Since the manhunt for former police officer turned cop-killer Chris Dorner started, the establishment media has expressed shock and confusion at the level of animosity directed at the Los Angeles Police Department. Some have even equated this animosity with support for Dorner’s killing spree.

In a piece titled “Fugitive’s Rant Puts Focus on Evolving LAPD Legacy, the Associated Press reports, that Dorner’s vendetta “comes at a time when it’s widely held that the police department has evolved well beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial.” And what is the evidence for this apparent evolution? It’s that “Whites now make up roughly a third of the department and, while under federal authority, LAPD moved to require anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose their finances and worked on new tools to track officer conduct.”

The AP should tell that to the family of 36-year-old Jose de la Trinidad, an unarmed Latino father of two who was shot dead in November by two Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies.

The Sheriff’s department tried to cover it up, claiming that the officers opened fire because de la Trinidad reached for his waist to obtain what they believed was a gun. Little did they know that a nearby resident saw the entire thing from her bedroom window. She told investigators that de la Trinidad was complying with police orders, with his hands over his head and his back turned, when he was shot several times in the back execution style. Police initially denied they ever interviewed the witness until they were grilled by the media and forced to admit they did.

On top of that, de la Trinidad’s autopsy report was released last week showing that he was indeed shot in the back. He leaves behind a wife, Rosanna, and two daughters ages 3 and 6. Three days after her husband was killed, Rosanna asked, “How am I supposed to explain to my daughters that their father was murdered by the police, the people who they are supposed to go to for protection.”

Perhaps Rosanna’s daughter’s will feel better knowing that, as the AP so kindly reminds us, “Whites now make up roughly a third of the department and, while under federal authority, LAPD moved to require anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose their finances and worked on new tools to track officer conduct.”

Southern California law enforcement may be more racially diverse, but that doesn’t mean their culture of violence towards poor black and brown communities has changed nor has the “code of silence” that protects trigger-happy officers who are almost never disciplined for their actions.

For example, nothing has happened to the eight LAPD officers who fired more than 90 rounds at unarmed 19-year-old Abdul Arian as he ran away following a car chase last year. An LAPD internal probe deemed the 2010 police killing of Steven Eugene Washington, a 27-year-old unarmed autistic black man, justified as well. The LAPD officers who in 2011 shot and killed 25-year-old Reggie Doucet, naked and unarmed at the time, were also cleared of any wrongdoing. The LAPD has yet to even release the name of a man who police shot and killed in October as he was handcuffed and lying on the ground face down.

In all of these cases police claimed the suspect was reaching for his waistband (except in the case of naked Reggie Doucet who they say reached for the officer’s gun) and like magic their actions were justified.

Then there’s the LAPD’s latest scandal involving an elite gang unit that promoted brutality and celebrated shootings. Last year, the Los Angles Times outed the existence of the “Jump Out Boys“, a secret group formed by seven LA Sheriff’s Department deputies and, according to Voxxi, “prides itself on aggressive policing, much of it in Latino communities, and brands its members with matching tattoos of a red-eyed oversized skull bearing the clique acronym and a bony hand holding a revolver.

Though the seven officers are being fired, Voxxi notes that it’s not “for any known criminal behavior but apparently for tarnishing the department’s reputation and unethical conduct at a time when it is struggling through a federal investigation.”

It’s no wonder poor communities and communities of color see the LAPD as a threat to be feared rather than the angelic department of do-gooders portrayed in the media. Meanwhile, despite all the brutality, killing and cover-ups, the corporate media can’t seem to understand why a large number of people dislike the LAPD even as they’re being hunted by one of their own.

This confusion is illustrated best by the AP, which portrays a Facebook page as supportive of Dorner despite an explicit statement to the contrary:

On Friday, a community of online sympathizers formed, echoing complaints against police that linger in some communities. One Facebook page supporting Dorner, which had over 2,300 fans by Friday evening, said “this is not a page about supporting the killing of innocent people. It’s supporting fighting back against corrupt cops and bringing to light what they do.”

It is possible to both denounce Chris Dorner’s actions while also acknowledging the many truths in his critique of the LAPD. The establishment media doesn’t seem to get this. Instead, they see any agreement with Dorner’s assessment as tantamount to backing the murder of police officers, a mentality that’s not only foolish but also indifferent to the people who have suffered at the hands of police violence.

It’s easy to attribute a shooting rampage to the lunacy of a deranged individual, which for the most part is correct. But dismissing his motives ensures that the systemic cultural factors that led him to such cold desperation will continue.