TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross

An army of one

BY Dave Ross  on February 8, 2013 @ 5:43 am (Updated: 5:55 am - 2/8/13 )

AP: 9137d805-30da-49c8-8580-20accae218ba
Christopher Dorner, a former Los Angeles officer. Dorner, who was fired from the LAPD in 2008 for making false statements, is linked to a weekend killing and authorities believe he opened fire early Thursday on police in cities east of Los Angeles, killing an officer and wounding another. Police issued a statewide "officer safety warning" and police were sent to protect people named in the posting that was believed to be written by Dorner. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department)
I guess if we were wondering how it might look when someone decides to act on selected quotes of Thomas Jefferson, we know now.

In his manifesto, ex-cop-turned avenger Christopher Dorner used that familiar Jefferson quote written in defense of periodic revolution: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

The same quote was on Timothy McVeigh's t-shirt in 1995 the day he bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. But as with most people who invoke that quote, which was part of a long letter, they leave out the rest, which includes:

"Happy for us, that when we find our constitutions defective and insufficient to secure the happiness of our people, we can assemble with all the coolness of philosophers and set it to rights, while every other nation on earth must have recourse to arms ..."

In this case the "coolness of philosophers" was replaced by a heat of a long-standing grudge, and of course easy access to weapons. That's the really chilling part. Where he described an arsenal that included highly regulated Class III weapons such as silencers and short-barreled rifles, and said he bought them from Lock 'n Load - a Las Vegas gun store - without a background check. All they wanted was money and a signature.

Because he, at the time, was a law abiding citizen. The kind whose gun rights we all want to protect. You can't help but wonder - how many people are building up legal arsenals, and nursing deep resentments, all the while scrupulously obeying every law - until the day they don't?

Read more:
Read the latest on the search for Christopher Dorner
Career woes, perceived racism fuel ex-cop's anger

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
More Dave Ross

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Comments (131)


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  • Citizen of Krazy Town wrote...
    WOW
    February 8, 2013 11:49 am
    I thought I missed something in Dave's article based on all the responses, even Chuck took a swing and I thought that would never happen.

    So I read it again, and again, and again. Nope, not seeing the problem.

    Dave has been very consistent with his stance on guns in America:

    °We have them

    °We aren't going to get rid of them

    °We have to figure out how to accommodate that part of our national culture AND not worry about being at the wrong end of a massacre.

    That last is not a "gun control" statement, it's a "sociopath/psychopath control" statement, and that is what I think today's commentary is about and I agree with it.

    Most sociopaths are perfectly normal acting and law-abiding, and, without deep psychological analysis, can't be detected. So no sort of background check is not going to identify one. Additionally, many sociopaths also are high achievers and choose professions where they can have a high degree of control - corporate executives, politicians, law enforcement officers, members of the military. Not to say that all of these people are sociopaths (some might argue that) but SOME most certainly are. So I think Dave's final point is important, particularly regarding the types of arms that Dorner allegedly has.

    Regarding the Jefferson quote:

    Dave is a pretty smart guy, and I am willing to bet that he called up that "coolness of philosophers" quote from memory and mistakenly indicated that it was in the same letter. I am willing to cut him slack on that because his point is still a good one. Jefferson DID say both things and people DO tend to selectively grab quotes to justify their positions. However, I would add that Jefferson was talking about enabling the common man to resist tyranny while touting that all the effort that the Constitutional Congress put into the establishment of our government would enable the government to reflect the will of the people which would eliminate the risk of revolution. To Dave's point, I don't think that the collective thought would have made an impact on McVeigh or Dorner other than aggravate them. Particularly Dorner, who apparently believed that he relied on the "coolness" of the process in the LAPD and it let him down.

    Regarding Dave losing his edge:

    I think that he is getting his edge back after being saddled with Burbank for so long. Those two seem to feed off of each other and Dave began sounding very condescending all the time and encouraged Luke to be more of a raving liberal than I think he actually is. I think they are both better on their own and to that point, I think that this article didn't have that contrived sort of irony and self-important tone that Dave had fallen into in the past year or so.

