Not a hero, Not a movie - Same ole story...

Not too long ago, Americans turned the likes of Jesse James, into a hero still venerated to this day. A white supremacist, Dixie veteran who killed, raped and robbed for years became a romantic knight of the old west. When I was recently asked if I wanted to watch Django Unchained, my reply was hesitant, not because I don't like action flicks - but because that paradigm is still alive and well in today's hegemony of white power. Django, I reasoned, could happen today - and it wouldn't be fun or exciting. I don't like living my fantasies of liberatory actions through imaginary heros - I prefer to take my own risks en carne y hueso. As Dorner has most certainly become a folk hero to some, the sad reality is that his actions have changed very little. In fact, just as the system had once consumed and spit him out - it has again done the same. Life is normal, work continues, and the hegemony is securely in place. The lone ranger accomplished little more than spit in the face of the giant. Elsewhere, black and brown kids are still being shot at, fondled by priests and beaten by cops. But this, is America.  There is a popular t-shirt common at Native American powwows these days with a picture of Goyahkla (Geronimo) with a phrase underneath it that says, "My heros have always killed cowboys."  In an unjust world, the authorized use of force and violence as a tool for social regulation will always have an element of collateral damage - both from within and without. Dorner was trained to kill, and trained to use force to achieve his ends - not by his parents or community - but by the United States government.  Fault must lie with a system that relies upon trained assassins to regulate "peace" in a community of families. Dorner is no hero - he is nothing but the product of a militarized police apparatus gone berserk.  Organized social struggle, in all of its forms, deliberate and sporadic, is still the path of human liberation - our heros are born of these struggles.

P.S.

In the meantime, what are we left to believe about a police force conspiring to instill fear as judge, jury and executioner? The LA Times reports that,

"With the cabin's interior exposed, the officer got on the radio to others awaiting his order. "We're going to go forward with the plan, with the burner," the unidentified officer said, according to a recording of police radio transmissions reviewed by The Times.

"The burner" was shorthand for a grenade-like canister containing a more powerful type of tear gas than had been used earlier. Police use the nickname because of the intense heat the device gives off, which often causes a fire.

"Seven burners deployed," another officer responded several seconds later, according to the transmission which has circulated widely among law enforcement officials. 'And we have a fire.' "  (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dorner-fire-20130215,0,5831477.story)

Only 27 years ago, in 1985, Philadelphia Police bombed the headquarters of a radical African organization in that city, "killing six adults and five children destroying 65 homes in the neighborhood," (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOU5fqRU6Kg). On this "day of infamy" and police plan to commit a "massacre" with impunity, the institution of policing set a very clear template for police action when facing an armed African in a wooden structure. 

Seven burners deployed,

One for every century of shame,

seven burners ignite,

only one man left that night.

No judge to wake, 

no jury to complicate.

Execute the plan before the dawn's new light.

Before cameras shoot, and truth be known,

burn the black man, there's nowhere left to hide.

"And we have a fire" ... 

Let the boy scouts know its safe again,

break out the s'mores, maybe we'll win a patch for stealth,

as we watch him burn to death.