Thirteen demonstrators, calling themselves "We Stand With Christopher Dorner," gathered in front of Los Angeles Police Department's headquarters in Los Angeles Saturday to decry the death of the fired L.A. policeman as he faced arrest.
The small number of protesters was expected to grow throughout the day, organizers said.
"We're protesting some of the police brutality -- not just LAPD, but all over the nation," said Lomita resident Vincent Namm, a former Marine. "With Chris Dorner, habeas corpus just got thrown out the window."
"I'm a veteran myself," he told City News Service. "It's like they (the police) were judge, jury and executioner. Of course, if the police are those three things, we have something called a police state.
"They didn't seem like they were even interested in apprehending him," Hamm said.
Radio communications between San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies captured deputies calling on colleagues to burn down the cabin near Angelus Oaks, where the suspected cop-killer had just shot two deputies and was holed up.
Dorner had already killed two policemen and the daughter of a retired officer, and was shooting at the deputies when the radio messages were broadcast.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon insisted Friday that deputies did not intentionally set fire to the cabin to get Dorner out of the cabin. McMahon said the comments were not made by command personnel and were unauthorized, off-hand remarks by deputies or officers who were under heavy gunfire.
Saturday's demonstrators began to gather a little before 10 a.m. near the corner of First and Main streets before making their way to 100 W. First St., where they were met by yellow police tape bordering LAPD headquarters. There were at least three officers at different positions in front of the building, along with three parked television vans.
Some people on social media and elsewhere have expressed support for some of the criticisms of the department Dorner expressed in a lengthy manifesto posed online amid his 10-day killing spree. Facebook pages such as ‘We Are All Chris Dorner’ popped up during the former cop’s killing spree, featuring a photo from the last Los Angeles riots and earning nearly 5,000 likes. Other Facebook pages such as ‘Chris Dorner and the Revolution’ also popped up in support of the former LAPD officer suspected of four murders.
"The police don't do the right things -- especially when it comes to Latinos and blacks," said Antonia Ramos, one of the protesters. "It wasn't fair how this guy (Dorner) died."
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- City News Service
