Brazen jewelry store robbery has business community feeling fearful
By John Ramos, Amanda Hari
Click here for updates on this story
SAN JOSE, California (KPIX) — On Monday, a shocking video was released showing a gang of thieves crashing a car into a San Jose jewelry store and assaulting the 88-year-old owner. On Tuesday, the Vietnamese community gathered to call out State and local leaders to invest in public safety in a way that will make them feel safe.
Michael Le attended as a San Jose Business owner, a member of the Vietnamese community, and an acquaintance of one of the most recent victims.
“I am boiling because of the incident that happened in my community,” Le stated. “Every time I leave the business in the evening, my concern is if I have a place to work tomorrow.”
Le said the break-ins are constant, and people in the Asian, and specifically Vietnamese, community are anxious about going about their daily lives.
Mayor Matt Mahan was at the gathering and acknowledged that the Asian community is being hit disproportionately hard, referencing a recent case of 50 residential burglaries.
“They were explicitly targeting Asian American homeowners, so there’s a lot of fear in this community,” Mahan explained. “There’s a belief that maybe Asian Americans’ public safety isn’t valued as much as in other areas of town.”
Le has a theory about that.
“I feel that the criminals target our community for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because we keep silent,” said Le. “We don’t report incidents to law enforcement.”
Tuan Ngo agrees. He founded a group called Asians Unite during the pandemic when the news was full of reports of Asians, many of them elderly, being randomly attacked.
“I think Asians are, in many ways, ‘easy targets,'” said Ngo. “We’re smaller framed, we tend not to speak out or fight back. And we’re easy to be victimized. As immigrants, we don’t tend to speak up.”
But they’re speaking up now because of a video of a brazen robbery by a mob of masked thieves. It happened at the Kim Hung Jewelry store in San Jose, with the 88-year-old owner being shoved to the floor. He was later discovered to have suffered a stroke in the robbery.
“They have cameras, and so when these incidents happen it’s quickly shared with other merchants in the area. And so, there’s a lot of fear,” Ngo said.
So, Little Saigon merchants called the press conference and meeting with their Councilmember, Bien Doan, and the police chief. But their demands go beyond the city limits. They are calling on Governor Newsom to fund the enforcement of Prop 36, the measure passed last year to combat drug and retail theft crimes. They also want more automated license plate cameras to identify and retrieve stolen cars before they can be used as battering rams in robberies.
“We’ve been working hard with the city for two and a half years now to make it the safest city in the nation. But it doesn’t mean we don’t have crimes,” said Councilmember Doan. “Little Saigon has gotten safer, but there’s a lot of room for improvement.”
The Grand Century mall has a lot of Vietnamese jewelry stores, and while some people admit the number of crimes may be down, one worker named Kim said the video of the latest robbery is preventing them from feeling safe.
“We need some people to help us, so we feel more safe when we do business,” she said. “That’s why we moved from Oakland to here.”
The Little Saigon leaders say they believe the crime numbers are low because many merchants are reluctant to even report robberies. They either don’t want to scare their customers or alert their insurance companies for fear that their rates will be increased. After what they’ve been through, the Asian community isn’t relying on crime stats. They want to see more police officers, and some are even welcoming the idea of deploying the National Guard.
“It’s a mixed bag,” said Ngo. “The community’s been asking for public safety for years and years, and nothing has happened. Something drastic needs to happen and at this point people are so frustrated that they’re like, OK, bring in the National Guard, bring in CHP, bring in the Sheriff. We need action now! We need immediate help, and we need this to be taken with the seriousness that is deserves.”
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.