Former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) was assaulted and robbed in Oakland, California, on Monday afternoon, according to a statement posted by her Twitter account and confirmed by local police. No gun was involved in the daylight robbery.
Earlier today former Senator Barbara Boxer was assaulted in the Jack London Square neighborhood of Oakland. The assailant pushed her in the back, stole her cell phone and jumped in a waiting car. She is thankful that she was not seriously injured."
— Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) July 26, 2021
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
The Oakland Police Department confirmed that at 1:15 p.m., while a victim was walking in the 300 block of Third Street, they were approached by a suspect, who forcefully “took loss from the victim,” and fled into a waiting vehicle. The incident is currently being investigated, and police declined to release the identity of the victim. The area of the assault is near Jack London Square.
…
The attack took place just hours after Oakland’s top federal and local law enforcement representatives pledged to take a tougher stance against criminals to deter violence at a Monday news conference.
Boxer, 80, one of the Senate’s leading liberals from 1993 to 2017, was attacked near Oakland’s Jack London Square, a popular local public venue. She is the latest victim of a crime wave in the city that has seen homicides rise 30% in 2021.
President Joe Biden has blamed the nationwide surge in violent crime on gun violence and gun trafficking, rather than efforts by his party to “defund the police” and restrict police tactics in the wake of “Black Lives Matter” protests. The administration and its allies have also contended that crime is down overall, even though murders are rising.
Oakland is among many cities cutting its police budget, despite the rise in murders, doing so over the objections of its police chief.
Story cited here.
