A Story I Almost Missed

Sure, I noticed the news coverage of that former Los Angeles cop, Chris Dorner, seemed to snap and began shooting people.  I sort of dismissed it due to lack of interest, thinking it just another deranged shooter that will eventually be cornered and killed or arrested.  Which of course he was.

But then I started wondering, where is all the outcry from the usual media types about how this is just one more example of why America needs to confiscate guns from its citizens.  This morning I seem to have found out why, in a story I completely missed while the hunt for Dorner was going on.

Apparently, Dorner's not just another deranged shooter.  He's a cult hero.  The message seems to be that he was so maltreated by the racist LAPD that he became angry enough to fight back.  Sort of like "Django Unchained".  Sorry, I haven't seen that movie and don't plan to, so the reference is mostly lost on me.  All I've gathered is Django is some black man that shoots a bunch of white men that were mistreating him.  The movie looks like an 19th century era western.

These CNN/MSNBC types say, "we don't condone what he did, but think he can teach us a lesson about the state of race relations in the country".

Um, really?  Exactly what state are you talking about?  You mean the mostly imaginary idea that people with black skin are still treated no better than their slave ancestors were 200 years ago?  That the "Black Community"s failure to prosper is evidence of that institutionalized racism, and has nothing to do with the black population's family breakdown, hip-hop "gangsta" culture, and peer influence on the children to be sure not to excel in school because that's "acting white"?

So if I understand the message, it goes something like this:  If Dorner had been white, well, he would have been portrayed as another crazy white man who went off his meds and started shooting people.  Why haven't we already taken the guns away from everybody so this won't happen again?  But since Dorner was black, he is a crusading misunderstood hero who managed to hold out against all the resources the LAPD could muster against him.  Then those evil cops and politicians (read: white) were too cowardly to take him alive, but purposely burned him to death in that cabin.

Just the basic notion that so many people think this way saddens me.