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  • Citizen of Krazy Town wrote...
    OR....Maybe Dave is just trying to live up to his tag line....
    February 8, 2013 11:53 am
    TOO CRAZY TO IGNORE
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  • rational wrote...
    Citizen of Krazy Town
    February 8, 2013 5:30 pm
    Additionally, many sociopaths also are high achievers and choose professions where they can have a high degree of control - corporate executives, politicians, law enforcement officers, members of the military.

    Sometimes even presidents. Our current fits the description of a narcissistic sociopath quite closely.

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  • CH wrote...
    The Democrat Party is a dangerous cult?
    February 8, 2013 11:51 am
    The Republican cult is going to end as Jonestown did http://youtu.be/BP5JDz34cac
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  • CH wrote...
    Did they have assault rifles
    February 8, 2013 12:03 pm
    in the days of Thomas Jefferson? So King Obama has to update the 2nd amendment and ban all assault rifles! If you Republicans are such good hunters why do you need assault rifles?. I hunt with a sling shot and do just fine!
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  • happy happy joy joy wrote...
    CH
    February 8, 2013 1:12 pm
    Why do you always address Republicans when it comes to the "rights of the people"? The Second Amendment is not a Republican, Democrat, or whatever political parties right. It is OUR right, as in the people of the United States of Americas right. I have noticed that you and others on both sides do this often and it is very troubling. The "Bill of Rights" is not for one party to lay claim on, it is the "right of the people"...i.e. US. I have yet to hear anyone say that the Fourth Amendment is only for Democrats. Or that the First is only for Republicans. Why do people always address the Second Amendment as if it were Republican? As for so called "assault rifles" for hunting? Define an assault rifle. What makes a rifle an assault weapon? Is it a pistol grip that makes it an assault weapon? Or maybe the look and color. Where does it say in the United States Constitution that the right to bear arms is for hunting?
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  • CH wrote...
    "assault rifles"
    February 8, 2013 3:31 pm
    is a rifle or gun that can kill 7 kids at any one given time!! happy happy joy joy did Adam or Eve have Guns?
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    No guns for Adam or Eve, but........
    February 8, 2013 4:27 pm
    Cain had a rock that worked just fine on Abel. .....And I don't recall Timothy McVeigh having an assault rifle to kill all those kids in the OK City day care.
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  • rational wrote...
    Cain had a rock that worked just fine on Abel
    February 8, 2013 5:32 pm
    It was, in fact, an assault rock capable of killing quite a few people...it would never run out of bash.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    good observation.
    February 8, 2013 8:59 pm
    Had that assault rock been outlawed, Abel would be alive today.
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  • tlmbrt wrote...
    @ Dave Ross
    February 8, 2013 5:36 pm
    In this country, we are still innocent until proven guilty. This is NOT "Minority Report", where we punish people in advance of possibly committing a crime. You are insinuating that we can't trust even law abiding citizens to have guns, since one of them MIGHT one day snap. So you want to take away the rights of gun owners to MAYBE prevent a VERY TINY minority of them from using one in a crime? If we thought like that about EVERY possible thing or activity that could possibly kill people, we would live in a plastic bubble and never leave the house. Get REAL. Punish criminals, not everyone else!
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  • Regularjoe44 wrote...
    To answer your question Dave...
    February 8, 2013 6:25 pm
    ...a lot of them.... A whole lot of them.
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  • CH wrote...
    an assault rock
    February 8, 2013 7:03 pm
    is what republicans have on top of their shoulders.
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  • AKAF wrote...
    Yet, he is another Liberal hypocrite...see Dave
    February 9, 2013 1:08 am
    That believes gun control is needed but ignored those demands. Never mind that the latest gun murderers where done by, ouch...Dave...liberals or Democrats...should we regulate guns by party membership? Let the Republicans or conservatives have their guns...they are not committing the murders. The individuals committing the gun crimes are those that support the liberal, aka Democrat, political side. Forget the 'crazy side' of individuals but concentrate on political membership. Liberals shouldn't own guns!
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  • soo purletiv wrote...
    @ AKAF
    February 9, 2013 10:46 am
    Liberals shouldn't own guns!

