LOS ANGELES – While the general response to Christopher Dorner — a former Navy reservist who was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2008, and is now suspected of slaying the daughter of a police captain and her fiancée, and shooting three police officers, one fatally, in an act of vengeance.
As the manhunt continued as far north as the San Bernardino Mountains, late Thursday, Interscope Records rapper Ab-Soul posted a photo defending the fugitive on his Instagram page, quoting Dorner’s 11,400-word manifesto, in which he outlines plans to kill law enforcement officers and their family members.
“This was a necessary evil,” Ab-Soul posted, quoting Dorner’s manifesto, and adding his own comment: “God Bless You Sir.”
So far, the post has received more than 3,200 likes and 500 comments, many supporting the statements.
One commenter calling themselves Popsapien referred to Dorner as “The BLACK RAMBO” and another, Gnodiaz replied: “Everyone else [is] misinformed idiots. He killed officers as a statement because the system he worked in was corrupt and they discharged him [from] attempting to reveal how corrupt it was.”
Ab-Soul and his manager did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Dorner’s manifesto lays out his accusations of corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department in graphic and lengthy detail, and describes his plan to reap havoc in a quest for vindication. He describes his experiences with racism while on the job, and before joining the police force, and lists the places where he grew up, calling on members of the media to investigate his life and see that he is a nonviolent man. He states his conviction that he will die as a result of his actions. But it is the accusations of racism within the LAPD — including accusations that he was fired after reporting an incident of police brutality by another officer, and allegations that he witnessed a white officer using the n-word — that appear to have motivated support from Ab-Soul and some of his Instagram followers.
“The [police] department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days,” Dorner wrote. “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…I’m not an aspiring rapper, I’m not a gang member, I’m not a dope dealer, I don’t have multiple babies momma’s. 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.”
In an interview with NBC News, Former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton addressed Dorner’s manifesto, deeming it invalid and calling Dorner “a psychotic delusional individual.” He pointed out that Dorner lost his employment appeal after two intense reviews, and though Bratton admitted the LAPD went through a period of “extraordinary brutality corruption racism,” he said the department has since mended its ways.
“I spent a lot of time in the minority communities, especially the African-American community which had the longest and largest historical set of grievances with that organization,” Bratton explained. “It was literally open warfare between the LAPD and the African-American community for over 50 years. [I] began significant efforts to expand the number of minorities on the command staff … It is a minority-majority department and I’m very proud that occurred during my time. A lot of glass ceilings were broken and [LAPD] Chief Beck is continuing that process.”
Speaking about ongoing corruption within the department, Bratton said he “categorically” refutes that the system is flawed, but does not deny the existence of dishonest officers. To that effect, he insists they are aggressively pursued and fired, as was the case with Dorner, making the LAPD one of the most transparent police departments in operation.
“It’s not a perfect organization, none is,” Bratton said. “But I think it’s better than most in the US at this time.”
Next: A history of hip-hop vs. the police
The reaction to Dorner’s manifesto from Ab-Soul recalls the history of anger and condemnation of police in hip hop culture, as well as the general fear and distrust many African-Americans feel towards law enforcement. Artists like Snoop Dogg, NWA, Tupac Shakur and Ice-T long voiced strong opinions on the matter through their aggressive lyrics and music videos, often lashing out against racial profiling and incidents of corruption like the Rampart Scandals which rocked the LAPD during the late 1990s, after an officer alleged that fellow cops were shaking down drug dealers and framing innocent people. According to the New York Times, in 1991, Shakur filed a $10 million lawsuit against police officers in Oakland for allegedly assaulting him, and later, in 1993, he was charged with two counts of aggravated assault for shooting two off-duty police officers in Atlanta, Georgia — charges which were later dropped.
“When you’re in L.A., you have an corrupt police force that’s been around for decades – back to when the police were hired from the South and would say they were going ‘hunting in Watts,’” hip hop journalist Davey D told theGrio on Friday. “The police do some crazy stuff and people report it, and they just seem like they’re lying or exaggerating because there are all these policies that have been put in place to overrule them…The first time people felt some sort of vindication was with Rodney King because it got caught on tape, and it was proved all those people who were made out to be exaggerators or liars were right.”
“[Dorner] lays out a whole litany of things that you look at, and people are nodding their heads because they know,” Davey D added. “They’ve heard it. They know cops are running around kicking people and using the n-word. Even after the Rampart scandal, even after the OJ Simpson trial … People know, so they can relate. They’re like maybe this one time will lead to a change.”
Davey D points to media coverage of Dorner’s retaliatory efforts as evidence of how Americans are commonly misinformed about the subject. He says the fact that reporters have highlighted only certain components of Dorner’s manifesto – his interest in Michelle Obama’s bangs, for instance – rather than addressing his thoughts on LAPD corruption or racist incidents is an example of how the media shapes the general narrative.
“A lot of the stuff that this ex-LAPD cop despised is playing out right in front of us,” Davey D said, referencing the two innocent women who were shot when they were accidentally mistaken for Dorner by police. “In LA, any sort of snatch on the police is one people will get behind because police get away with so much stuff. Anytime the police get snatched on, you are most likely going to find a great reception from people who live in the hood or even outside the hood.”
For West Coast rapper Chace Infinite, who also manages rapper A$AP Rocky, the battle between the LAPD and his community is still a daily struggle and weighs heavily on a self-determinative ideology for minorities. He does not, however, believe the path of violence Dorner has chosen is necessary, and describes it more as a horrific manifestation of the sentiment within marginalized communities.
“You can’t see any merit anytime you’re killing people with the intention to drive across a point across, whether it’s in the name of a political belief or religious belief or whatever. You don’t have to kill,” he said. “Los Angeles has a deep and long history of strange and bizarre actions not only against the police but within the police…There’s a lot of s*** that goes on because L.A. is so close to Mexico, there are so many drugs, and gangs … But these cops are people at the end of the day.”
“In hip hop culture, in our generation, it’s our nature to refer to police as pigs,” Infinite added. “We come from disenfranchised areas in America, and those traditions and ideas are prevalent in hip hop. Law enforcement is not welcome, but not because we don’t want a safe environment. I have a daughter. I like good cops. I want her to be protected. The problem is, in Los Angeles, because gang and drug culture is so embedded, [the attitude towards police] has become the same dynamic that rules the Bloods and the Crips. But this rogue phenomenon, this guy’s just crazy.”
Infinite also believes any violent intimations within hip hop music are often exaggerated.
“There are certain general things in hip hop that are always exaggerated to emphasize something – it’s entertainment, the way a movie is scripted,” he explained. “It’s really just expressing sentiment that’s existed for a long time with disenfranchised people, and law enforcement taking advantage of their authority.”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @CourtGarcia.