(CNN) -- There's a killer on the loose and Los Angeles is on edge -- again. This jaded city has witnessed every variety of killing, from Charles Manson and his helter-skelter spree to the Night Stalker's deadly nocturnal prowling and the random strikes of the Hillside Strangler, the Freeway Killer and the Grim Sleeper. This one is different: The suspect is an ex-cop with an ax to grind, and he's allegedly targeting other cops. This one crosses the blue line, the one cops think separates the good guys from the bad. This one picks at one of L.A.'s barely healed scabs, the scandals of the Los Angeles Police Department.
@highlight
Suspect Christopher Dorner's manifesto says he is waging war against "corrupt" LAPD
@highlight
Lawyers, analysts, others say the department has improved since earlier scandals
@highlight
Rodney King beating, Rampart evidence-planting scandals led to court oversight, reforms
@highlight
Dorner trained to be an officer, but LAPD alleged he filed a false report of excessive force
Los Angeles Police Department
LAPD
LAPD
At the time, officials spoke of an enlightened era in which the new @placeholder could investigate the old LAPD.
Rodney King
"The department has not changed since the Rampart and @placeholder days," he wrote.
Rodney King
The inquiry documented a culture in which cops openly talked with each other about beating suspects -- "attitude adjustments," they called it -- and labeled a group of African-Americans as "gorillas in the mist," a popular movie title during the @placeholder era.
Rampart
Six years after the riots, another scandal exposed more corruption and even deeper cover-ups, implicating members of an elite anti-gang unit at the LAPD's @placeholder, home to some of the city's most vicious gangs.
Christopher Dorner
Dorner
He said he believes there might be a grain of truth to @placeholder's allegations of a cover-up.
Christopher Dorner
Dorner
He said he thinks that may have been what set @placeholder off.
Christopher Dorner
Dorner
Investigators tied the slayings to @placeholder; 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.