A marijuana dispensary owner from Oakland commented on the recent crime surge rocking his California city and said he was “safer selling weed on the streets” than dishing out pot legally through his business in a new video clip posted to Twitter on Monday.
“I was safer selling weed on the streets of Oakland than I am selling it legally,” owner Alphonso Blunt said. “And that’s a problem. That’s crazy to even say, but that’s just the reality I’m living in right now.”
WATCH:
The owner of a cannabis dispensary in Oakland, California says, “I was safer selling weed on the streets of Oakland than I am selling it legally” in the Democrat-run city.
“That’s a problem.” pic.twitter.com/fl8MumW27N
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 6, 2021
Blunt, the owner of Blunts and Moore, alleged that he lost “about $25,000” when his store was hit during an incident this November, according to the Daily Mail.
Blunt’s comments that he felt “safer selling weed on the streets” originally aired on November 21 on Fox News. A portion of the segment was posted by the Republican National Committee Research’s official Twitter account Monday.
Blunt’s segment preceded an address from Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong on November 30 via KTVU Fox 2 San Francisco, in which Armstrong highlighted two shootings and a string of thefts targeting marijuana dispensaries.
One of the shootings Armstrong mentioned claimed the life of Kevin Nishita, a police officer turned security guard, who attempted to stop a robbery.
The events also follow an October incident in which a retired police captain was shot during an attempted robbery at a gas station. (RELATED: 75-Year-Old Asian Man ‘Seriously Hurt’ After Being Assaulted While Out For A Walk)
The Oakland City Council voted to strip the police budget of more than $17 million back in June.