisy in themselves.
The negative general attitude however is a reason why I respect the profession of police officers even more.
You don't have to deal with American cops. Other countries got the protect and serve thing down much better for their cops than the US does. It is not just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel with US law enforcement. There is a sizable portion of officers who feel that a gun and a badge give them absolute power over people. I am not going to say we don't need police at all, we just need officers who are not dicks to people, follow the law, and respect people's rights.
If you want an eye-opener look up police brutality in the US.
Last edited by Pethegreat; February 8th, 2013 at 06:09 PM.
Police need to be granted discretion and their duties need to be framed in a system of KPIs where compassion in the application of that discretion makes sense. That's what made the British police relatively well thought of, in my opinion, not the absence of guns or the presence of foot patrols. My reason for believing that is that I've noticed a definite increase in the hatred for the police, in the UK, over the last 10-15 years as their assessments have become more tightly linked with the number of arrests they get - and consequently as the exercise of compassionate discretion has made less and less sense. And this is an opinion I've found shared in members of the force that I know.
Policing has a certain culture to it, innately linked to what it enforces. If you set up the law so that it's unyielding and unfair, then that's the sort of person who will end up enforcing it. It even varies on a local level according to what sort of area the force is expected to cover with what sort of resources in what sort of hierarchy. Somewhere like Central London has really nice police, whereas the Met... Jesus - I wouldn't talk to a Met policeman for all the tea in China.
Even among drug subcultures - at least in the UK - you'll tend to find a distinction between a pig and a cop. And if the ratio of pigs to cops is too high.... Well, it's not surprising that people would move from the idea of, 'some cops are fucking arseholes,' to, 'all cops are bastards.'
A lot of cops these days, in the UK, seem to be looking for a reason to arrest you, rather than asking whether they need to. And people like that are scum - that's not how the legal system was meant to work over here, that's why there's so much discretion written into our laws to begin with. Now the law in America, as I understand it, is heavily slanted towards encouraging that sort of culture; which is one of the main points at which it diverges with British law - so... it seems likely to me that you'd end up with a lot of assholes just as we seem to be gaining more of them.
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Originally Posted by Pethegreat
You don't have to deal with American cops. Other countries got the protect and serve thing down much better for their cops than the US does. It is not just a few bad apples spoiling the barrel with US law enforcement. There is a sizable portion of officers who feel that a gun and a badge give them absolute power over people. I am not going to say we don't need police at all, we just need officers who are not dicks to people, follow the law, and respect people's rights.
If you want an eye-opener look up police brutality in the US.
It may also help not to recruit your police so predominantly from the military - which I gather in many places is effectively a pre-requisite for getting in
"Slippery slopes can be fun - kind of like a water slide."
- Larry, Burn Notice
Last edited by Nemmerle; February 8th, 2013 at 06:28 PM.
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Ex-cop causes manhunt in Los Angeles area 
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