Gun violence has been a longstanding issue in the United States for years. However, it is now proving to be more prevalent than ever.
Valentina Orellana-Peralta was a 14-year-old girl who was lethally shot by a Los Angeles police officer in the chest while shopping with her mother for her quinceanera dress on December 23, 2021. She was the victim of a stray bullet in the dressing room of a Burlington store in the North Hollywood neighborhood. According to BBC News, “Soledad Peralta wept as she described begging officers to help treat her injured daughter, saying they had ‘just left her laying there.'”
On December 23, 2021, someone dialed 911 because police were needed to deal with a “hostile customer…attacking customers” and “breaking things,” using a bike lock. In the bodycam footage released by the LAPD, viewers see one officer telling the officer going to the assailant to “hold up, hold up Jones. Hold up, hold up.” The officer, clearly told to wait, still went ahead and shot at the assailant without control resulting in an innocent life lost. Based on CNN, the officer whose bullet resulted in the murder of Valentina Orellana-Peralta is simply on “paid administrative leave, per department protocols for officer-involved shootings, for at least two weeks.”
The Los Angeles Police Department is supposed to protect and serve, but it did not protect Valentina Orellana-Peralta. Instead, it is responsible for her death. Sadly, this isn’t the only case where unnecessary violence occurred. According to everytownresearch.org, more than 1,000 people are shot and killed by the American police every year. In addition, 95% of civilian deaths at the hands of the police are by a firearm.
In the US, there are over 400 million guns. At least 32% of the US population owns guns. About 40,000 people a year die from firearms. If the police can’t control guns, how are civilians supposed to? The police are supposed to be role models, who the citizens are to take as inspiration. This incident shows the truth: we must enforce gun reform in the police force for our safety, and it is long overdue.
Works Cited
CNN, C. M., Sarah Moon and Topher Gauk-Roger. (2021, December 28). Los Angeles police release videos from fatal shooting of 14-year-old girl who was in store dressing room. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/27/us/lapd-teen-killed-dressing-room-valentina-orellana-peralta/index.html
English, William, 2021 National Firearms Survey (July 14, 2021). Georgetown McDonough School of Business Research Paper No. 3887145, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3887145 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3887145
Gun Violence by Police. (2020). Everytown Research & Policy. https://everytownresearch.org/issue/gun-violence-by-police/LAPD release video of 14-year-old girl’s fatal shooting. (2021, December 28). Www.youtube.com; Reuters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9agCaWUlBE