Oakland’s “Violence Prevention” Chief is Held Up By Armed Criminals During Interview
Guillermo Cespedes supported the city‘s move to recently defund the police by $18 million.
Oakland, California took away millions of dollars from the city’s police department to give it to “civilian violence interrupters” instead of cops, according to NBC Bay Area.
But it was an armed security officer that potentially saved the life of Guillermo Cespedes, the violence prevention chief for the city, after two criminals tried to stick him up during an interview.
“Two armed robbers held up a television news crew that was interviewing Oakland's director of violence prevention outside City Hall on Monday afternoon, just hours after the police chief warned of worsening crime amid cuts to the police budget,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The criminal act came just days after the new budget was passed.
“Oakland police reported that the two suspects approached the newscasters at 3:09 p.m. and tried to steal a camera,” the local news organization reported. “After a scuffle, a security officer pulled out a gun and ordered the suspects to leave. They fled without the camera. No injuries were reported.”
Cespedes wanted more civilians to interrupt crime, instead of armed police officers.
“Community-based civilian men and women that have credibility in the neighborhoods, the priority neighborhoods they will be focusing on. we will be identifying those folks and train them,” Cespedes previously told NBC.
The advocate for defunding the police may want to rethink his position.
“Violence interrupters” try to prevent crime by visiting high-crime areas or gangs.
The model has utterly failed in Minneapolis, representing a major embarrassment for anti-cop activists.
“They are the ‘Violence Interrupters,’ a group of 20 or so city employees, working in the Office of Violence Prevention, dressed in orange shirts,” Law Enforcement Today reported. “They were armed only with knowledge and empathy in an effort to curb deadly violence. Shootings and resulting homicides are at a five-year high in the city.”
Do you think unarmed civilians can really stop crime? Should Cespedes rethink his position? Let us know below!
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