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.
I’ve only seen this once in my life, when I was visiting Paris, and the cops were casually lounging around with rifles.
In America, generally a cop will carry a pistol, and keep rifles or shotguns in their car (in the trunk).
Are you sure they were cops? We’ve had soldiers patrolling on and off since the terrorist attacks, and I don’t think French cops carry anything other than handguns during their normal shift.
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.
Doesn’t sound like you’d need to if the cops are running around with that kind of fire power in their cars.
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.
I went to London which now feels like over two decades ago and was told they only have batons… Like 7 out of 10 cops had MP5s strapped casually to the side of them. Looking back I am like maybe 9/11 response? But that’s still like a couple years after. I don’t know, coming from the US I thought that was crazy. Some of our cops have shotguns usually, and in some towns, rifles in their car, and they are almost never used.
Had this same experience when I visited London 20+ years ago. Turns out it was the opening of Parliament that brought out all the MP5s according to the staff at the hotel.
Yeah, those were special forces (was it after those terrorist attacks?).
I don’t know of any country in Europe where caps would keep rifles or shotguns in cars.
Paris, like many big European cities, is a major terrorist target. It’s been hit numerous times, so they’re a bit on edge there. When the alert level is high, you’ll see military patrols as well. Although the effectiveness of those is dubious.