"From the sublime to the ridiculous to absolutely FUBAR" -- this can be the new motto of the LAPD, thanks to the surreal statements by its chief and an appalling lack of professionalism and restraint by some of its officers. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has called Dorner a "trained assassin", just a couple of couple of days ago he said "we trained him". If you connect Chief Beck's dots, evidently LAPD is in the business of training assassins? How splendid for the citizens of Los Angeles and the millions who visit the city! Beck didn't stop there however. "This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism," he said. He stopped short of calling it a "Jihad" against the LAPD or the American people, but that may well come next. Domestic terrorism? Really? A man that you have previously told us is out to get revenge against the LAPD and the LAPD only? A man who was never known to have articulated a gripe against America as a whole, its policies or way of live, and who has stated no intentions of harming anyone other than a specific group of people in an opaque organization with a blood-stained record that he believes treated him unjustly? A man who has
stated absolutely nothing about politics or religion as a motivation for his grievances and actions? If this is the new criteria for labeling someone a "terrorist", then Chief Beck, you are going to need a lot more space than Camp Gitmo to warehouse the millions of Americans that would fall under it.

Could it be that he is laying the foundation for justifying to the public the application of President Obama's infamous drone doctrine within the borders of the United States? Well, this is precisely what numerous news organizations are reporting -- Christopher J. Dorner, a decorated veteran of the United States Navy, is the first known human target for airborne drones on U.S. soil. Their use, reports MSN, was confirmed by Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Ralph DeSio, who revealed the government's fear that Dorner will make a dash for the Mexican border. That is some distinction! He is of course NOT the first known American citizen to be targeted and executed by drone strikes. Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were killed by a missile strike in Yemen on Sept. 30,
2011, while al-Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman, was killed in the country just weeks later on October 14, 2011. He was 16 years old. Again, he was SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. He was born in Denver, CO. During his presidential campaign, Republican Rep. Ron Paul criticized the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, saying: “Al-Awlaki was born here, he is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged for any crimes. No one knows if he killed anybody. ... But if the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it's sad.”

If this unfolding story has proven ANYTHING thus far in a fairly definitive way it is that despite an overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the suspect by the authorities and the media, the public is more than a
little skeptical. That in itself says volumes. Whatever the truth in this case is and whatever its outcome, these are symptoms of a very troubled society and these symptoms go hand in hand with a long line of other symptoms, including the recent events in Newtown. Fewer and fewer people are accepting the idea that this is a story about some guy named Chris Dorner, a killer of three. This story has already become much bigger than any one man could have ever contemplated. It has become a story about how many Americans, maybe a majority or maybe a meaningful minority, have become skeptical or outright distrusting of the authorities that are ostensibly there to protect us. Not just a few days ago, but well before we had ever heard of Christopher J. Dorner. It has twisted the Rubik's cube of American public opinion, revealing different angles of the recent Newtown events and the waves of public opinion and policy response that followed, and it is forcing millions of Americans to finally confront a set of issues that they were previously blissfully happy to ignore -- what our leaders do outside of our borders using our tax dollars, including sometimes killing American citizens without an indictment, an arrest, or a trial by their peers.

This operation was unprecedented in many ways in terms of
its scope and the multitude of facts that had to me "managed". Not
surprisingly, total control seemed to be elusive and from the beginning facts began to slip out that led many to scratch their heads. We may have become a complacent nation, too lazy and unwilling to exercise our fundamental rights much of the time, but even our latte-sipping-reality-TV-watching "culture" has its limits. We haven't entirely lost or ability to lift our heads and say "Hey, we weren't born yesterday. What the hell is going on here?!?" Not for nothing, but in the vast majority of published pictures and videos thus far, Christopher J. Dorner has the appearance of the nicest, warmest, most gregarious and well adjusted person -- PRECISELY the kind of person that you could possibly want to show up at your door if you had to call 911.

