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<div class="entry-date"><big>Weekend Edition February 8-10, 2013<br>
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<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/08/american-blowback/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/08/american-blowback/</a><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle"><big>Cop-on-Cop Crime in LA</big></div>
<big> </big>
<h1 class="article-title"><big>American Blowback</big></h1>
<big> </big>
<div class="mainauthorstyle"><big>by GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER and MIKE
KING</big></div>
<big> </big>
<div class="main-text"><big> </big>
<p><big>Yesterday was not simply a day like any other, and yet an
entire system is grinding into motion to ensure that the peculiarities
of the day be promptly forgotten: another crazy person lost it and
committed unthinkable acts. The act of killing stands in and speaks for
the person: look what he has done, <i>of course </i>he must be crazy.
Case closed.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>What they want you to see is just another Adam Lanza, just
another inexplicable act, and when the act speaks for the assailant,
words are secondary and there is no need to listen. But this is not,
and has never been, a good way to understand reality.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>What they want you to forget is the sheer strangeness of what
is happening in Los Angeles. Christopher Dorner allegedly killed a
police officer and two civilians. This was not a random shooting by a
right-wing gun-nut mourning the loss of the “Real America.” Here is a
man with good things to say about liberal democrats, a supporter of
heightened gun control, a former LAPD officer and Navy reservist,
targeting his own institution, which he accused of racism, violence,
and corruption.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><b>Dorner’s “Last Resort”</b></big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>We know all of these things because what is most peculiar about
this entire case is the written testament that Dorner has left us. <a
href="http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/uncensored-manifesto-from-retired-lapd-officer-christopher-dorner/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com']);">In
a letter titled only</a> “Last Resort” and addressed to “America,” he
makes clear his grievances, his objectives, and the rationale behind
his actions – a chilling declaration of war on the Los Angeles Police
Department.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>The press is busy citing only those bits of the statement which
make Dorner seem crazy: when he addresses Tim Tebow or Larry David, for
example, or when he laments the fact that he will not survive to see <i>The
Hangover 3</i>. (See for example, Buzzfeed’s “<a
href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-former-lapd-cop-on-a-k"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.buzzfeed.com']);">Everything
You Need to Know</a>,” which conspicuously says very little). But the
vast majority of the letter paints a picture of someone who, while
clearly undergoing some sort of mental break, is astonishingly lucid as
to the causes and candid as to what he intends to do about it. These
causes and these intentions, regardless of what you may hear on <i>MSNBC
</i>or <i>Entertainment Tonight </i>(both will essentially carry the
same message), begin and end with the LAPD.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>The LAPD has long played a vanguard role in white supremacist
policing in the United States. Whether it be the conscious recruitment
of racist cops from the south in the 1960s under William Parker
(sparking the 1965 Watts Rebellion) or the continuity of well-worn
brutal methods under Darryl Gates (sparking the massive 1992 L.A.
Rebellions), there has been little new under the sun. Even after 1992,
when change seemed for a moment inevitable and when the Bloods and
Crips had, themselves, laid down arms and put forth a plan to rebuild
the city, this long-needed transformation didn’t materialize. Instead,
South Central became South L.A., Gates was canned, and the LAPD
forcibly destroyed the gang truce. Nothing had changed.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>It wasn’t long before the next scandal. Toward the end of the
1990s, what many had already known became public knowledge: that the
LAPD, and especially the Rampart Division, routinely brutalized
suspects and planted evidence. As a result of this revelation, the LAPD
was charged under the RICO Act (as a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organization) and placed under the federal oversight of a consent
decree that would only be lifted in 2009.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>Not coincidentally, “Globocop” Bill Bratton, currently en route
to advise the Oakland Police Department, amidst widespread public
opposition, is credited with cleaning up the LAPD, and Dorner’s
statement appears on many websites alongside a picture of the former
officer beaming alongside Bratton (it has emerged that Dorner mailed
evidence to Anderson Cooper last week, including a gift from Bratton,
on which he wrote “Thanks, but no thanks Will Bratton”).</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>According to Dorner’s statement:</big></p>
<big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big>“The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney
