Saturday, February 16, 2013

Dorner's Problems

I was reluctant to attribute  to mental illness what might simply have been evil.  Now I see various experts acknowledging what had been in my thoughts.  From the February 7, 2013 Los Angeles Daily News:

His chilling statements, found on his Facebook page, portray a deeply intelligent and opinionated man, one who promotes gay rights and gun control, but whose mind has unraveled, likely due to mental illness, paranoia and possibly unresolved trauma, experts said Thursday.

"It's not about him being against law enforcement," said Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice at Cal State San Bernardino and a former LAPD officer.

"We're talking about someone who basically perceives that a tremendous injustice has been done to him that took his life and his identity," Levin said. "Now he's at war."
The article goes on to point out that it appears that what drove Dorner over the edge was his dismissal as commander of a Naval Reserve security force about a month before these events. I also notice that Dorner was 33, which means that he was in the high risk age range at the time of his dismissal from LAPD.

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