Race, class, gender, intersectionality. Post-racial complexities.
None of that matters to me today.
It fell apart for me when I heard from a colleague who’d been pulled over as a result of this Christopher Dorner mess. (http://abcnews.go.com/US/los-angeles-cops-chris-dorners-manifesto-speaks/story?id=18434105) The cops had their guns, hostility and rage drawn. He said that it ended politely. I’m grateful he’s alive, as well as the two women who were inadvertently shot. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/ex-cop-manhunt-newspaper-delivery-women-shot.html)
From the way that things are unfolding, Dorner will likely be killed on the spot, so we may never hear from him directly. I’m reserving judgment. There is of course no defense for taking a life in the way that he has allegedly done. But my antenna went up when the authorities said that his manifesto was self serving. Some of what I’ve heard has the ring of truth. Lying for another officer, then being dismissed. Sounds an awful lot like someone who followed the party line only to find that the party moved on and left him behind.
Prayers for all who are involved, including law enforcement and especially the black men who will be pulled over, manhandled, disrespected, and have to swallow it and keep moving.
May the truth – the entire truth – prevail.
