think of this as a companion post with the previous one about the world of 'african americans';

Robbers held up a television crew at gunpoint during an interview with the director of violence prevention in Oakland amid the city’s huge wave of violence, police have said.

The attack took place outside City Hall on Monday just hours after the police chief blasted his city’s decision to defund its police department by $18.5million despite a 90 per cent increase in murders.

The NBC Bay Area news crew was interviewing Guillermo Cespedes at around 3pm when two armed men tried to take their camera, the Oakland Police Department said.

A scuffle broke out and a private security guard who was contracted by the news agency, pulled out a gun and told the robbers to leave.

The suspects fled without the camera and no one was hurt, police said, but the two attempted robbers have not been arrested.

Hours earlier, police chief LeRonne Armstrong decried a decision made by city leaders in a 6-2 vote to divert a proposed $18.5million increase from the Oakland Police Department’s budget over the next two years despite a rise in violent crime and shootings.

He said: ‘I’ll start off today by saying that I’m challenged by the decisions that were made on Thursday around the budget for the City of Oakland particularly for the Oakland Police Department

‘I first want to say that I believe strongly that Mayor (Libby) Shaft put forward a budget that was designed to preserve public safety for the entire city both law enforcement and violence prevention. These are not two separate things

‘We work together we’ve always worked together and the success of this city will not be just law enforcement it won’t be just the Oakland police department..........read more......