The latest crime spree in San Jose, California appears to be “Brazen purse snatchers preying on Vietnamese women.” In general, I think San Jose has dubbed itself in the past as the safest big city in America (San Jose is the 10th largest city in the U.S. by population – 930,000 residents). Additionally, San Jose has one of the highest concentration of Vietnamese-Americans in the country, where one out of 10 San Jose residents being Vietnamese. According to The San Jose Mercury news article:
“…The Rippers are what San Jose police are dubbing packs of purse snatchers who have been targeting Asian women – in particular Vietnamese women – in recent months as they stroll through parking lots. Why Asian women? They tend to carry lots of cash, police say. The dangerous and unprecedented epidemic includes 21 recent robberies, according to San Jose detective John McElvy, many of them carried out brazenly in crowded and well-lit lots… Despite the shared nickname, the Rippers are not a consolidated criminal group, police believe. They are at least two and possibly three separate gangs unconnected except for their timing and dangerous criminal behavior.”
Given San Jose’s reputation for being “boring” and quite suburban, this is quite a change. I guess boring and suburban is a whole lot better than Oakland’s reputation, where the number of homicides is sufficient enough for The San Francisco Chronicle website to have a Google Maps Mashup showing all the homicides in 2007 & 2008. Obviously, if you have any information regarding these incidents, please inform the San Jose police department. And be careful out there and don’t carry too much cash – apparently one victim was carrying $700.