    If that were true, Gangs would increase in numbers, 100 fold... ;-)

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    Actually, AKAF, they weren't
    February 9, 2013 12:15 pm
    Just another unchallenged myth you guys hear out in that echo chamber that is the right wing media. Here you go.

    1. Nidal Hasan (the Ft. Hood shooter) lived in either Virginia (his state of residence prior to being sent to Ft. Hood) or Texas, neither of which has partisan registration. Therefore the claim that he was a "registered Democrat" is false. I do not know if he voted or how he voted, but I do know that unless he was registered in a state in which he did not reside, that the claim that he is a registered Democrat is FALSE.

    2. Since Virginia does not have partisan registration there is also no way to tell whether Seung-Hui Cho was a Democrat, but again because there is no partisan registration in the state we can say that the claim that he is a registered Democrat is FALSE. (Update: A more obvious point is that Cho was a resident alien, not a US citizen, so he was not eligible to vote in the US)

    3. The allegation that James Holmes was registered Democrat was based on a Breitbart blogger Joel B. Pollack, who found voter registration records for a DIFFERENT James Holmes who was about the same age. Alex Jones’ Infowars and other right-wing websites then dutifully repeated the lie without verifying it. It was later determined that the Colorado Theater Shooter James Holmes was NOT registered to vote, as evidenced by this retraction: {Newly-released information on the suspect’s birthdate (which, as indicated in our initial report, was a slight mismatch), combined with new details Breitbart News has obtained about the suspect’s likely addresses, together suggest that the suspect may, in fact, not have been registered to vote.}. However, most of right-wing media continued to promote the lie without printing Breitbart sites retraction. The claim that James Holmes was a registered Democrat is FALSE.

    4. The claim that Adama Lanza is a registered Democrat has been suggested based not on any evidence that he was registered as one, but on the rather dubious claim that because Connecticut has almost 2 to 1 Democratic registration over Republicans, he was probably a Democrat. (Claim: "Adam Lanza, NewtownConn murderer. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about a 2-1 ratio in Connecticut. The odds are therefore that the Lanza family are (sic) Democrats.") This of course is a bogus argument to begin with, but even if we were to make the claim that a mass shooter’s political affiliation must be the same as the majority of the people in his area, we can debunk this foolish idea by taking this shoddy analysis down to the local level. Yes, Connecticut voted for Barack Obama, BUT the city of Newtown voted for Mitt Romney.

    5. Klebold and Harris of course were not old enough to vote and they had no apparent political affiliation. Allegations that they came from families of Democrats or liberal progressives appear to have no sources to substantiate those claims. What little ideology the boys demonstrated owed mostly to an admiration for Timothy McVeigh not Ted Kennedy. Harris’ father was a retired Air Force pilot and Eric Harris wanted to join the Marine Corps. The boys lived in Littleton, Colorado a relatively conservative and affluent suburb of Denver. The claim that their parents were Democrats is UNSUBSTANTIATED. Any suggestion that the two boys were Democrats is demonstrably FALSE.

    You are welcome, always glad to clear up the delusions you guy develop listening to Michael Savage.

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  • rational wrote...
    William Lawn
    February 9, 2013 1:54 pm
    I found your source (which you failed to cite) and it's not a reputable source. That doesn't mean the information is true or false, just your source is bogus. He later, for example, goes on to blame "right wing" for every murder committed by a racists and even tries to claim Jarold Lee Laughner is a right wing when he's a leftist who was angry that Giffords wasn't left wing enough. So, source fail there dude.
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  • circuitfr wrote...
    CH
    February 9, 2013 2:20 pm
    Hey, a revolver can kill 6 people pretty quick. He would of had to reload a 44 mag revolver 4 times to kill 30 people, (assuming he already had the first 6 rounds loaded) Considering no one was around to stop him and he had over 10 minutes, closer to 20 from the time he walked on the school, he would of killed just as many. A 44 mag would of done a better job too. What about a bolt action hunting rifle. My 30-06 can hold 3 rounds and 1 in the chamber. 4 rounds. Heck, let's say he manually fed one bullet each time, takes less than 5 seconds. Still would of easily killed just as many people with a hunting rifle in well under 10 minutes. Who was going to stop him? A knife, guns are all banned, he locks himself into a room with 20 kids and a small female teacher. Who is going to stop him? Who WHO WHO WHO WHO?
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  • William Lawn wrote...
    circuitfr, he was a little pusssssssy
    February 9, 2013 4:29 pm
    Anyone adult could have stopped him. He fired over 100 rounds. My math is that he would have had to reload 14 times with a revolver. You are making an assumption that every round hit. They didn't.

