When former Los Angeles Police Department Officer Christopher Dorner went on his violent rampage — during which he killed his former attorney's daughter and two police officers and injured three others, and which ended in his own death from a self-inflicted gun wound — his intent was to be a martyr for honest officers who had been fired by a corrupt department, steeped in bias and racist attitudes.
Many saw his method of raising awareness as despicable, but in the wake of his attack and subsequent death, his words (left in a lengthy manifesto that he wrote before going on the killing spree) seem to have had an effect on other officers. More than 40 fired police officers have requested that their cases be reopened and reviewed, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The 40 requests, which were tallied by the union that represents rank-and-file officers, have come in the two months since Dorner sought revenge for his 2009 firing by targeting police officers and their families in a killing rampage that left four dead and others injured.
Dorner's allegations of a department plagued by racism and special interests left Chief Charlie Beck scrambling to stem a growing chorus of others who condemned Dorner's violence but said his complaints about the department were accurate. To assuage concerns, Beck vowed to re-examine the cases of other former officers who believed they had been wrongly expelled from the force.
But because of a loophole, some officers' requests will not be considered:
In letters to those wishing to have their case reviewed, department officials explain that the city's charter, which spells out the authority granted to various public officials, prevents the police chief from opening new disciplinary proceedings for an officer fired more than three years ago.
It should be noted Dorner was fired from the LAPD more than three years before his February 2013 death for allegedly embellishing a story about his partner's violence toward a suspect.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.