A gas station owner has made headlines after hiring private security armed to the teeth as crime ravages Philadelphia. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

Transcript:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Mike Papantonio: A gas station owner has made headlines after hiring private security, armed police to, to support them and protect them in this crime ravaged Philadelphia. Wow. What in the hell’s going on in Philadelphia?

Farron Cousins: They, they are seeing a, a rapid surge in armed robberies, in, in burglaries. The gas station owner in particular, who I think actually owns a couple different gas stations, he’s had his ATMs in the gas station broken into. His car while he’s parked out there at work, gets broken into. He’s seen muggings. He has seen, you know, he’s had armed robberies in addition. So this guy finally said, listen, I’m done. I’m gonna hire these people walking around with AF-15’s patrolling the parking lot. Which if, if you haven’t seen the videos of these people walking around, it’s truly terrifying.

Mike Papantonio: Mm-hmm.

Farron Cousins: I, I mean, it looks like ISIS has taken over almost.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah. And this is right, kind of in a big, big.

Farron Cousins: Downtown.

Mike Papantonio: It’s downtown, people walking all around this.

Farron Cousins: But the weirdest part is that the public, 93%, they love it. They’re excited to see that, oh boy, look at this. It’s, it’s terrifying to me. But at the same time, I, you know, I don’t wanna say I, I think it’s a good idea, but I get it.

Mike Papantonio: Well.

Farron Cousins: I understand.

Mike Papantonio: But okay. Fair enough. I don’t think it’s a good idea, that’s your position. My position is if they don’t do something, is you can’t do nothing.

Farron Cousins: Yeah.

Mike Papantonio: Obviously the politicians don’t have a clue. It’s just like Chicago. I mean, that mayor running Chicago, what does, she has fifty shootings every week. I mean, is that, that’s kind of, at some point, you have to say something’s wrong here. I think they’re looking in, kind of looking in the wrong places. All, you know, all these recalls for these prosecutors that were appointed by, that Soros was behind. You know, George Soros came in and had all these prosecutors appointed or, or helped him win elections and they’re not prosecuting anybody. The problem, the problem that’s arising out of that is the police are saying, well, why should I even make a, make an arrest?

Farron Cousins: Well see that, that, that’s where my attention goes to, these police. Because the, the gas station owner himself says, listen, I’ve called the police. They’re not doing anything. They’re not showing up. And this is something that we do see across America, depending on where you live. They’ve done plenty of studies on this. If you live in an area that’s a little bit more rundown, the police response time can sometimes be over an hour.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah.

Farron Cousins: If you live in the affluent part of town, the police response is typically within about five minutes.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah.

Farron Cousins: So, you know, the, the police I think are part of the problem here. They, they don’t want to get involved. We’re, well it, it’s easier to take down a, a 15 year old carrying, you know, an ounce of pot.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah.

Farron Cousins: Than go deal with an armed robbery.

Mike Papantonio: There’s simply cities in the country that these, this is what they look like. I mean, this picture up here is how they, they’re presenting at these, at these places.

Farron Cousins: Yeah.

Mike Papantonio: Gas stations.

Farron Cousins: That’s what they look like.

Mike Papantonio: And I think what you’re gonna find is it’s gonna, you’re gonna see it in LA, you’re gonna see it in Chicago, you’re gonna see it in New York, you’re gonna see it in Philadelphia. And not, and, and the problem is, you feel like you’re walking into a third world country. When I travel around the world, I’m used to seeing this maybe in the very awful parts of South America or wherever I might be. There’s parts of Africa where you walk through the, you know, through the airport and everybody, you know, they’re lined up like. I don’t know that I want this happening in the US but it’s a reality. I, I think this is, this is the new norm for folks that are living in these, these cities that are being hammered with crime.

Farron Cousins: Well, well, and what’s even worse too, you know, we’re talking about crime here, is that the areas of the country that have the most violent crime are actually right down here in the, the deep red south.

Mike Papantonio: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Farron Cousins: I mean, these top the list. But those always kind of get overlooked. And, and so I think that’s important to just remind people this is not a localized problem. It is, you know, red states, it’s blue states, it’s everywhere. I, I, I don’t. Look, I wouldn’t stop at a gas station if somebody’s outside with an AR-15. I, I wouldn’t drive down that street ever again.

Mike Papantonio: Are you saying, I’m just telling folks watching, this, get ready for this. This, if you’re living in a place like that, this is what, this is what, no, there’s no business owner that’s not going to say, yeah, I gotta do this. Because what’s it 50, in Philadelphia, there’s been a 50% increase in violent crime, in violent crime at places like gas stations and stores where you think you can just shop without any problem. Not anymore.

Farron Cousins: It, it’s an unpleasant reality that I think a lot of people watching this may be mad to hear about it. But folks, it’s the reality we live in.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah. It, it is.