The Oakland Police Department said a scuffle broke out as the robbers demanded the cameraman hand over his equipment, the East Bay Times reported. The news crew’s security guard pulled out his own gun and ordered the would-be robbers to leave. They left without stealing any equipment, police said.
“Our colleagues were conducting an interview at Oakland City Hall when they were approached by two armed individuals,” Liza Catalan, a spokeswoman for NBC Bay Area, told The Washington Post in an email. “Thankfully, our colleagues are safe and unharmed.”
The tense moment follows the city council’s decision to cut about $18 million from the mayor’s proposed budget for the Oakland Police Department. That money was instead redirected to social services and violence-prevention programs that are not run by the police, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Monday’s attempted robbery was far from the first time a news crew has been targeted in Oakland and the surrounding Bay Area.
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.
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong criticized the city’s cuts to the police budget on Monday, warning that law enforcement response times could slow amid a concerning spike in violence.
“We find ourselves in a crisis,” Armstrong said at a news conference on Monday, KGO reported. “We find ourselves reeling from a weekend of violence where we have seen four homicides over a three-day period. It now has us currently at 65 homicides for the year — that’s a 90 percent increase compared to last year.”
But advocates of redirecting funding for police, who have gained political sway since last summer’s racial-justice protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd, have celebrated the decision to pursue possible solutions that do not involve increased policing.
Instead, the city will be funding a youth-employment program and alternative crisis responders to handle mental health issues, and the Transportation Department will take over responsibility for calls about blocked driveways and towing cars.
“I think yesterday was very historic,” Oakland Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas told KGO last week in response to the vote.
Police said the suspects in Monday’s attempted robbery had not yet been arrested.
“We encourage everyone to be vigilant of their surroundings and report all crimes,” police said in a statement, the East Bay Times reported. “Please stay safe.”
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June 30, 2021 at 04:15PM
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TV news report on Oakland crime is interrupted by attempted robbery - The Washington Post
"TV" - Google News
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