Earlier this week, an attempted armed robbery took place outside of city hall in Oakland, California. The news crew was interviewing the city’s Department of Violence Prevention Chief, Guillermo Cespedes, about the city’s skyrocketing crime when armed robbers tried stealing the TV camera.
According to the East Bay Times, an armed security guard thwarted the would-be robbers.
“I think Oakland deserves better,” Cespedes told NBC Bay Area reporters as the robbers attempted to steal the station’s camera equipment.
“Our colleagues were conducting an interview at Oakland City Hall when they were approached by two armed individuals,” NBC Bay Area spokeswoman Liza Catalan NBC Bay Area told The Washington Post. “Thankfully, our colleagues are safe and unharmed.”
The robbery took place just hours after the Oakland City Council voted to further “defund the police,” diverting $18 million in funding from cops on the beat to “violence prevention” initiatives. It’s a move that Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong rightfully took issue with.
During a press conference following the council’s decision, Armstrong talked about the “crisis” the city faces:
“Today, we find ourselves in a crisis,” Armstrong said. “We find ourselves reeling from a weekend of violence where we have seen four homicides over a three-day period … Our shootings are up over 70% compared to last year. Our robberies are up 11% this year. There’s been 1,300 robberies in this city already this year.”
“Our carjackings are up nearly 88%. So we see clearly that crime is out of control in the city of Oakland and our response was for less police resources,” he explained. “When City Council members, the majority have voted to defund this police department, that additional $17 million that was reduced from the police department’s budget will have an impact.”
Cuts to the budget are likely to eliminate 50 vacant openings in the department, Oakland Police Officers Association President Barry Donela told CBS San Francisco.
According to The Washington Post, this isn’t the first time a camera crew in Oakland and surrounding cities thwarted would-be robberies:
Another NBC Bay Area crew was robbed in February by two people who pulled up in a Lexus and told the reporters they had concealed weapons.
In March, a cameraman for KPIX was reporting on car break-ins in San Francisco when a luxury white sedan suddenly pulled up. Three men jumped out and demanded the journalist’s camera gear at gunpoint.
A month later, another reporter for the station was pepper-sprayed during an attempted robbery. The security guard with that crew chased the assailants, until the man carrying the camera was struck by their getaway car. He dropped the camera and fled.
Scenarios like this are a prime example of why defunding the police is a progressive fantasy and bogus “crime prevention” departments don’t work. The notion that you can reason with a thug and talk them down from committing a crime is asinine and unrealistic.
Employing reason and logic in the face of armed criminal action is a waste of breath at best and suicidal at worst. Those who have their eyes set on stealing or harming others will do just that. And cutting the number of police officers is a good way to get more of this, not less.
When a city makes major cuts to law enforcement agencies, city officials put a giant target on residents’ backs. They’re effectively saying, “Come and rob us! There aren’t enough cops out here to protect us all.” And those who are most affected by these disastrous decisions are the poor and minorities.
And while diverting tax dollars away from cops to pet projects and favored constituencies makes progressive politicians feel better about themselves and their utopian ideals, their constituents inevitably pay the ultimate price.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Ok I thought it would be harder to beat NY on crime related comedy after we did away with bail for any meaningful measure but damnit CA you are stealing our spotlight.
Just wait. If it wasn’t tied up in litigation, a California law would have eliminated cash bail here as well. But even then, except for the worst of the worst, jail overcrowding (due to the State emptying prisons) results in most criminals being catch and release.
Yeah we weren’t too far behind that in a lot of downstate and in Albany/Syracuse/Rochester even before we ended bail. Rochester is surprisingly taking the lead on worst per capita re shootings/murders. I can only imagine how much worse California can do with having a population that isn’t emptying at rust belt rates.
Yes this is excellent entertainment.
This whole farce would be a lot funnier if it wasn’t also degrading and potentially fatal. Progressivism is a progressive disease–it’s past time for an aggressive chemotherapy program to kill this social cancer.