    You people are crazy.

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    Information comes from everywhere "dude"
    February 9, 2013 2:27 pm
    I checked some of his facts and he is absolutely correct.

    Go ahead, check if there is party affiliation registration in Texas and Virginia.

    Check if Bretbart did the retraction.

    Check if there is any factual proof that the Sandy Hook shooter was a REGISTERED DEMOCRAT

    And who was the source that all the killers were REGISTERED Democrats? And "leftists"?

    You people are so funny.

    oh and Laughner, Your source please?

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  • rational wrote...
    William Lawn
    February 10, 2013 12:20 am
    Information comes from everywhere "dude"

    It does, but if your source has false information on it then everything else should be suspect as well.

    But really, you're just playing semantics...you reference "registered" democrats. Is it your claim that 100% of progressives are registered democrats? I'd submit that would be absurd if that were your contention.

    As for Laughner, a former classmate named Caitie Parker provided insight into his political bent. And for the record, he was registered independant (going to denouce all independants now?). Parker said:

    ...he was very philosophical and leaned to the ‘left.’ She said, “For the Bush/Kerry election we all wore “1 term president” buttons. That election was HUGE to us.”

    according to Caitie, at the time she knew him, he was left wing, quite liberal, and “oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy.

    “We listened to political punk in high school & agreed with their leftist opinions for the most part. Anti-Flag was our band.”

    Look up Anti-flag and you'll find they are a radical leftist band.

    Bottom line, the guy was a ravining lunatic...just like many other progressives. He was without a doubt a leftist. That doesn't mean all leftists are killers. The problem is, the left is quick to try to pin all murders as being right wing, when they prove to not be right wing or actually left wing it's no longer a matter of politics but just a crazy person.

    Apparently the left believes all crazy people are left wing because when they think the person is right wing they never seem point to the person as insane.

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    He was a raving lunatic as are most killers
    February 10, 2013 9:48 am
    So the opinion of a single acquaintance is good enough for you? You are too funny.

    And you didn't even source it.

    If you review the comments posted by a number of people on this blog, and many others, that is EXACTLY how it is termed. REGISTERED Democrats.

    You have no proof that they are even "progressives".

    Somehow a radical Muslin in the military, an ex cop and military guy and a prepper up in Connecticut aren't normally associated with being "progressive". Unless it suits the distorted worldview that anyone not agreeing with your political philosophy has a good chance of being "a raving lunatic".

    As you clearly stated above.

    You are a lunatic.

    Dude

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  • soo purletiv wrote...
    Something tells me
    February 10, 2013 11:56 am
    that rational and William Lawn are not going to be exchanging Christmas cards this next December...
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  • rational wrote...
    William Lawn
    February 10, 2013 2:23 pm
    Actually, I did source it...I cited the person who made the statement. You can look it up for yourself...the quotes are all over the internet.

    And you're the one who is insane because I specifically stated the opposite of what you're claiming I said. When you resort to lies you've lost the debate. This comes as no shocker as it's your typical MO on this board.

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  • William Lawn wrote...
    You did not source it
    February 11, 2013 9:08 pm
    You did a cut and paste, exactly what you criticized me for doing.

    So bummer dude, I didn't lose anything.

    But I do agree when you self proclaim victory, you haven't won anything.

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