The following was written by some members of Fire Next Time.
As we write, Christopher Dorner is most likely dying or dead, as the cabin in which he was trapped burns around him. A huge manhunt involving local, state and federal officials has culminated in what can only be described as an extrajudicial execution. We condemn Dorner’s murder at the hands of the state.
People cheer Dorner because, whatever his motivations, he exposed the workings of a vicious white supremacist system that goes quietly unacknowledged most of the time. He declared war on a system that has waged an undeclared war on us, every day, for years; a system that holds millions of poor people and people of color in prisons, and guns them down in the street. He did what every young person of color in Los Angeles dreams of, when he or she comes home after getting fucked with by the cops, and starts a shootout on GTA V. He was celebrated for doing what many of us could not.
Christopher Dorner was a contradictory figure. He served the system in the U.S. military and LAPD, but then waged armed struggle against the blatant corruption, brutality and racism of the police force. He lauded ex-president Bush and Colin Powell in his manifesto, but also wished death on George Zimmerman. He targeted lesbian officers for belittling men, and killed the family members of his enemies; but he also shot and killed two members of a police force that terrorizes thousands of young people every day. Via twitter hashtags, his last stand is being compared with the bombing of the black militant #MOVE house in Philadelphia in 1985, as well as the assault on the Branch Dividian compound in #Waco in 1993.
Despite these contradictions, many people across the U.S. cheer Dorner on, and are no doubt doing so now even as the state moves to kill him. And they are right to do so.
It will take more than isolated rebels to defeat the police force and overthrow capitalism. It will take a mass revolutionary movement declaring unceasing struggle against the state, not in ones and twos, but by the millions. We see the potential for such a movement in the popular opinion that welled up around the Dorner case. Had such a movement existed not only in aspiration but also in the streets, Christopher Dorner might have joined it and been transformed by it, another Geronimo Pratt. Let us commit ourselves to building this movement, starting today.
Its great to see a note about this on FNT blog, that goes a bit deeper into Dorner’s history than pure celebration or condemnation. I think it is crucial to remember that its not only collective action as opposed to isolation that it takes to end the institution of the police and the system of capitalism that it exists to serve, but that these struggles must be political struggles. We cannot subsume capitalism while taking down women and queer people; we must be nuanced in our approach to the state and other capitalist institutions that are not the police. These are crucial in addition to the necessity for collective action. Were Dorner to join a broader organization fighting the police, he would have had to change his politics and actions perhaps in drastic ways, which would have required strong politics from this theoretical collectivity. The assassination of Dorner is a tragic and extreme example of the horrific violence enacted upon people–particularly black and brown people–at the hands of the institution of police in this country every day; and did much in the way of exposing its reactionary, white supremacist, patriarchal/rapist/homophobic, and murderous nature, but I do not think we can compare it to the MOVE 8. The bombing of the MOVE 8 house was an explicitly political bombing of known black militants. As we fight for liberation against those institutions that keep us enslaved, we must remember that not all of the targets of their offensives are our heros.
This response to what has been a pretty widely reported story, made me think quite deeply about the ideas it contains.
Whatever the merits of the arguments here, and I really do not want to get into a fight about it, I do not agree with the main thrust that we should either celebrate Mr Dorners valiant stand, or that this is an example of the poor and oppressed fighting back against the oppressors.
As I understand it, the guy wanted to get back at the colleague who represented him at some tribunal. So he shot the man’s daughter and her partner. WTF.
I have no doubt that the argument that the US government, and the US police are seen by many as racist. This may be true. I do not know. But whatever the merits of that argument, it is a hijacking of decency to suggest that the way to bring about change is to murder the children of people we do not agree with.
And, err……. didn’t he shoot himself?