Life is hard and it’s a lot harder when stupid gets involved. We and it seems a chunk of California have stupid (or malice less optimistically) in charge. The voters that learned from it may change a few things but we have a lot more that are too dumb to be taught except through personal experience and sometimes not even then. Up side the rest of the country gets to see our open air psychology/political/economic experiment and hopefully learn something of value from the mess. Humor is about all we have left for it.
Lol
I love it when a plan comes together!!!!
Dat plan better not have no flyin, Hannibal. I told you I ain’t gettin on no airplane, fooool!
“… most affected by these disastrous decisions are the poor and minorities.”
And yet the poor and minorities keep voting for the politicians who advance such disastrous policies.
There is no cure for willful ignorance.
“And yet the poor and minorities keep voting for the politicians who advance such disastrous policies”
once you’re on the free money train, getting off is almost impossible even if you’re smart and you want to.
I fully endorse the continuation of the defunding the police in Blue cities and states for those Blue voting people to experience the horror they voted for.
More Red States need to implement scary pro-2ndA rights laws, fly the American flag everywhere, pass anti-CRT laws, and the crème de la crème, openly wear MAGA attire to keep those Blue voters in their Blue cities and states.
“I fully endorse the continuation of the defunding the police in Blue cities and states for those Blue voting people to experience the horror they voted for”
the (reported) crime rate will drop to zero.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
No way, that’s just to funny.
Theres a few cops who wouldn’t mind We The People being non constrained with legal retaliation when it comes to shooting criminals.
What’s up with camera thefts?
“What’s up with camera thefts?”
they’re expensive and easy to sell. walking around with a camera in view is like walking around with a fat wallet in view.
A valuable item that could be fenced for cash.
Is it bad a scene from Deathwish 3 comes to mind?
to make a documentary about stolen cell phone porn rap videos.
Cameras look expensive and no doubt they are, so like Democrat politicians thieves will steal what they think they can get away with.
Just cant see walking into a pawn shop with networks quality camera and not raising a few eyebrows. I’ve no idea how the cameras work, seems it would need more then a battery and mp3 chip or whatever.
And those who are most affected by these disastrous decisions are the poor and minorities”
nah, the “poor and minorities” are already at max effect. what these policies do is let the criminals know that they can now function outside the “poor and minority” areas and inside the tax base areas safely and more often.
Not my Circus,,,Not my Monkeys. Could care less if the people of San Francisco get Robbed, Assaulted or Murdered. I do how ever appreciate their Soft on Crime Agenda. In that way the Thugs, Bangers, Drug Dealers Illegals and Homeless will continue to Infest their city. While here We support LE, Enforce the Laws and Refuse to accept Illegals being transferred here by the Biden administration. Being in Flyover Country does have it’s advantages. Hot Ass Summers and Winters that will freeze your nuts to the side of your leg. California is nothing more than a right off now. If the people truly want a change it will be made clear on September 14th. Otherwise the slow death from Liberalism Cancer will continue to eat their Society unto Death.
“Not my Circus,,,Not my Monkeys”
the circus will come to your town and the monkeys will show up on your doorstep. so yeah, it’s yours too.
I cannot speak to what goes on in California but much of NY outside of NYC, Albany, Rochester, and Syracuse have found ways of discouraging the more flagrant wildness. Even with bail reform consequences are possible when the leadership is willing to use them so the results do vary. With that said yes the circus can travel anywhere it is allowed to roam and set up its tents.
Circus aint comin’ to my town, though I reckon a few of the locals would enjoy the diversion.
I remember Oakland being a sh!thole on my family visits back in the 1970’s. Later it became a really great place in the 1990s. The B.A.R.T. trains were great. Now it’s all back to being a sh!thole again. But at least you can piss and defecated in public, while you are smoking weed. And not get arrested. But no guns for you.
hhhmmmm, an armed security guard thwarted a crime by armed robbers in a state with relatively strict gun and ammo laws, hhhmmmm, there is a lesson to be learned here somewhere…
Comments are closed.