He told the story of an officer who testified at the King trial as an expert on the use of force. The man said he believed the officers had, indeed, employed excessive force. His photo was tacked up at the police academy, and it became tradition for any officer who passed by to spit on it, Braun said.

"They've changed enormously, but you're still going to have pockets of this," he added. "You're still going to have individuals who are throwbacks. You're still going to have the culture of cover-up. A group that's fighting together and under siege, they're going to stick together."

Dorner demanded justice and an apology, and vowed that police blood will flow until he gets them. The manifesto names some 40 people he claims have wronged him. He wrote that he does not expect to survive his vengeful rampage.

Last weekend, a couple was found shot to death in Irvine, a suburban Orange County community south of Los Angeles that is home to a college campus. Investigators tied the slayings to Dorner; his manifesto seems to confirm the connection: It says the slain woman's father represented Dorner, unsuccessfully, at a hearing before an LAPD disciplinary committee in 2008.

So far, the bloodshed seems to be taking place outside the city limits. It covers a wide area around Los Angeles, with incidents reported from San Diego in the south to the mountain resort of Big Bear in the east. Three Riverside police officers were shot, one fatally, by a man police say was Dorner.

His beef might be with the LAPD, but no one in law enforcement can feel safe while he is on the run.

Others have threatened to target LAPD cops in the past -- gang members, for the most part. But Dorner is no gang-banger. He's a veteran trained to kill by the military and by his one-time employer, the police.

He threatens payback by violent, unconventional means: "This is my last resort. The LAPD has suppressed the truth and it has now led to deadly consequences," he wrote.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck dismissed the allegations in Dorner's manifesto. "You're talking about a homicide suspect who has committed atrocious crimes," he said, adding that he was not inclined to give credence to his "ramblings on the Internet." As for any apology, well, Dorner shouldn't hold his breath, Beck said.

People who have invested years watching the LAPD -- including attorneys, legal analysts and the Los Angeles Times reporters who have covered the department -- say it has indeed changed since the early 1990s. But they also agree that its past is fertile territory for anyone with a grudge against the department.

Times editor-at-large Jim Newton covered the LAPD as it struggled with the fallout from the King beating and the years of study, oversight and reform that followed. He was the paper's lead reporter during the O.J. Simpson murder trial, when the defense put the LAPD on trial and Simpson was acquitted.

Dorner's manifesto "doesn't reflect any larger cultural truth about LAPD," Newton wrote in an e-mail.

Andrew Blankstein, the paper's current LAPD reporter, agreed. "Every organization is going to have rogues," he said. "But what can you believe from somebody who is homicidal? Obviously, anybody with grievances has a long, well-publicized history of the LAPD to pick at."

Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, has watched the LAPD and its high-profile controversies during the era that includes King, Simpson and Rampart. She also believes the LAPD has changed, even if it is not perfect.

"The LAPD has come a long way, but it still has its detractors," she wrote in an e-mail. "Ironically, the person who is most set on destroying it is one of their own. The Rodney King and Rampart scandals brought to light racism and corruption that had existed in the department. It is easy for someone with their own vendetta against the department to tap into these past episodes and make the LAPD a target."

But, she added, the tactic is likely to backfire.

"In the end," Levenson said, "he is probably just creating more sympathy and support for the people he loathes."

CNN's Ann O'Neill covered the Rampart police corruption trial in 2000 as a reporter for The Los Angeles Times.