The right-wing blogosphere is upset because dozens of protesters -- yes, dozens! in a metropolitan area with at least 16 million people! -- showed up yesterday at LAPD headquarters to back Christopher Dorner's charges of police misconduct:
Those gathered said they were protesting police corruption and the way the massive manhunt for Dorner was conducted....Now, personally, I wouldn't want to associate myself in any way with a guy who murdered people who'd done no harm to him and threatened to murder more. But that's what these people did. It's a free country.
Protesters also said they were appalled by police mistakenly shooting at passengers in two separate trucks in Torrance, wrongly believing Dorner might be in the vehicles. One woman was shot in the back and is still recovering.
The protesters emphasized that they did not condone the killings of which Dorner is accused.
And if right-wingers think this demonstrates a level of depravity peculiar to (a small number of) people on the left, let me bring the righties back to 2003:
Betty Howard made many people happy today, and it was not for her daily special. Around noon, Mrs. Howard walked outside, glanced up at the sign in front of her diner and decided to change the lettering on the marquee from "Roast Turkey Baked Ham" to "Pray for Eric Rudolph."
"Bless his heart," Mrs. Howard said. "Eric needs our help."
Mrs. Howard said she was going to start an Eric Rudolph legal defense fund. Many customers have already said they would chip in.
A day after the authorities finally collared Eric R. Rudolph, the 36-year-old phantom survivalist who had been wanted for five years in connection with the bombing at the 1996 Olympics and attacks on abortion clinics, it is becoming clearer how fiercely loyal this community is to him, and how that might complicate the case.
With Mr. Rudolph in jail, the investigation is shifting to who in this rugged corner of western North Carolina might have helped him. And there may be no shortage of suspects....
While most of his supporters cite his anti-abortion views, a popular stance in many rural, conservative areas, they gloss over the most notorious charge against Mr. Rudolph, that he set off a pipe bomb in a random crowd at the Summer Olympics.
"I didn't see him bomb nobody," said Hoke Henson, 77. "You can't always trust the feds." ...
Also see this 2003 post from the still-popular right-wing site News with Views:
RUN, RUDY, RUN(Oh, and of course Sarah Palin, back in 2008, happily described William Ayers as a terrorist on many occasions, but when asked whether abortion-clinic bombers deserved the same designation, said, "I don't know if you're going to use the word terrorist there.")
I don't know if Eric Rudolph did all the terrible things they say he did, but I have my doubts.
Apparently, all those people who wore tee shirts bearing the message "Run, Rudy, Run" have had their doubts as well. Short of a confession by the man, I'll continue to hold on to those doubts....
Is this just a case of law enforcement feeling like fools because a simple country boy had eluded them all these years?
What should be cause for concern for all Americans is the way they've described this man: "...he studied the Bible, believed the United Nations was usurping U.S. sovereignty, held anti-government sentiment...was an anti-abortion crusader...questioned the Holocaust...was anti-gay, anti-foreigner" to name just a few of the phrases labeling him in the press. Here we go again- paint the man with those colors and he's...guilty!...
Start praying all you "Bible-studying, anti-government, U.N.-bashing" zealots- those descriptions could mean you're the main suspects in unsolved crimes.
Yeah, righties would never go easy on a guy who killed two and injured 150, then became a fugitive from justice. They're better than we are!