Appearances can be misleading and you can't judge a book by its cover. But in a country where African American suspects are usually
delivered to the public a-la photos like that of Willie Horton, this is really
kind of surprising. Christopher J. Dorner is no Willie Horton and he sure as hell is no Adam Lanza. The horrific nature of the Newtown story made it easy for many to accept the official version of the lone-wolf Adam Lanza narrative with virtually no scrutiny in mainstream media. We were told that we know next to nothing about Lanza because he was essentially an off-the-grid recluse and many accepted this. Despite a plethora of oddities, including a newsreel showing the police retrieving a long gun from the trunk of a car when we were told that Lanza used a long gun in the slayings inside the school just before committing suicide, the public has largely embraced the official story. Now, a
month and a half later, we still know next to nothing about what happened in Newtown and who Adam Lanza was. Christopher Dorner is a very different proposition. A whole lot is known about him before he suddenly became a "murderer" and a "terrorist" and it just doesn't add up.

It would be interesting to get more detail about his Navy
service. From the bits and pieces that have been reported thus far, it would seem that he served well, was honorably discharged, and that at least some part of his Navy service overlapped with his employment and/or legal battle with the LAPD. If Dorner was really such a bad apple for so many years and "could not play well with others" within a structured military hierarchy, you would think that this would have been reflected in his Navy service record. Yet, he was honorably discharged just a week ago.

Here is a summary of his service record released by the Navy
just days ago:

Service Dates/Assignments: Arrived – Detached

- Various Reserve Units: 1 Dec 2009 – 21 Jan 2010
- Navy Reserve NAS Fallon, NV: 7 Mar 2009 – 30 Nov 2009
- *30 May 2007 – 6 Mar 2009: Gap of time where Dorner’s
military assignment is undisclosed in information released by U.S. Navy
- Navy Mobilization Processing Site (NMPS) San Diego, CA: 23
Apr 2007 – 29 May 2007
- Coastal Riverine Group Two Det Bahrain: 3 Nov 2006 – 23
Apr 2007
- Coastal Riverine Group One, San Diego, CA: 10 Jul 2006 –
31 Oct 2006
- Navy Mobilization Processing Site (NMPS) San Diego, CA: 6
Jul 2006 – 10 Jul 2006
- *29 Feb 2006 – 5 July 2006: Gap of time where Dorner’s
military assignment is undisclosed in information released by U.S. Navy
- Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit: 23 Jun 2004 – 28 Feb
2006
- Navy Personnel Command: 16 Jun 2004 – 22 Jun 2004
- Various Aviation Training Units: 4 Jul 2002 – 15 Jun 2004

Awards and Decorations
- National Defense Service Medal
- Iraq Campaign Medal
- Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
- Sea Service Deployment Medal
- Navy Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon
- Armed Forces Reserve Medal w/ “M” Device
- Rifle Marksman Ribbon
- Pistol Expert Medal

The LAPD has already "mistakenly" shot at three civilians, wounding two. We are told that Dorner ambushed two unsuspecting officers in a car, but in light of the LAPD's apparent propensity to shoot first and ask questions later, one is left to wonder whether this is indeed what transpired. Right now, if you are a large black man in LA, are you better
off running into Dorner or uniformed LAPD cops looking for Dorner?

This real life drama is eerily similar to Clint Eastwoods fictional plot in "The Gauntlet" and Al Pacino reality-based drama "Serpico". There are also striking parallels with Sylvester Stallone's fictional plot in "First Blood". We rooted for John J. Rambo because we saw him as an every-man hero betrayed by the corrupt establishment. We knew the cops were lying. We knew they were the killers and we wanted him to survive and to bring the war to them. Why? Because Stallone's Rambo tapped into our insecurities about those who are supposed to protect us.