King days. It has gotten worse. The consent decree should never have
been lifted. The only thing that has evolved from the consent decree is
those officers involved in the Rampart scandal and Rodney King
incidents have since promoted to supervisor, commanders, and command
staff, and executive positions… Are you aware that an officer… seen on
the Rodney King videotape striking Mr. King multiple times with a baton
on 3/3/91 is still employed by the LAPD and is now a Captain on the
police department? … As a commanding officer, he is now responsible for
over 200 officers. Do you trust him to enforce department policy and
investigate use of force investigations on arrestees by his officers?”</big></p>
</blockquote>
<big></big>
<p><big>One indication of this is the fact that, during the course of
more than a decade of investigation of the Rampart case, only five
officers were terminated, which suggests just how shallow the
investigation efforts were. Dorner ominously adds that “I will correct
this error,” and deems his actions a “necessary evil” not only to clear
his own name, but to force “substantial change” within the LAPD.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>According to Dorner, he was suspended in 2008 after reporting a
superior for use of excessive force against a suspect, and eventually
terminated in 2009. Dorner goes on to describe the prevalence of white
supremacy in the police force: from anti-Semitic taunting to openly
anti-black sentiment. After one incident involving use of the n-word,
Dorner recalls confronting other officers physically, for which he was
reprimanded. In retrospect, he reflects, with regard to the speaker of
the word, “What I should have done, was put a Winchester Ranger SXT 9mm
147 grain bullet in his skull.” On the day that his fellow officers
were given what were effectively paid suspensions, “That day, the LAPD
stated that it is acceptable for fellow officers to call black officers
niggers to their face and you will receive a slap on the wrist.”</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><b>A Bloody Fight for Honor on the Other Side of the Blue Line</b></big></p>
<big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big>“I am an American by choice, I am a son, I am a brother, I am
a military service member, I am a man who has lost complete faith in
the system, when the system betrayed, slandered, and libeled me. I
lived a good life and though not a religious man I always stuck to my
own personal code of ethics, ethos and always stuck to my shoreline and
true North. I didn’t need the US Navy to instill Honor, Courage, and
Commitment in me but I thank them for re-enforcing it. It’s in my DNA.”</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>–Christopher Dorner</big></p>
</blockquote>
<big></big>
<p><big>It is clear from Dorner’s communiqué that he feels that he is
following a code of honor against an unlawful body that has sullied his
name; his objective being to reclaim his honor. Through his spectacle
of violence he is also overtly drawing attention to his self-identity –
as a black man, as an “honest officer”/ conscientious worker, and as a
veteran – counter-posed against institutions of corruption, deceit and
abuse. In an effort that he clearly self-defines as terrorism, Dorner
invokes old-West, rugged individualism: “Unfortunately, I will not be
alive to see my name cleared. That’s what this is about, my name. A man
is nothing without his name.” At length, Dorner goes through
ideal-types of various officers’ grouped by race, and explicitly cites
their role in reproducing white supremacy. He makes clear that he is
patriotic and loves the government (and Chris Christie); his war is
with the LAPD.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>Not unlike many mass killers, Dorner’s writing exhibits a
hyper-vigilant(e) feeling of betrayal and unwavering need for revenge.
His writing reflects a self-conscious awareness of this role, a
self-forged morality that invokes clear Zarathustra-like qualities of
the Overman imposing his will on weak and vile petty tyrants. Dorner
says:</big></p>
<big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big>“I am here to change and make policy. The culture of LAPD
versus the community and honest/good officers needs to and will change.
I am here to correct and calibrate your morale (sic) compasses to true
north.”</big></p>
</blockquote>
<big></big>
<p><big>Dorner’s writing also features a list of thanks to everyone
from George H.W. Bush to Charlie Sheen. The following quote has
extensively repeated in the press, and bears some interrogation: “If
possible, I want my brain preserved for science/research to study the
effects of severe depression on an individual’s brain.” To dismiss this
as simple madness, is to individualize this man and his actions
(however they are interpreted) as apolitical and random, another tragic
coupling of broken people with fully-functional weapons. It is clear,
through his chronicling of long-past slights un-avenged, interspersed
with calls for more gun control and an endorsement for Hillary Clinton
for President, that he is troubled. Dorner writes, “Ask yourselves what
would cause somebody to take these drastic measures like I did. That’s
what is important.”</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>This is surely a discussion the LAPD would not pine over if it
did not happen. It is a discourse that is foreign to the press, even
the likes of liberals like Chris Matthews, that Dorner lauds.
