There is something interesting happening with the case of Christopher Dorner and the current manhunt for him. Ever since the story broke, he has been portrayed by the police and some experts as a senseless murderer, as a cop killer. His manifesto has been ruled as a jumbled mash of contradictory statements from a not too stable individual. He has been painted ruthless and diabolical killer of police that must be stopped.

As time has gone on, and as people have taken the time to read his rambling manifesto, and I have to clarify this would be the FULL manifesto because some outlets have put out an edited (8 pages as opposed to close to 18 pages) of the manifesto, they are finding issues he brings up that sounds like he might have a legitimate grievances.

Here is where things get murky. There isn’t a doubt that killing of a police officer or their family is wrong, there is no doubt the allegations are reprehensible against Dorner, however with the history of the LAPD, his questions about their practices and the circumstances of his dismissal makes some people think there should be a look into what caused Dorner to break. Of course, there are many, arguably a majority of people who don’t care about his reasons and will say he should be taken in and face justice. As we have seen in three early instances when the police believed they had found Dorner, when the police shot first and worried about questions later, the ‘paranoid’ ramblings of a man who claimed that the police were out to get him has a hint of truth. Turning a car into riddled husk, with two women in the car, shooting up another car with a white, thin surfer dude when you are looking for a bald, black 270 pound 6 foot tall man, gives the appearance of wanting him dead rather than alive.

Listening to radio talk show hosts and especially the callers, I have heard a good number of people who will refuse to think this man should be listened to. His grievances are invalidated because he killed. As this story has been playing out, I think of how much simpler this incident would be if this were a made for TV drama or movie, because we would have the benefit of flashbacks or other dramatic devices that would give us insight into the motivation of Dorner. Is he a cold blooded killer or have things occurred in his life that contributed to this downward spiral? Are the police afraid of what he might do to one of his own or are they concerned some of his allegations are true and don’t want them publicized further?

Any week you could watch a drama where there is a person labeled a criminal but within the course of the drama there will be revelations that shows the person may have been backed against a wall and pressured to take extreme actions. It doesn’t justify the crime but it does give context to the motivation of the individual. What has been happening with Dorner, as more information have read his manifesto, is people, while sickened by what he has done, are starting to believe he is a man who might have been wronged. They don’t believe in his methods but they see his motivation.

The danger in painting Dorner as a ‘crazed cop killer’ is it doesn’t allow us, as a society, to take some measures in preventing this action in the future. If you look at any of the recent mass shootings, we are quick to label the perpetrator as crazy. We separate their actions and by doing that we don’t have to address tougher issues. When we call them crazy, we pretend none of us will become like them. We don’t see guns as a problem because only a crazy person would get a gun and shoot innocent people. In the meantime, we have kids killing each other over turf, we have mentally unstable people walking into movie theaters, churches of classrooms killing people. When those incidents occur people choose up sides on gun bans and other surface issues.

What don’t we look at in a lot of the violence we see? Just locally, we don’t ask why an elderly gentleman in a court dispute believes the best way to prove his point is to shoot the mediators in his case, then a day later shoots himself in a mall parking lot. We don’t ask what would motivate a war veteran, drunk at a local club with some friends, to knife the bouncer that threw him and his girlfriend out. We don’t ask why his friends, if the allegations are true, would think of or assisted him in hiding the murder weapon. We don’t wonder why people who have children under their care would kill them, beat them or abuse them. We don’t try to comprehend why women stay in abusive relationships. We take all this violence going on every day and most of us cope by painting the incident as something that wouldn’t happen to them. Since it doesn’t affect them, there isn’t a reason to understand the why. There isn’t a reason to take a hard look and realize while it is good to prevent people from weapons or use other methods to prevent people from doing harm to others, we have something going on that is effecting anyone. If we are to truly prevent a Dorner, another mass shooting, domestic violence and a host of other types of crime, we have to really dig down and try and understand the causes of these actions.

If we continue to ignore the causes, if we continue to be swayed by political bumper sticker responses, no amount of legislation or jails will curb the violence.