State officials also vowed to hold police officers accountable for misconduct. In July, a new state law took effect that requires the state’s Department of Justice to investigate police shootings that result in the death of unarmed people and decide whether to prosecute the officers involved. The department is investigating last week’s shooting in accordance with that law, officials announced.
But many efforts at reforming law enforcement practices have fizzled as leaders in Los Angeles and across California have scrambled to address fears of rising violent crime and anxiety provoked by a wave of high-profile “flash mob” robberies at high-end stores.
This year, Mr. Garcetti and the City Council backed a modest increase in funding for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month unveiled a $350 million proposal to crack down on crime, with most of the money going to local law enforcement agencies. The same day, San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, declared a state of emergency aimed at cleaning up the “nasty streets” of the Tenderloin district, breaking with the liberal conventions that have shaped the city’s governance for decades.
Progressive activists in Los Angeles have described those declarations as a disheartening reversal.
“Nothing has changed,” said Albert Corado, whose sister was shot and killed by police officers during a standoff at a Trader Joe’s in 2018, an incident with grim parallels to the latest shooting in North Hollywood. “It’s all, ‘Spin the narrative and make it so the police don’t have to be held accountable.’”
Mr. Corado said he felt compelled to return home to Los Angeles from Minneapolis where he had been living when his sister, Melyda Corado, an assistant manager at the Trader Joe’s, was killed by a stray bullet as police exchanged gunfire with a man they had been pursuing.
The officers involved did not face charges related to Ms. Corado’s death.
Mr. Corado is now running for the Los Angeles City Council in hopes of working to dismantle the city’s police department, an agency that he said is too fundamentally flawed to be repaired.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/us/14-year-old-girl-shooting-los-angeles.html
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