Dorner Was a Vigilante, and Vigilantism Is Inexcusable

Many articles have been and continue to be written about Christopher Jordan Dorner, the tragic person who, as of this writing, is credited with killing fully half of all of the police officers that have been murdered by gunfire so far this year throughout the United States.

Every conceivable angle is being discussed and debated as millions around the country, but especially in Southern California, try to make some sort of sense of the horrific events of the past two weeks during which Dorner decided to wage a one-man war against many LAPD employees and affiliates, and law enforcement in general.

The background facts are known. In 2008, Dorner was fired from LAPD. In 2009, after having exhausted all of the appeals he had a right to lodge, Dorner's firing was upheld and he was permanently separated from the department. According to his rambling 6000-word manifesto (attached), Dorner felt his reputation had been unfairly besmirched by his termination and for that alleged injustice it fell to him to somehow seek and achieve justice through violence.

Dorner became a vigilante.

Regardless of the wrongs one perceives have been done upon him, resorting to unlawful violence in response is never acceptable and can never be excused. Our nation and its people thrive, in large part, due to our system of justice and the right of all to due process.

Somewhere along the line, despite the oaths he once took both as a military officer and a police officer, young Dorner became severely confused and began to believe that his right to due process also somehow guaranteed him a right to a full measure of whatever it is he believed to be justice.

As flawed and failing humans, we can not always achieve a full measure of justice, no matter how hard we may try. We can seek justice, we can aspire toward justice, and sometimes we can even actually achieve justice but justice is never guaranteed.

If it were, four people, three of them law enforcement officers, would not now be dead...murdered, allegedly, at the hands of Dorner himself. Not only did Dorner deny Ms. Monica Quan, USC Officer Keith Lawrence, Riverside Officer Michael Crain, and San Bernardino Deputy Jeremiah Mackay justice but he also denied them their own rights to due process in legal defense of whatever "crimes" Dorner believed them guilty.
http://newsone.com/2226079/chris-dorner-victims/

Dorner not only deprived these four people -none of whom had a single thing to do with his firing- of access to due process or a chance for justice of their own, he also deprived all of their family members and friends access to due process before they were deprived of those they loved. He also deprived those he attacked and grievously injured but did not kill.

Through his choices, Dorner also denied his own friends and loved ones their right to continue to have him in their lives. Instead they are left behind, feeling unfairly obligated to express sympathies and condolences on his behalf. Yes, how very thoughtful of Christopher Jordan Dorner toward those who cared for him the most.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/dorner-mother-nancy-statement.html

In the midst of his confused and violent self-assumed "victimhood", Dorner deprived many others of the very same things he claimed others had deprived him of...due process, justice, their names, and their lives.

Whenever a police officer files an appeal of discipline (including termination) he or she also agrees to accept the decisions that the various appeal boards may render. Rather than accept these decisions, Dorner instead chose to become a vigilante.

Rather than simply accept that due process in his case did not provide justice -as he defined it- and seek some way to get on with his life in some productive and meaningful way, he instead fixated upon becoming a victim and on targeting others for violent retaliation.

So far this year, throughout the United States, six police officers have been murdered by gunfire. Christopher Jordan Dorner is alleged to have murdered half of them.
http://www.odmp.org/search/year/2013

This does not make Dorner any sort of hero and despite his lengthy list of perceived injustices, it does not make him to any degree sympathetic or righteous.

In the end, it just makes him a lawless vigilante and a callous multiple murderer.