Got to wonder about a few things...where was the neat infrared stuff they always seem to have, for finding bodies, trapped people, etc.? Could one of those devices have been used to detertmine if he was alone in the cabin?
Nobody is saying anything about that....
also, just fyi, fire has been a preferred weapon against a barricaded enemy for thousands of years, probably about as long as we have had fire.
And that is what Dorner was, an enemy. Not just a lawbreaker who had to be caught, but an enemy who had to be stopped. And after all, the whole point of shooting teargas (and causing a fire) is to drive them out. If they choose to stay and die, is that the police's fault? (note, that is just an opinion, and you are quite welcome to have a different one)
Now, did the police act ..hastily in this case? That's for the armchair experts to decide. But I expect nothing worse than a review, and possibly a policy change, at most.
Using tear gas canisters that are called "burners" and then claiming you had no intention of a fire starting is kind of stupid, though....
police ought to use the gentlest methods practical, but they are not required to do so. Any such requirement would put officers at unacceptable risks too often. Do the police go to far, sometimes? Yes. Do people think they go to far sometimes? Yes. That's why there are police brutality lawsuits.
He's dead. Confirmed. In a few days, it will be gone from the public view. Maybe a few people will call the cops to task over the specific procedure used, but they got the guy, cop killer and madman, so in the end, it will blow over. Not what I think ought to happen, but what will happen in the real world.
Has everyone forgotten the fact that "Wanted, Dead or Alive" is not just a TV show? No, we don't want the power of legal summary execution in the hands of the police, but we also want the really bad people stopped, and stopped conclusively.
Setting fire to the cabin alone didn't kill him, he could have come out. At least, that's a plausible argument. Not quite the same as using armored vehicles to smash in the building, trapping women & children inside for the fire to finish off....that was so wrong....
What happened to the people who ordered and did that? Nada. Same thing will happen to them here...
Another point, and one that for which there will never be any kind of official acknowledgement, they had to resolve this situation before certain people turned him into any more of a folk hero/martyr than they have already done.
Fire often settles things quite well.....