I wish I could say that I readily believe the official version of the Dorner incident, but one has to consider the source. The same source that gave us Rodney King, among others. We kind of know that police
agencies lie routinely and that once they commit to a lie, they keep digging and digging until the truth is either buried or the hole caves in on them. A vivid more recent example is the Danziger Bridge incident in Louisiana. I wish I could say that I believe that the cops are SEARCHING for Dorner and want to apprehend him. But there isn't even a pretense of a search. It is being billed as a "manhunt" and you don't HUNT something that you want to catch, you hunt to kill. It's 2013 and we are being treated to a slow-motion televised lynching. The LAPD and some other nameless and faceless men with badges are the judge, the jury and the executioner. If there are doubts as to their motives or
intentions, just ask the three civilians they have already fired upon. Does ANY thinking person really believe that the end-game here is to apprehend Dorner and give him a trial? Is there even a serious doubt that given the choice of getting him dead or alive the cops would spare him? More likely the lynching will take place and the networks will be thrilled to bring it live to your living rooms.


And where's the media coverage in all this? We've been told that Dorner sent a CD or a DVD to Anderson Cooper at CNN. We were told that it was "chilling" but never shown what was on the disc. What could it
have been that it "chilled" Mr. Cooper? While I cannot be sure, I am
fairly confident that it wasn't a LaToya Jackson album. What was on it? You'd think that a man going on a suicide mission, right or wrong, would put whatever he considered to be the most important vindicating evidence on a CD to CNN. How someone in a news organization came up with the red herring of "Imagine a More Open America." is a real head-scratcher. Who has ever heard of this "common abbreviation" before? Who in America has EVER texted "OMG, LOL, LMFAO, IMOA... BRB"?!? The writing on the coin covering OBVIOSLY sais 1 M.O.A. (separated by commas), which is a shooting acronym for "Minutes of Angle" or "Minutes of Arc". Wikipedia will tell you that "1 MOA subtends approximately one inch at 100 yards, a traditional distance on target ranges." The guy sends you a two inch coin with bullet holes in it and you think it's a symbol for "Imagine a More Open America"? Really?

And where are Dorner's friends, neighbors, brothers, sisters, LAPD partner, his military unit buddies, his commanders, basketball
buddies, etc? He was a United States Navy officer after all. We heard some unflattering comments from an ex-girlfriend, but come on, how objective and reliable will ANYONE's ex be? This guy is in his mid-30s and has led a pretty public life. How come we know only what the LAPD and other nameless and faceless government men are telling us? We know that he went to college and played football. Where are you, his teammates? Some are speaking out but their voices seem to not pass the screens of certain venerable news organizations. His former coach at Southern Utah University, Aaron Alford, said: "You know, I met him when I became a coach at Southern Utah University. That was 1999 and 2000. And in those two years, you know, the things you obviously are seeing on television and hearing in the news, don't -- obviously don't fit. They're ludicrous in that manner, just to think that he's gone to this level of violence and anger. But he was a good kid. You never heard anything negative. He stayed out of trouble. He had good grades. You know, we talked quite often while I was there, and you know, there was nothing to speculate that he would have this kind of issue." James Usera, now an Oregon attorney, played football with Dorner at Southern Utah University in the late 1990s and they
became friends off the field. Usera told the media: "Just absolute befuddlement and shock when I learned about it this morning, and trying to piece things together and in being asked questions about what I know about Mr. Dorner, my experiences with him, and I try and think, was there any indication of this and, you know, there just isn't... My experience with Mr. Dorner was overwhelmingly positive. I never saw any indications in him that he was violent or particularly aggressive, certainly nothing that would suggest to me that he could commit the
crimes with which he's been accused." Where are the others?


We've learned that more than ten years ago Dorner was featured in an Enid News & Eagle article, about two men returning a bank bag containing nearly $8,000 in cash and checks to an area church. Dorner told the News & Eagle he was raised in La Palma, Calif., by his mother. Is she still alive? We were told that her house has been searched. Where is she as her son is the subject of a "manhunt" using military drones? He said he wanted to fly SH-60 helicopters in the Navy, according to the News & Eagle story. About returning the money, Dorner said: “I didn’t work for it, so it’s not mine. And, it was for the church. It’s not so much the integrity, but it was someone else’s money. I would hope someone would do that for me.”

