Two Czech television news crew were robbed at gunpoint while covering the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco on Nov. 12, according to multiple reports.
“They were heading at my cameraman, aiming a gun at his stomach and one at my head,” Mr. Vostal told the news outlet.
The incident occurred at around 5 p.m. local time on Columbus Avenue. The armed assailants reportedly stole more than $18,000 worth of production equipment and footage from the news crew.
Battling a ‘Doom Loop’
San Francisco has been waging for years a multi-pronged war on drugs and related crime, homelessness, and unaffordable housing. It has grabbed headlines as a city in an economic “doom loop” as some businesses have shuttered, public transport ridership has dropped, and offices lie empty.
Officials have tried to clean up the city’s streets, with limited success. The crisis has drawn sharp criticism from residents and conservative politicians who have blamed the city’s problems on its liberal policies.
Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, a coalition of homeless groups, said that forcing homeless people to move will never solve the real problem.
“They do this for the Superbowl, they do this for conferences ... but nothing ends homelessness like a home,” Mr. Boden told Reuters.
The city has a homeless rate of 887 people per 100,000 residents, according to a 2023 report from the San Francisco controller’s office on 16 American cities.
That was the third-highest rate in the country behind neighboring Oakland and Los Angeles.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
