The internet really does reach into some remote places. Who would ever have imagined that you could view multiple live helicopter news video feeds while simultaneously monitoring multiple law enforcement radio communications. This was easily the most spectacular "reality" event ever broadcast.
As my wife and I sat watching the scene unfold on television last night, I was able to listen in on the radio communications of the officers on the ground who had surrounded Dorner in the cabin. Here I was, in my living room nearly 2,000 miles away, viewing the helicopter video feed on television while listening to live police radio communications on the internet.
Anyone listening would have heard in real time the search for Dorner and the chase, then frantic calls of "officer down officer down," "medic ship is in the air" and "deputies still down in the kill zone." At one point I commented to my wife how embarrassing this is going to be for mainstream media. Their information was waaay behind what I knew was actually happening via the scanner feed, and what they were reporting had that fuzzy, unclear message that you get when the news is passed from someone, who is not quite sure what to say, to someone to someone else, then to a camera man who passes it to a reporter who tells it to a producer who passes it to another producer who re-languages the words for the on-air news anchor. It's no wonder we roll our eyes at most news reports these days.
And then the media was ordered to "stand down." They promptly complied by pulling their helicopters out of visual range of the scene. They knew as well as I did what was coming next, and didn't have the guts to let their viewers witness the truth. That's called complicity, and they are guilty. At this point I had one of those moments where you get that "tingly" feeling on the back of your neck and you know what's going to happen even before it does, and I said to my wife, "they're going to burn him to death". And they did.
A few minutes later I overheard the words “The burners are deployed, and we have a fire.” "Burners" are police slang for tear-gas canisters, with good reason as they are well known to start fires wherever they are used. It's common for tactical units to have Fire Department units on scene when they may be using tear gas. They'd used multiple "burners" to start the house on fire. And being that an active shooter was in the home, Fire Department units were safely away from the scene. Moments later the old wood cabin was engulfed in flames.
Here's some of what was overheard and captured from the police scanner feeds:
OFFICER: “Fucking burn this motherfucker”
OFFICER: “Alright, we’re gonna go ahead with the plan with the burners”
OFFICER: “Copy”
OFFICER: “Like we talked about”
OFFICER: “The burners are deployed, and we have a fire”
DISPATCHER: "Copy, burners are deployed, and we have a fire
OFFICER: "cabin is starting to collapse.”The cabin was a smoldering heap of ash before the mainstream media even knew what was happening. Ten minutes later CNN's Anderson Cooper: "Hey, what's all that smoke from?" DUH.
And here we are the morning after, all of us talking about what happened. As details emerge of what transpired during this entire spectacle, there is going to be plenty of media spin. The high-fives at LAPD lasted about 10 minutes before everyone there began to face the mess that needs to be cleaned up. It's the morning after and you can be damn sure those that need to be are in meetings getting their stories straight and making decisions on how this is going to be messaged to the media. Some are gonna eat shit sandwiches, others will be promoted.
My own thoughts: This was handled badly by the LAPD from the start. The ensuing LAPD panic resulted in the shooting of three civilians when officers opened fire on two different pickup trucks because they thought they looked kinda like Dorner's vehicle. Lesson learned: the cops aren't as cool and well trained as they would have you believe. As a result the LAPD with the help of the media have turned Chris Dorner into a false hero for those who believe that police departments are secret organizations that are out of control and our oppressive government will crush anyone that tries to reveal any secrets. This story is going to give us plenty to talk about in the upcoming weeks.
UPDATE: Seems the media is very aware of internet links to radio scanners today. I predict the news media will take a page from NASCAR's playbook and be ready to go with radio scanner technology for future coverage of events like we saw last night.
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