Where are the black civil rights leaders and celebrities? Where are you, Jesse Jackson? Where are you, Al Sharpton? Where are you, Chris
Rock? I know you're alive because you were mumbling something to Congress about gun control a few days ago. Where are you Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx? How come none of you are out there saying "Hey, Chris Dorner, whatever you have done, you deserve a trial. Call my office. Let's arrange a peaceful surrender in front of television cameras so at least you won't be shot down in a revenge killing."? Where is California Senator Dianne Feinstein? The most aggressive advocate of sweeping changes to American gun laws who stated on the record that she would, if she could, take all guns away from American civilians. Christopher J. Dorner is, among other things, one of your constituents, Senator. Just days ago you were showcasing "assault-style" weapons before Congress, telling the American public that only the military and the police should have these weapons. That American civilians do not need them and should not have them. Now officials are telling us that a "trained assassin" and a "domestic terrorist", trained in the arts of warfare by the LAPD and the United States Navy, is armed to the teeth and is out there somewhere, still not apprehended after arguably the most intense "man hunt" in this nation's history, which for the first time ever is using military drones to hunt a civilian on American soil. So, this horribly dangerous and well-armed killing machine is out there, you can't catch him, you declare him to be of grave danger to us, regular Americans... BUT you think that we absolutely SHOULD NOT have any weapons in our homes that would give us any sort of chance of protecting our homes and families if your mythical antagonist, an accused "murderer", "terrorist" and "trained assassin", were to target us next? Would you be terribly offended if someone suggested that if everything that has been alleged about Dorner is true and if thousands of law enforcement officers armed to the teeth and using drones cannot catch his day after day, perhaps this is a really good example of why Americans SHOULD arm themselves? Where are you, America's first bi-racial President? When on July 16, 2009, your friend Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was arrested at his Cambridge, Massachusetts home by a
local police officer responding to a 9-1-1 caller's report of men breaking and entering the residence, you chimed in Gates' defense. You told the Chicago Sun-Times, asked President Barack Obama "Recently, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you? And what does it say about race relations in America?" Obama replied, "Now, I've – I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three, what I think we know separate
and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement
disproportionately. That's just a fact." This isn't to say that you should
be springing to Dorner's defense. But this is to say that when local law
enforcement starts throwing around words like "domestic terrorism"
and when drones are deployed on American soil, you have a responsibility.


Maybe Dorner IS every bit as bad as the LAPD says and guilty
on all accounts. So prove it in court! Don't be a lynching party. Don't insult what little remains of our collective intelligence by expecting us to blindly accept the official version of this incident, the invocation of the word "terrorist", the historical precedent of using drones on American
soil, the shootings of innocent civilians by LAPD officers who have thus far not suffered any publicly known consequences. You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but please don't assume that you can fool all of the people all of the time. LAPD Chief Beck announced Saturday that the LAPD would re-examine its proceedings against Dorner. The review is "not to appease a murderer," but "to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all things we do," he said. Well Chief, having an organization with a long and sordid history re-investigate itself on allegations of corruption, racism, and character assassination, is hardly reassuring. It's actually pointless. Do you REALLY think that when eventually the LAPD says that having re-examined accusations leveled against it, it really REALLY is not guilty, this will boost its credibility? Far too many Americans already believe that the LAPD is the biggest organized crime franchise in California, if not the nation. If there is
a investigation to be had here, surely it must be conducted by the Justice Department and the FBI.


As for Christopher J. Dorner, the outcome is anybody's guess. Maybe he is guilty, maybe not -- we just don't know. Maybe he is still alive or already dead. They say a person dies twice. The first time is when his
final breath leaves his body. The second time is when his name is spoken for the last time. Whoever he is and whatever he is, Christopher J. Dorner will live long past the moment when his final breath leaves his body and his impact on how we perceive our society and those who govern us will be discussed and debated for a very long time.