The California Justice Department announced today that it has found no cause to file chargesagainst a Los Angeles police officer who, while aiming at a suspect, shot and killed a 14-year-old girl hiding in a department store fitting room.

Fourteen-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta was picking out a quinceanera dress with her mother just before Christmas in 2021. She was shot and killed by a bullet that ricocheted off the floor.

  • quindraco
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    2 months ago

    Oh, that’s possible. I tend to instinctively assume American rules wherever I go since they’re what I know, and we virtually never deploy our military domestically, so I wouldn’t have thought to try to distinguish cops from the military.

    • activ8r@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      we virtually never deploy our military domestically

      Doesn’t sound like you’d need to if the cops are running around with that kind of fire power in their cars.

      • quindraco
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        To be clear in case I wasn’t, I was referring to semiautomatic firearms. In general, only the military will carry fully automatic weapons around as a matter of course. Similarly, I’m referring to (relatively) lower caliber than the military - I wouldn’t expect a cop to casually carry around a rifle chambered in .50, although I certainly would expect a shotgun for e.g. breaching a door when necessary.