I bet the gun used in this hold up of a news crew in Oakland was NOT registered, probably stolen. Think this robbery will be a wake up call to the news media in the city which is the 5th worst dangerous city in America that they need police. I bet the TV station called the cops—though since the station has not been supporting the rule of law, nor editorializing that Oakland is dangerous because they took $17 million from the police budget and are using it for social workers and academic theories, this was to be expected.
“A pair of robbers in Oakland, California, held up a television news crew at gunpoint just hours after the city’s police chief warned of safety concerns following officials’ decision to slash his department’s budget by more than $18 million, police said.
The news crew was filming an interview with the city’s director of violence prevention outside City Hall around 3 p.m. local time Monday when two armed suspects tried to take their camera, the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. A scuffle broke out and a private security guard, contracted by the news agency, pulled out his gun and told the robbers to leave.
Note the news crew had PRIVATE security to protect it—they could not count on the police.
The California news crew was filming an interview when 2 armed suspects tried to take their camera
By Stephanie Pagones | Fox News, 6/30/21
Oakland, California Chief of Police Leronne Armstrong on big cities’ crime spiking as lawmakers defund the police.
A pair of robbers in Oakland, California, held up a television news crew at gunpoint just hours after the city’s police chief warned of safety concerns following officials’ decision to slash his department’s budget by more than $18 million, police said.
The news crew was filming an interview with the city’s director of violence prevention outside City Hall around 3 p.m. local time Monday when two armed suspects tried to take their camera, the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. A scuffle broke out and a private security guard, contracted by the news agency, pulled out his gun and told the robbers to leave.
The suspects fled without the camera and no one was hurt, police said.
At the time, the crew was interviewing Guillermo Cespedes, head of the city’s Department of Violence Prevention, the police department confirmed.
The robbery attempt occurred just hours after Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong asked City Council members to put “politics aside” and place people’s lives “before political agendas” when speaking about their decision to cut the department’s budget by $18 million.
“Far too often in these meetings we are talking about numbers. We are talking about money and costs,” Armstrong said at the time. “I don’t know what the cost of a life is. But I know not having resources makes our city less safe.”
Much of the funds will be diverted to the Department of Violence Prevention, which was created in 2017 with the goal of decreasing homicides by 80% over three years, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The city has recorded 65 homicides so far in 2021, compared to the 35 counted at this time last year, the department said.
Speaking exclusively to “Fox News Primetime” on Tuesday, Armstrong said he did not believe that the city needed to “reduce police forces in order to achieve safety.”
“We believe that we need more resources to address the high spike in crime in the city of Oakland,” the city’s top cop said, “and that’s really what I have been asking for – more support and resources to address the serious issue we are facing here.”