Soldier-Officer Dorner sits, using his training against the force that
trained him, waiting to unleash his next attack. The extent to which we
go to Dr. Drew for helpful insights in the next few days and not
victims of police brutality or whistle-blower cops or to analyses of
race and policing in our cities, the extent to which we talk about gun
control and not how and why the men who beat Rodney King got to run the
LAPD instead of being run out of it, is the extent to which we sit and
wait, feeding ammunition to the next Christopher Dorner.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><b>A Defection in the Occupation Forces</b></big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>Now Dorner has declared war on the LAPD and he has named
targets: “The enemy combatants in LA are not the citizens and suspects,
it’s the police officers.” To a list of different offenders, he adds
the ominous promise: “You are a high value target.” The parameters of
the violence he has seen meted out to everyday poor residents of Los
Angeles structures his own response, such as when he urges:</big></p>
<big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big>“Citizens/non-combatants, do not render medical aid to downed
officers/enemy combatants. They would not do the same for you. They
will let you bleed out… don’t honor these fallen officers/dirtbags.
When your family members die, they just see you as extra overtime at a
crime scene and at a perimeter. Why would you value their lives when
they clearly don’t value yours or your family members lives?”</big></p>
</blockquote>
<big></big>
<p><big>He has studied the new counterinsurgency doctrine, as rewritten
in 2006 by General David Petraeus, and he turns its language against
its authors, comparing himself to insurgent forces in Afghanistan and
Iraq. “I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in
LAPD uniform whether on or off duty. ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance,
and Reconnaissance] is my strength and your weakness. You will now live
the life of the prey.”</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>Frantz Fanon argued pointedly that exploitation, occupation,
and colonization simply cannot exist without racism and torture of one
form or another. As a result, it is useless to oppose the violence of
occupation, or the torture made so palpable in Zero Dark Thirty,
without opposing the occupation itself, of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of
South Central L.A. Yes, something similar could be said of the LAPD,
and here we begin to grasp why this most violent of institutions has so
rigidly resisted change: because its historically brutal and
terroristic tactics, the daily oppression and humiliation exerted most
directly at poor black and brown <i>Angelinos</i>, are merely symptoms
of the LAPD’s structural function.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>When Fanon resigned his post as a psychiatrist to join the
Algerian Revolution, he was merely putting into revolutionary practice
what he had practiced in the analyst’s chair for years. For Fanon,
mental neuroses, especially among people of color, were the result not
of any inherent trait or familial trauma, but of the profound trauma
imposed by white supremacist and colonial society. And since social
structures generate many mental illnesses, we cannot hope to cure these
without destroying the institutions that make people sick in the first
place.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>It was this imperative that led Fanon to throw himself into the
armed struggle, and when he did so, he wrote that: “A society that
drives its members to desperate solutions is a non-viable society, a
society to be replaced.” There can be no more powerful symptom of
desperation, no more direct indicator of the non-viability of existing
institutions, than this hunted man named Christopher Dorner.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>There’s nothing pretty about the desperate actions of a
soon-to-be-dead man, but we owe it to ourselves, and to the world, to
at least attempt to understand. To be clear: Dorner’s statement is not
a revolutionary manifesto, and he certainly didn’t grasp the structural
relationship between occupation and LAPD brutality, but his statement
and his actions <i>are </i>deeply symptomatic of a social illness
that it does not name. If the adage “you reap what you sow” were not
already the slogan of the week when unrepentant Navy SEAL sniper Chris
Kyle, who <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/03/us/texas-sniper-killed-kyle-profile/index.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cnn.com']);">embraced
the murderous dehumanization of his profession</a>, was killed at a
Texas gun range last Saturday, this is now undeniable.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><b>Shoot to Kill: Counterinsurgency and Collateral Damage</b></big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>Given its social function, the LAPD simply cannot be anything
but racist and brutal, and as though attempting to prove Dorner’s
point, the response to his attacks has been as brutal as anything. The
thin blue line of secrecy among officers has been replaced by a thick
blue line, protecting officers and their families while unleashing
unrestrained violence on southern California. In only the most infamous
incident of yesterday, <a
href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/ex-cop-manhunt-newspaper-delivery-women-shot.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://latimesblogs.latimes.com']);">two
women delivering newspapers were shot by trigger-happy officers</a>
who, it seems, mistook their royal blue truck for Dorner’s gray one.
