I suspect there is a lot more to Mr. Dorner than meets the eye. Ponder these things:
1) Born in New York and raised in Los Angeles would be typical for a leftist-liberal. However, for college he went to Southern Utah University, nicknamed “Brigham Young University South”, a mostly Mormon, ultra-conservative college, where students sign a no-alcohol pledge and prayer is mandatory.
For a leftist-liberal, this would be hell itself, but he did quite well, earning a degree in *political science*, with a minor in *psychology*. Both subjects worthy of note.
2) In the US Navy Reserves he became a Lieutenant (O-3), equivalent to an Army Captain. It also means his job performance was good enough to be promoted twice, and to voluntarily stay on for 11 years, even though he could have left after 4.
3) In the US Navy Reserves his two primary assignments was harbor and port underwater security, and riverine (patrol boat) operations. Though stationed in Bahrain, both of these jobs can involve combat, maybe a lot of combat.
Dorner is the recipient of the following military citations:
National Defense Service Medal
Iraq Campaign Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon
Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon
Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” device
Navy Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon
Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal
4) Getting employed by the ultra liberal, politically correct and thoroughly corrupt LAPD must have been a shock. He had disciplinary problems of a type you would expect from somebody with a very rigorous moral background.
5) His “manifesto” is very questionable. This is where the political science and psychology come into play. He would have known exactly what would happen when this got out.
The LAPD was thoroughly corrupt long before it was ultra-liberal or politically correct (assuming it's those things now).
Some of his complaints are those young cops would have had with the old, anything but liberal LAPD.
He had disciplinary problems of a type you would expect from somebody with a very rigorous moral background.
There is some of that, but he also complains a lot about racism.
Crazy people can't always be pidgeonholed politically or ideologically. They can be all over the ordinary ideological map or completely off it.
Dorner is more political than the other shooters we've heard about recently, but his problems (so far as I can tell) go deeper than politics or ideology.
FWIW - Southern Utah U seems to have been an unpleasant experience for him - he didn’t like being one of the few blacks there and he developed a strong antipathy for Mormons.
Maybe that is why he ended up so pro-gay? Because of the Mormons and Prop 18, enemy of my enemy and all that?
He’s a smart enough guy - he should have known what he was getting into. He didn’t like being one of the few blacks in his elementary school either.