Business Owner Charged with Felony Assault After Firing Warning Shots at Violent Thief
For years the left has pushed the narrative that guns are evil because they can be used to kill innocent people. Now they are expanding their argument to say that using a firearm to protect against violent crime is also unacceptable.
According to KTVU-TV, an attempted robbery took place on Feb. 16 outside a liquor store in Oakland, California, Chinatown. Amber Lee reported that “a thief knocked down a woman in her 30’s to steal her camera.”
In response, the shop owner fired four gunshots, causing the robber to flee. No one was injured as a result.
Despite that fact, the store owner was arrested and now faces one count of felony assault with a firearm, KTVU said.
Robbery in #OaklandChinatown before 6pm Community leader tells me a thief knocked down a woman in her 30’s to steal her camera. Shop owner intervenes, struggles w/ suspect & fires 4 shots . Suspect gets away in vehicle No serious injuries #KTVU pic.twitter.com/bk3BNOLpsE
— Amber Lee (@AmberKTVU) February 16, 2021
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong provided an explanation for the arrest, and it is just as nonsensical as you would expect.
“While we understand the community’s concerns about the incidents that we’ve seen in Chinatown over the last couple weeks, my message really is that we don’t want our business owners or others to begin to arm themselves,” he said.
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“We would really prefer them to be good witnesses and give us the observations they have.”
Sure, that makes perfect sense. If your store is being robbed, you should just watch closely so that you can give a detailed account to the police. What you certainly shouldn’t do is try to protect yourself or your property, according to Armstrong.
This is yet another case of liberal organizations making excuses for criminals and demonizing the victims. It has become all too common since the deadly Black Lives Matter riots over the summer.
In January, for example, a memorandum issued in Dallas said that “in most cases police officers would not be dispatched to certain types of calls like car thefts, criminal mischief and child custody disputes,” according to KXAS-TV.
As soon as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott found out about the memo, he spoke strongly against it, and it was rescinded soon after.
We won’t allow this California style lawlessness in Texas.
We will prioritize supporting-not defunding-our police force.
The State of Texas will begin work this month to fix this.
Everyone in our state deserves to be safe from crime.
We will restore law & order in Texas. https://t.co/WyCyEOMccd
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 2, 2021
Even though it never went into effect, the memo is a clear example that the rationale of letting criminals get away without being confronted is becoming more commonplace.
In addition, the recent attack on police departments has undermined the public’s trust that the officers can provide sufficient protection. As liberal cities defund these departments and take away necessary resources, people have begun to realize that they may be forced to protect themselves instead of relying on understaffed departments.
If the left wanted to argue that we need more police funding so that they could provide sufficient protection, that would be logical. In that case, trained professionals would be able to respond to violent crime instead of civilians.
Yet liberal activists have repeatedly called for the defunding of police, which in turn leads to civilians being forced to fend for themselves.
“We don’t want people to fire weapons into our community,” Armstrong said. “There could be unintended victims.”
I’m sure this shop owner did not want to witness a robbery outside his store, either, but it happened. If the police going to be barred from doing their jobs, civilians are going to be forced to respond to crime themselves.
Armstrong does make a valid point about “unintended victims.” As a general rule of firearm safety, firing a gun into the air is not advisable. When it comes down, it will still have a high amount of energy, and it could do significant damage wherever it falls.
Still, this is but another example of why it is dangerous to defund the police. Contrary to the leftist talking point, trained officers are a lot less likely to kill innocent people than an untrained civilian is.
The crux of the issue comes down to this – liberal organizations simultaneously hold the positions that we should defund police departments and also not have the right to defend ourselves against crime.
The only possible consequence of these two positions together is an environment where criminals thrive.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
