By Ben Shapiro
Friday, February 15, 2013
Last week, former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner went on
a murderous rampage throughout Southern California, shooting seven people,
including five members of law enforcement, killing three. Before he went on his
spree, Dorner wrote a manifesto praising liberal policies on gun control, media
personages including Piers Morgan and Chris Matthews and politicians including
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
But the bulk of Dorner's manifesto centered on his hatred
for the police department from which he had been fired in 2009. He claimed in
the manifesto that the LAPD "has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney
King days. It has gotten worse." He accused the LAPD of widespread racism
and brutality. And he traced the LAPD's racism to broad societal racism:
"My first recollection of racism was in the first grade at Norwalk
Christian elementary school ... I made a life decision that I will not tolerate
racial derogatory terms spoken to me." He continued: "I am here to
change and make policy."
When Jared Lee Loughner shot Gabby Giffords, the media
immediately leapt to the conclusion that Loughner had been bathed in the water
of political incivility. They attributed his shooting to a political map from
Sarah Palin's website. They blamed the Tea Party.
When Adam Lanza murdered 20 children at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the media jumped to the position that the
NRA's "gun culture" was responsible. They suggested that violent video
games and movies had to be curbed.
But when it came to Dorner, the media suggested that his
manifesto meant nothing -- nothing! Piers Morgan blamed Dorner's "deranged
criminality," although he said nothing of the sort about Loughner or
Lanza.
If the manifesto
did mean something, the media
said, it was that Dorner was essentially right about the LAPD. CNN reported,
"LA cops stalked by suspect -- and a brutal past." The New York Times
reported, "The killings and Mr. Dorner's online manifesto have reopened
old wounds for some black residents here, even as they condemned the
violence."
The media never once stopped to consider that it was
their coverage of the LAPD that may have created the cultural background noise
for Dorner's belief system. Liberal Hollywood and the media regularly portray
law enforcement as a bastion of bigotry and nastiness. Every depiction of LAPD
in the last 20 years has focused on their supposed hatred for minorities, their
corruption, their violence. If we are going to suppose that culture creates
criminals, then leftist culture is responsible for Dorner.
In truth, we are all responsible for our own actions. But
the double standard of the media is truly stunning. Next time they try to claim
that Constitutional conservatism is responsible for mass shootings, the media
ought to be reminded of Christopher Dorner.
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