Many believe that a fire in Big Bear left accused cop-killer Chris Dorner dead. However, there is still much that needs to be taken into account before coming to this conclusion.
Chris Dorner is said to have carjacked two people after hiding out in a cabin across the street from the police command post.
First, the obvious questions: how did the police not find Dorner during their door-to-door search of the Big Bear area, and how in the world did he elude police for nearly a week while posting up inside a cabin across the street from where all police operations were centered?
Seems strange.
What also seems strange is that Dorner, a decorated war veteran, would panic after only a few days, hijack two cars, and then hole up in a different abandoned cabin.
Wouldn’t a guy who had years of experience in the military and years to plan this whole thing out prepare for every scenario?
In his manifesto, Dorner said he would use his training and experience to bring “warfare” to the LAPD. Insurgent attacks are small, sporadic skirmishes designed to mentally wear down the opponent rather than one full on Rambo-esque firefight, so why would Dorner choose the latter and not the former if that was his plan?
Dorner has proven that he can control where the focus goes. If the cabin fire did leave Dorner dead, then he managed to draw media and law enforcement attention out of the Big Bear area following their search. Sightings and trails led across the nation and into Mexico.
However, he was apparently just across the street.
The proof found in the fire that allegedly left Dorner dead is nothing more than a California driver’s license that belonged to Dorner found next to a charred body.
So, the guy who has allegedly killed four people is incapable of killing another person, trapping them inside, and leaving his driver’s license near him or her? Even if dental records come back as Dorner’s, it is not difficult to falsify those findings.
Symbolically, it makes a lot of sense for Dorner to do what he did. It would not only provide a distraction and cause the heat to die down, but many cultures have used self-immolation as a form of protest against the government, as happened in Vietnam and still happens today in Tibet. This could be Dorner’s way of “killing” off all the final shreds of the person he was, in addition to serving a practical purpose.
Less drastic than complete self-immolation, though, is the use of fire as a purifying agent. Many cultures have used fire to represent cleansing as well as strengthening, as in the anvil and the forge. Both would be appropriate in his mind for such a circumstance as this.
So, Is Dorner Dead? Why Wouldn’t He Be?
The police would have a lot to gain from this whole debacle being over, so although we aren’t saying this is what happened, there is a lot of incentive to bring this to a close whether it truly is or not.
This story has been spurred by police corruption and ineptitude, highlighted more so by the shooting of innocents and allegations from other former LAPD officers that what Dorner is accusing is true. With Dorner right across the street during the largest manhunt in US law enforcement history, it is no wonder they would want this thing over and done with as quickly as possible.
As if there wasn’t enough questionable conduct, there are now police scans that (if genuine) prove that the police set fire to the cabin with Dorner inside—and set fire to it gleefully.
This is particularly alarming for a few reasons.
First, the police only waited a matter of a few hours before setting fire to the building, destroying private property directly unrelated to the investigation. Imagine how you’d feel and what would happen if a suspect broke into your house, and after less than four hours, the police decide to set fire to your home. We have an amendment in the Bill of Rights to protect against this type of behavior: the Fifth Amendment, which clearly states that “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Guess who decides what constitutes “just compensation.”
Yes, the government—the same government that took and, in this case, destroyed your property.
We also have the Sixth Amendment, which states that a person accused of a crime is to be sent to court to be judged by a jury of his peers, among other things. So much for that…essentially the entire Sixth Amendment was thrown out the window when it came to Dorner.
Less convincing would be a case that his Eighth Amendment rights had been violated, but we’re pretty sure getting burned alive counts as cruel and unusual punishment.
Some people will say that the officers’ lives were in danger. While they were in danger, police protocol is to use all other means of apprehending a suspect before relying on deadly force. Clearly, as the innocents who were both shot and shot at indicate, this was not the policy with which they were approaching Dorner. It was “shoot first, ask questions later.”
Unless there is a gun currently pointed at you, you are not to use lethal force—regardless of any other circumstances.
The irony in all of this is that in some ways it proves exactly what Dorner outlined in his manifesto.
The one thing that cannot be denied in this strange story is that it is far from over, and we won’t find out for a long time what really happened—if we ever find out.
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