That whole Dorner thing

So, Crispy Dorner has apparently checked out from the human race, just like he wanted. I woke up this morning and the birds were still singing and the coffeepot started at it’s programmed time – so everything is back to normal – well except those nattering nabobs on what we used to call “the news” who are still thinking that Dorner is news to someone. A guest on CNN even told the audience of mush-headed morons that he thought the whole story was exciting like some movie I’ll never watch.

The whole Dorner episode wouldn’t have been news except the LAPD seems to be run by a bunch of drama queens – which is what you’d expect in Hollywood’s bedroom community. They are the same folks who occupied way too many column inches a scant few weeks ago because they had removed a “rocket propelled grenade launcher” from the street of LA with their buy back program. What they had actually removed was an empty, useless and harmless fiberglass tube from the streets. But, to me that gives us an insight into the department’s psyche. For most of the life of the story, the only pictures of Dorner we saw were those of him in a camouflaged Navy uniform, even though it had been years since he was supposed to be wearing that uniform, judging by his military records.

Nothing Dorner did in those days of the “manhunt” was at all related to his military service, yet we saw him in that military uniform several times a day. Yeah, he ambushed two cops and killed one – but it was nothing that hasn’t happened thousands of times across the country perpetrated by thugs with no military training. Dorner was a washout in the military – the media made a big deal out of his “markmanship ribbon” from the Navy. I don’t know what the Navy requirements are for the award of that ribbon, but in the Army, you were a marksman if you hit your target 24 out of 40 times – that’s not especially good. All of his awards in the Navy were awards that everyone got for showing up. He got out of the Navy because he couldn’t get promoted to O-4 (whatever that rank is in the Navy) which means that he had scraped by to make O-3 and the Navy was tired of him.

So, why the LAPD hired him, I have no idea, nor will I speculate. He was large and imposing, and I get the idea from watching LAPD over the last few weeks, appearances are all that’s important.

Then there’s the big spectacular “firefight” to finally bring Dorner to justice. If you haven’t seen the video, here it is from the Washington Post;

If those cops had been my privates, I’d have been kicking their asses – that “standoff” was more of a “standing around”. The only time I saw anyone duck was when their own guys were shooting in the opposite direction. And I love the part where one cop sneaks up behind another a cop and pokes him with the barrel of his weapon in the back.

Apparently, from what I’ve read, Dorner had left his one long gun in the stolen car when he abandoned it and had only handguns in the cabin and whatever ammunition he could carry – probably not that much. But, it looked to me like there were too many cops on the fringe of the battle who just came up to the firefight and lobbed a few rounds in the general direction and then promptly retreated. I guess they were just hoping that someone would set the place on fire so they wouldn’t have to come out from behind the endless lines of vehicles.

Don’t get me wrong – I think the police are important and I’m glad that the casualties were relatively few, but if this is what we can expect from a post-9-11 police force, I think we’re in trouble. I understand that a firefight is different from training, and the plan tends to fall apart when the first round is fired – but Dorner wasn’t the highly trained killer that they made him out to be. If they ever come up against one private who paid attention through his infantry training, those cops are going to be in the hurt locker.

And if the police put the time and effort into the training they need to have in this situation, it would have given them the confidence to stop those two newspaper delivery ladies instead of blasting at them right off.

Dorner was a scumbag piece of shit, but the military didn’t make him that way. Like I told the Huffington Post, he got a rope wrapped up in a propeller when he tried to steal a boat and escape – I’m pretty sure they cover boats and ropes on the first day in the Navy. And he was trying to hide from the police when he set his SUV on fire, like that wouldn’t tell them where he was. Who heads for snow country in the winter to hide out from police when there are miles of desert nearby?

The LAPD’s performance during this was embarrassing, but they have time to correct that so that it doesn’t happen next time…and it will happen again. With CNN guests making Dorner the next Robin Hood, it’s inevitable. The LAPD should stop clapping itself on the back and get to work with real training.

And to all of those of you out there who want to make Dorner some sort of superhero – superheroes don’t ambush their adversaries at a stop sign and shoot unarmed people in their home because he lost his job. He was a crackpot and the Navy divested themselves of him for the same reasons that the LAPD should have done the same thing.

Category: Crime