Dozens of bullet holes riddled the back of the pickup, their clusters
suggesting a clear intent to kill without identifying. Within the
context of legitimate, open threats to officers, the “shoot anything
that moves” approach is perhaps an accentuation, but hardly an
aberration, from the norm.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>The application of a counterinsurgency model of urban policing
in cities like Los Angeles is longstanding. In Los Angeles alone, from
bulldozed houses in “Operation Hammer” and the invention of gang
injunctions in the mid-late 1980s, to the racialized use of
checkpoints, and the routine abuses Dorner points to today, the “War on
Crime” is a war in every sense of the word. The LAPD gang unit trains
troops headed to Afghanistan in how to develop informants and use <a
href="http://www.prisonabolitionist.org/2011/09/counterinsurgency-and-community.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.prisonabolitionist.org']);">counterinsurgency
tactics</a> to control “hostile” populations and spaces. The abuses
that Dorner lists are the effects of this logic of occupation, a term
officers themselves use to describe their work. As with criminal
Ramparts officers getting promotions, Dorner sees the daily routines of
abuse as morally wrong, but without seeing the logic of the broader
structures in which those practices are embedded.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>The violent overlap between modern warfare and domestic
policing, of which Dorner is a strange byproduct of, is especially
acute among police officers that are returning veterans from
Afghanistan and Iraq. The increased levels of PTSD and violence among
veterans in general, is amplified, not only by holding a job that
empowers, and sometimes requires, the use of deadly force, but because
the current methods of contemporary urban policing have become enmeshed
with the overall objectives, strategic logic, and daily practice of
counterinsurgency.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>As Oakland brings on former LAPD Chief William Bratton to add a
play or two to Oakland’s counterinsurgency manual, the OPD, City
Council, and District Attorney continue to refuse to fire and
criminally charge Miguel Masso, an Iraq veteran who had previously
tortured a man in custody when with the NYPD, before <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/12/justice-for-alan-blueford/">shooting
and killing 18-year old Alan Blueford in East Oakland last May</a>, as
he laid on the ground and cried “I didn’t do anything.” Despite Masso’s
account of what happened seriously conflicting with the coroner’s
report and witness accounts, Masso still has his job. Without
pathologizing veterans it is clear that there are serious concerns
here. <i>For the time being</i>, Masso is another one of those cops
who gets paid leave, who gets to walk the streets, who may get a medal
or a promotion down the line – though there are many people in Oakland
continuing to try and see otherwise. It is the commonness of excuses
for police abuse/murder, the erasure of the victims as collateral
damage that should be highlighted when trying to make sense of this
broken, rogue former-LA cop.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><b>A Gravedigger in Uniform</b></big></p>
<big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><em>“I am the walking exigent circumstance you created.” </em></big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><em>– Christopher Dorner</em></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big></big>
<p><big>Much like Dan Freeman, the main character in Stan Greenlee’s
classic book and film, <i>The Spook Who Sat By the Door</i>,
Christopher Dorner is the dialectical gravedigger of a dying system:
armed, trained, and prepared by a system which prizes cop culture,
which massively arms the police and unleashes them on the poor and
racialized, and which in its late stages demands that black people do
the work of white supremacy. In this circumstance, those skills are
being utilized against the police. Riverside Police Chief <a
href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-california-copbre9160sm-20130207,0,4121853.story"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.chicagotribune.com']);">Sergio
Diaz</a> said, “This is a somewhat unprecedented, or at least rare
occurrence – a trained, heavily armed person who is hunting for police
officers.” LAPD Chief <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/christopher-dorner-manhunt-los-angeles_n_2638023.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.huffingtonpost.com']);">Charlie
Beck</a> added, “Of course he knows what he’s doing; we trained him. He
was also a member of the Armed Forces… It is extremely worrisome and
scary.”</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big>For Marx, capitalism would sow the seeds of its own destruction
and produce its own gravedigger, the proletariat. Fanon recognized,
however, that this gravedigger might be characterized more by the
“desperate solutions” to which they turn than by their class
consciousness. In the United States today, late capitalism is equally
shot through with white supremacy and upheld by brute force by
increasingly heavy-handed police. It should not surprise us when the
gravediggers assume an ominously different form.</big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><em><strong>George Ciccariello-Maher</strong> is assistant
professor of political science at Drexel University. He is the author
of <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0822354527/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">We
Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution</a> and
can be reached at gjcm(at)drexel.edu. </em></big></p>
<big></big>
<p><big><em><strong>Mike King</strong> is a Ph.D candidate in sociology
at UC Santa Cruz, and can be reached at mikeking0101(at)gmail.com. Both
study policing and counterinsurgency.</em></big></p>
</div>
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