Journalist records brazen car theft, says Minneapolis police never showed up: 'Officers are demoralized'
Rebecca Brannon says brazen criminal acts are becoming 'routine' in Minneapolis.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rebecca Brannon, an independent photojournalist, witnessed America’s growing crime crisis firsthand when she captured a video of armed criminals breaking into a car in the middle of a parking lot.
Brannon was set to meet with a candidate for sheriff of the Minneapolis police department. When the meeting fell through, she returned to her car and was going to drive home.
"It took my brain five seconds to register what was happening," she said on "Fox & Friends."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CITIES FACE SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS AFTER YEAR OF ‘DEFUND POLICE’ MOVEMENT
Brannon watched as one of the men pulled out a gun and shot into the air.
"I had to play it very cool because I had already made contact – eye contact – with these guys in the parking lot," she said, noting that other people also witnessed the gunshots and "laughed it off."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This is what the most disturbing part to me was: that it was normal. Nobody was going to mess with these guys. So I pretended to eat and tried to videotape what I could."
Activists in Minneapolis are making a second attempt to get rid of the city's police department, more than a year after George Floyd's death at the hands of officers. (Minneapolis Police Department/Facebook)
Brannon said she called the police, but no one ever showed up. She believes the Defund the Police movement is the reason for what's happening in the city.
"Now I know technically we did not defund the police in Minneapolis, but I would argue that we have dismantled them," she said. "Officers are demoralized."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Minneapolis is not the only city suffering because of a lacking police presence.
Jim Rice, a restaurant owner in Portland, said on "Fox & Friends First" that his business was robbed three times in a single month.
The Portland Police Department issued a statement that, due to staffing shortages, officers will only respond to high-priority calls and residents should expect delayed responses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Portland is now on their own," Rice said. "They don’t have enough police staffing to be able to support all the demands that are coming at them."
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Brannon said the people of Minneapolis feel vulnerable even in the suburbs.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She said the area has changed dramatically in recent years, and the ever-increasing crime has become the new normal.
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"Criminals are emboldened, and this is what we've been dealing with almost two years now," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Just this steady crime wave on a normal day-to-day basis. It's the routine."