Link to manifesto
I chose the Christopher Dorner manifesto as my artifact for this Past & Present blog post. Christopher Dorner was a black man who joined the LAPD in hopes to serve his community. Dorner shared his manifesto to Facebook in 2013, and it explained his plans and reasoning in why he was about to embark on a killing spree throughout Southern California. Dorner was in the Navy before joining the LAPD, and has experience working in both of these systems. One night, while he was on duty for harbor patrol for the LAPD, he witnessed his partner kick a homeless man multiple times: twice in the stomach and once in the face. Dorner joined the LAPD with the intention of being a good officer, so he reported the incident to his higher ups. In the manifesto, he gives details about how he was accused of crossing the “blue line” and the consequences he faced because of it. Eventually, after reporting more instances of injustice by officers, Dorner was fired from the LAPD, and lost his security clearance with the military, leaving him without a job.
Throughout his manifesto, Dorner talks about the corrupt insides of the LAPD, and gives the reader a firsthand glimpse of what is going on in this police force. In one part, he says, "The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten worse.” He brings up instances of his fellow officers taking pride in brutalizing people on the streets, how his fellow officers referred to black people as the n-word, and many other disturbing things these officers do without any consequences. Dorner lists the names of the people who he felt were responsible for ruining his career with the LAPD, and his plans to take justice his own hands.
I chose this manifesto because it is personal to me, to a certain extent. I went to high school in San Diego a mile away from one of the US Navy Lodges near the downtown waterfront. While the police were searching for Dorner during his killing spree, he was reported to be at this navy lodge right near my high school. The whole building went on lock down, and all of us were reading the news on our phones to better understand what was happening. The media was painting him out to be a crazed murderer out to kill people and their families, and that everyone who crossed his path was at risk of getting killed. There was no mention of his affiliation with the LAPD, or any other context as to why he was out killing people. It just seemed like another black man being painted as a human full of rage that nobody is trying to understand.
While I don’t believe killing people is the way to serve justice, I can’t help but feel sorry for Christopher Dorner. This was a man who had good intentions to serve his country and community, who really made an effort to be a good cop and report injustices he witnessed while on the job, and he lost everything he worked hard for because he was doing the right thing. His manifesto is evidence that these systems have not changed since the 1992 riots, and shows how these systems can break down a human being with good intentions.
- Stevie Fox
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