Thought about labeling this one Funny, but out of control crime rates in Oakland are now joke. My initial thought since I’m very cynical is that the police hired a few guys to do this to keep their funding. And what are these black helicopters doing hovering over my place? On the other hand, people are really struggling in downtown Oakland so I maybe see this happening, too. Lots of jobs permanently lost during the year-plus strict shutdowns. https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/NBC-Bay-Area-news-crew-held-up-gunpoint-interview-16281457.php Midway through NBC Bay Area's interview with Oakland's head of violence prevention, Guillermo Cespedes, two robbers interrupted, holding up the crew and Cespedes. A "scuffle" took place, an Oakland police spokesperson told SFGATE, before a security officer with the news crew pulled out his own firearm and commanded the robbers to leave. The incident took place Monday afternoon, shortly after Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong decried a city budget that reallocated an extra $18 million away from police out of a proposed police budget of $674 million. Those funds will be put into the city's Department of Violence Prevention, helmed by Cespedes, who joined the department in 2020.
