Six arrested after investigation into robberies targeting Asian women in San Jose
Six men have been arrested after a yearlong investigation into 70 robberies, thefts and burglaries targeting victims of Asian descent in San Jose, authorities said this week.
Anthony Michael Robinson, 24; Cameron Alonzo Moody, 27; Derje Damond Blanks, 23; Hassani Burleson Ramsey, 24; Clarence Jackson, 21; and Malik Short, 21, were arrested from September to November and charged in the incidents, with hate crime enhancements.
Investigators recovered multiple firearms during the arrests, including one unserialized “ghost gun,” the San Jose Police Department said in a news release Wednesday.
The six men were part of a crew that worked together, police said. The incidents, many of which targeted Asian American women in the Little Saigon neighborhood of San Jose, occurred between October 2020 and September 2021. Some of the victims were injured during the robberies, police said.
From assaults on senior citizens in the Bay Area to the shooting of six women at Atlanta-area spas, violence against Asians has surged during the pandemic.
“When it’s clear that Asian American women are being targeted, that creates fear in many, many Asian American women in a community,” said Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen. “Charging the hate crime enhancement recognizes that this is a crime against those individual victims, but it’s also a crime against this whole community of Asian Americans, and specifically Asian American women, who are frightened that they’re targeted and worried they’re going to be next.”
Rosen said the suspects targeted Asian American women in particular based on stereotypes and alleged that the suspects used racist slurs in communications with one another.
Nearly 36% of San Jose is of Asian descent, while Santa Clara County is nearly 40%, according to U.S. census numbers.
Rosen noted that Santa Clara County has seen an increase in hate crimes over the last two years with a “significant” increase in the number committed against people of Asian descent.
“We’ve prosecuted more hate crimes in the last year than in any year before in our county. And we’ve prosecuted more hate crimes against Asian Americans than ever before in our county,” he said.
That increase mirrors the statewide trend that saw hate crimes against Asians rise by 107% in 2020. Hate crimes against Black people rose by 88%, and anti-Latino crimes rose by 38%.
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